EDUC7461 · Education

Human Rights Interdisciplinary Seminar

Lynch School of Education & Human Development

The study of human rights defies disciplinary boundaries. Thisseminar, sponsored by the Center for Human Rights and International Justice, provides a rare space to examine human rights and international justice from interdisciplinary and transnational theoretical perspectives and through praxis. It brings together faculty affiliated with the Center, students from across the university, visiting scholars, and guest speakers to examine complexities and seeming contradictions vis-a-vis human rights and justice. The spring 2024seminarwill begin with an overview and brief historical review of human rights as understood in the West, drawing on both dominant discourses as well as less well-known histories from marginalized communities. We will then explore a series of complexities for those seeking to engage in human rights scholarship, advocacy, and activism. We seek to engage critically with human rights discourse and actions including the advocacy and activism of those on the move within and across borders as well as those seeking redress through transitional justice in the wake of both contemporary and historical gross violations of human rights as they intersect with violence and exploitation due to intersectional circulations of power vis--vis gender, culture/ethnicity, race, social class, and othercategorizations or identities. We will also explore emergent decolonization practices including specific challenges from diverse communities of the global South who frame human rights and responsibilities within their Indigenous practices and cosmovisions, in ways that contest Northern epistemologies, understandings, and praxis.The Center invites applications from students enrolled in a graduate or professional degree in any of Boston College's divisions. Undergraduate seniors will be considered, space permitting. Registration by permission only. Apply with a 1-2 statement of interest. Priority application deadlineNovember 8; secondary deadline November 22. More info & apply at::www.bc.edu/content/bc-web/centers/chrij/academics/seminar.html