MA in Human Rights, Culture & Social Justice

What you'll study Overview The MA in Human Rights, Culture and Social Justice is taught in the Department of Sociology, where there are a number of people who are working on areas broadly related to human rights as well as directly on how human rights are constructed and claimed. In the first part of the course you will take the core module ‘Constructing Human Rights’ in which you will be introduced to debates over the possibilities of human rights, different ways of conceiving culture and the role that is played by a diverse range of organisations involved in challenging injustices connected to globalisation. You will also consider practical attempts to realise human rights. You will take the skills-oriented module 'Researching Human Rights', in which you will be introduced to methods and skills that will be of direct practical use in working for NGOs (eg evaluating user engagement, team-building and decision-making through role play, tracing the media impact of a campaign). In the second term, you will choose among a number of options. You can choose to take 'Practicing Human Rights' and make use of some of the skills you have learned in a placement. Students who choose this option to find and negotiate a placement in an organisation or a grassroots campaign whose work can be related to human rights and attend a series of workshops that allow them to reflect on the practical work, on their professional skills and on the broader significance of their observations. While the core modules of the programme are taught by lecturers in Sociology, you may choose your option modules from those that are run here or in other departments, including Politics, Media and Communications, and Anthropology. Finally, you will write a dissertation based on research you will carry out, possibly related to the NGO or network you have worked in, and making use of a range of concepts and methods taught in the Department. You will be supervised by someone with expertise and interest in the topic you are studying and the methodologies and methods you plan to use. Core modules Module title Credits. Constructing Human Rights Constructing Human Rights 30 credits This course introduces concepts you will need to study human rights, beginning with ‘social construction’. From there we will begin to think about the political, social and cultural forms in which constructions of human rights are developed, gain credibility, and are (usually partially and often controversially) institutionalised. In particular we will look at how human rights are constructed ‘culturally’ through processes of (generally mediated) framing. ‘Cultural’ here encompasses the legal framing of human rights, but we will look at how human rights are constructed in a variety of forms, organisational, institutional, and artistic. 30 credits. Researching Human Rights Researching Human Rights 30 credits This course explores the different ways, in which knowledge about human rights and about human rights interventions is produced. It will introduce you to the different practical contexts, in which research about human rights is produced, and it will introduce you to the research tools that are used in these contexts. We will then focus in-depth on four topics in order to examine how contexts and tools intersect: One session of the course will be devoted to examining the law as an instrument of research. One session will explore the way different techniques of interviewing are used in different contexts. We will spend one week discussing the ways in which we can trace the media-impact of a human rights campaign. The last session of the course will focus on the ways social scientific research is used in evaluating human rights interventions and in the problems and dilemmas that arise in this context. Throughout the course we will practice formulating clear research questions and matching research questions with appropriate research tools with a view to designing feasible, valid, and relevant research projects. Module Convener: Monika Krause 30 credits. Option modules You will choose option modules worth 60 credits in Sociology , Media and Communications , the Centre for Cultural Studies , English and Comparative Literature , Anthropology , Politics , Music and Educational Studies. This includes the following option module, available to Human Rights students only: Practising Human Rights (30 credits). This series of workshops accompanies your placement in an organisation or grassroots activist network. We will discuss diaries that each participant will carry out during the placements in the context of broader debates about human rights on the one hand, and about professional practice, organisations and activism on the other hand. As a requirement for this option, you will negotiate a placement in an organisation whose work can be related to human rights or practical involvement in a grassroots campaign. Assessment Assessment consists of coursework, extended essays, reports, presentations, practice based projects or essays/logs, group projects, reflective essays, and seen and unseen written examinations. Download the programme specification for the 2018-19 intake. If you would like an earlier version of the programme specification, please contact the Quality Office. Please note that due to staff research commitments not all of these modules may be available every year.