Course Catalog - 2024-2025

     

ANTH 630 - WHEN HUMAN RIGHTS FAIL

Long Title: WHEN HUMAN RIGHTS FAIL: THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF HUMAN RIGHTS
Department: Anthropology
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
Language of Instruction: Taught in English
Course Type: Seminar
Credit Hours: 3
Restrictions:
Must be enrolled in one of the following Level(s):
Graduate
Description: Who has human rights and why do they have them? This is a question that has plagued lawyers, anthropologists, political scientists, governments, and philosophers both before and after the start of the modern human rights movement in the 1940s. These questions are still relevant today, as people around the world claim that their human rights have been violated. The general consensus is that human rights are important because they protect us against abuse and harm, but what might it mean to consider that human rights are not always good? How might we have to reconceptualize the use, utility, and possibility of human rights when they are used to reinforce inequality, persecute vulnerable populations, or support nativist rhetoric and policy? We will ultimately ask who is human enough to deserve human rights? We will do so through primary source documents, ethnographic scholarship, and a variety of media. Graduate/Undergraduate Equivalency: ANTH 430. Mutually Exclusive: Cannot register for ANTH 630 if student has credit for ANTH 430.