Courses: Session I

SOC 202 - Introduction to Human Rights

Thomas Cushman, Professor of Sociology
Human rights is one of the most powerful approaches to social justice in the contemporary world, yet it is a rapidly developing and changing system. This course offers a critical analysis of human rights as social, cultural, and legal system. It explores the historical and philosophical origins of the contemporary human rights system and its growth and development as a global social movement over the last few decades. This includes the diversification of rights to include social, economic and cultural rights and the collective rights of indigenous peoples. The course examines the ongoing controversy between human right's claims to universalism in contrast to assertions of cultural difference. Special topics include the rise of non-govermental human rights organizations, humanitarianism as an ideology, debates on military humanitarian interventions, the emergence of violence against women as a human rights issue, and the forms and types of justice in societies that have experienced large-scale violence.

Credit: 1.0 unit (4 sem. hrs.)
Course Fee: $2,000

Lectures: M,W,TH 1:20 - 4:00

Location: Pendleton East 339

Thomas Cushman is Professor of Sociology at Wellesley College. His areas of study include human rights, comparative sociology, genocide, and the sociology of culture. He is the author of numerous books and articles on topics ranging from cultural dissidence in Russia to the war in Bosnia and Hercegovina. He is the editor of a book series called "Post-Communist Cultural Studies" with Penn State Press, the founding editor of Human Rights Review, and the founding editor and current editor-in-chief of The Journal of Human Rights, published by Taylor and Francis.

Professor Cushman was a Mellon Foundation New Directions Fellow in 2002, was an Associate at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University in 2002-2003, is a Fellow of the Salzburg Seminar Academic Core Session on "International Law and Human Rights" chaired by Lloyd Cutler and Richard Goldstone. In 2004, Cushman became a Faculty Associate of the Center for Cultural Sociology, Yale University.

Professor Cushman was recently selected as the recipient of the Saint Michael's College Academic Hall of Fame Award, which is given to recognize those graduates whose scholarship has exemplified the academic, cultural, and civic scholarly goals of the College.

Courses

Registration & Admission

Applications

Tuition, Fees & Financial Aid

General Information

Local Links

Calendar

Home