Political Science

Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin

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Module Code: POU44322

Module Name: Human Rights

ECTS Weighting: 5
Semester/Term Taught: Semester 2
Contact Hours: TBC
Module Personnel: Lecturer - Eleonora la Spada

Learning Outcomes:

On successful completion of this module students should be able to:

Understand multiple theoretical perspectives on the spread and impact of human rights
Construct and evaluate arguments
Compare, contrast, examine, and evaluate the politics of human rights across contexts

Module Learning Aims:

1. To equip students with the background knowledge of the key questions around which the politics of human rights revolves.
2. To equip students with the fundamental conceptual, theoretical, and analytical tools used in study of human rights spread and impact.
3. To foster their analytical and research skills necessary to understand the existing literature in human rights politics and, hopefully, engage in original research questions.

Module Content:

This module will introduce students to the politics of human rights. The objectives of this module are to: 1) encourage students to engage with concepts, theories, and methods that have been used to study human rights; 2) help students understand how human rights spread and impact. In this course, we will examine both quantitative and case-study empirical work to understand various theories and empirical approaches to the study of human rights and critically evaluate further avenues for future research in this field. We will also pay attention to the methods and measures that have been adopted in political science to conduct research in this area. The module is divided into three sections. The first section will introduce students to key human rights concepts and institutions and address state violence, human rights diffusion, and activism in a comparative perspective. The second section will examine politics of human rights practice, assessing various strategies and mechanisms for improving human rights. The last section will focus on the politics of human rights in the aftermath of political violence.