Sociology and Criminology

The Sociology of Human Rights

Module code: L3075B
Level 5
15 credits in spring semester
Teaching method: Lecture, Seminar
Assessment modes: Coursework

On this module, you’ll explore the historical evolution of human rights, contemporary controversies, and debates about their ongoing validity. You’ll examine key issues through case studies on topics such as:

• gender, citizenship, and migration
• torture and the death penalty
• development and corporate abuses of human rights
• treatment of migrants and asylum seekers.

You’ll consider critical questions, including:

• whether human rights are inherently Eurocentric and entangled with colonial histories
• if non-European human rights epistemologies can transcend these histories
• whether judicial human rights frameworks can be revitalised through grassroots organisations and NGOs.

The module uses international examples, such as Guantanamo Bay, the death penalty in the US and Saudi Arabia, and the treatment of migrants in Europe, to analyse the challenges and possibilities for human rights in a post-human rights era. You’ll engage with a range of sources including literature, news media and social media.

Module learning outcomes

• Demonstrate knowledge and critical understanding of human rights and their evolution.
• Demonstrate knowledge and critical understanding of case studies of human rights violations
• Apply the theoretical concepts/frameworks covered in the module to empirical examples, in order to critically analyse these examples.
• Critically assess the competing arguments that consider the contemporary salience of human rights regimes.