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The November New Tactics on-line dialogue features “Human Rights in Higher Education: Incorporating practical experience”. This dialogue specifically features ideas, experiences and methods from human rights higher education programs for incorporating practical experience into human rights curriculums to better prepare human rights advocates for doing “on the ground” and “in the trenches” human rights work.
The featured resource practitioners (biographical information) include:
- Abigail Booth, Programme Manager, Head of Nairobi Office, Raoul Wallenberg Institute, Kenya
- Alice Nderitu, Fahamu (Kenya) in coordination with the University of Pretoria, South Africa
- Jadwiga Maczynska, Project Manager, Jagiellonian University Human Rights Centre, Krakow, Poland
- Mingzhen Ge, Shandong University, Human Rights Center, Law School, China
- Diane Sisely, Director, Australian Centre for Human Rights Education at RMIT University
- Barbara Frey, Director, Human Rights Program, University of Minnesota, USA
- Robin Kirk, Director, Duke University Human Rights Center, North Carolina, USA
- Nicole Palasz, Center for International Education, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
- Amy Weismann, Deputy Director, University of Iowa Center for Human Rights
- Susan Atwood, Instructor, University of Minnesota’s Leadership : Leadership for Global Citizenship.
| Be sure to take a look at our new collection of articles, guides, and classroom modules for your curriculum: New Tactics Resources for Educators! |
Main themes of this dialogue:
- Stories of Practice: examples of how practical experience is being incorporated in human rights education programs
- Challenges: ethical issues with incorporating practical experience in human rights education programs
- Curriculum Resources: creating and simulating practical experience
Please help us to keep this dialogue organized by 'replying' to these main themes, or 'replying' to other comments, instead of creating NEW comments. Thanks!
I work at a university
I work at a university where we do not have a human rights center, and have often wondered about this question of where human rights fits. I've noticed that on our campus, human rights courses typically exist because of faculty interest. Some of the faculty developing human rights courses are relatively new to the field of human rights - their interest was sparked later in their academic careers. It's also been interesting to see where those courses are emerging - not always in political science, but in departments such as anthropology and communication. For those interested in eventually teaching about human rights at the university level, there are now many intellectual paths they might take. While in many respects this is a wonderful development, it also poses challenges.
I would be interested in hearing from those of you who have human rights centers on your campuses regarding the impact a coordinating center has on human rights teaching, faculty recruitment, student life, etc.
I think one of the main barriers to finding a place for human rights to fit is the interdependence of human rights issues, and the fact that so often there are multiple human rights problems at play simultaneously. These interrelationships are also true of practical experiences to address human rights violations. At the New Tactics project, we recently started categorizing some of the human rights tactics by academic discipline, and so far all of them have landed in multiple fields of study. There are so many opportunities for students to become involved in human rights work from virtually any field they choose.
Nicole Palasz, Center for International Education, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee