HIST3728: The History of Human Rights

What are human rights? How and when did they originate? How were such rights promoted, protected, and contested at different historical junctures, and by whom? In this course, we will examine the historical processes through which human rights have been conceptualized, codified, violated, and vindicated. Throughout the semester, we will travel across the globe and trace events that span from the eighteenth century to the present day. Our search will take us through the multiple histories that have shaped what we nowadays recognize as the human rights framework ? its institutions, products, and norms. Integrating perspectives and readings from the humanities, social sciences and legal studies, this course explores how meanings of human rights have fluctuated in response to historical developments, and how human rights have come to gain their prominent role in contemporary politics, law, and culture.

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