Unit Display

HIST251 - Human Rights in History

10 cp
Prerequisites 10 cp from 100-level units in History or POLS140 The Global Citizen: Civics and Citizenship in a Changing World
Incompatible HIST227 and HIST331
Teaching Organisation

Historians function as researchers, advocates and storytellers in a range of professional settings. An awareness of human rights in history is vital for the realisation of a historical outlook shaped by empathy and infused by issues of social justice in a global context.

This unit examines the historical significance of the global search for social justice and human rights. While focussing primarily on events in the last 100 years, it will explore the evolution of notions of equality and the search for human dignity since the eighteenth century. In so doing it will equip students to understand the vital debates about human rights that take place in international conversations on trade, environment, diplomacy, peace and terrorism today. The history of human rights is a global story but is one that is fractured by place, time, people, power, religion and politics. This unit provides students with opportunities to understand the issues of the present through the lens of the past, developing skills in debating contested ideas, analysing case studies, and researching topics on human rights.

The aim of this unit is to enrich students understanding of the debates about social justice that take place on a national level, and equip them to be able to take part in these in an informed and articulate way.