SPRING 2011
Human rights-related courses
Courses are listed by their primary department, but are often cross-listed, so check the Duke courses web site for more information
**HOUSE COURSE (79- 17): Understanding the Troubles
M 8:15 – 9:15 Keohane 4B Media Room
INSTRUCTORS: Courtney Douglas, Sean Smith, Shaunak Varma; ADVISOR: Robin Kirk
This house course will focus on the history of the Troubles in Northern Ireland throughout the second half of the 20th century. We will discuss significant conflict and post-conflict issues, including murals, bonfires, status of ex-prisoners, and the peace process. Participants of DukeEngage in Belfast 2010 will lead the course and Robin Kirk, Director of the Duke Human Rights Center and the DukeEngage in Belfast program, will serve as advisor.
AAAS 112S – 01 Freedom Stories: Documenting Southern Lives and Writing
W 11:40AM – 2:10PM Bridges House 113
INSTRUCTOR: Timothy Tyson
Documentary writing course focusing on race and storytelling in the South, using fiction, autobiography, and traditional history books. Producing narratives using documentary research, interviews, and personal memories. Focus on twentieth century racial politics.
AAAS 116 – 01 Comparative Race and Ethnic Studies
TTh 4:25-5:40PM SocPsy 127
INSTRUCTOR: STAFF
The social, legal and cultural construction of racial and ethnic hierarchies in a comparative international context with the United States and the United Kingdom of central analytical concern. Racial formation and racial segregation in specific historical and national contexts including the normative case of the Anglo-Saxon core in the United States and how its dominance has led to patterns of ethnic antagonism and discrimination; the historical context of racial stereotypes and their representation in various mediums. Social justice movements and public policies designed to challenge racial and ethnic domination including controversial topics such as “positive discrimination” (United Kingdom) and Affirmative Action (United States/South Africa). May include comparative case studies from India, South Africa, Brazil, and continental Europe.
AAAS 127B – 01 The Caribbean, 18th Century
MWF 11:55AM – 12:45PM East Duke 209
INSTRUCTOR: Barry Gaspar
The development of Caribbean society and economy in the contexts of slavery, empire, international rivalry, and democratic revolution.
AAAS 130 U.S. Health Disparities
TuTh 11:40AM – 12:55PM Sanford 04
INSTRUCTOR: Sherman James
The most commonly used indices to measure United States health disparities by race/ethnicity; origins and evolution of racial/ethnic categories in the United States Census; role of poverty, racial residential segregation, and inadequate health care in explaining racial/ethnic health disparities; and the promise and limitations of academic-community partnerships and public policy initiatives designed to reduce and ultimately eliminate those health disparities.
AAAS 131 The South in Black and White
Tu 6:15 – 8:45 PM Bridges House 007
INSTRUCTOR: Timothy Tyson
Focus on present-day and historical documentary traditions in American South, with an emphasis on call and response between black and white cultures. The arts and humanities as imbedded in particular histories and cultures found in the South, and as performed in music and theater; and portrayed in documentary films, civil rights photography, Southern literature, and historical and autobiographical writing. Includes historical texts, oral histories and testimonies of living persons, along with documentary films, photographs, and writings from people in Durham and elsewhere in the region.
AAAS 145B African-Americans Since 1965
TuTh 1:15PM – 2:30PM Friedl Bldg 107
INSTRUCTOR: Raymond Gavins
Post-slavery black life and thought, as well as race relations and social change, during Reconstruction, Jim Crow, the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements, and contemporary times; ethical concepts and issues on human justice in the course of struggles for democracy, tolerance, and equality.
AAAS 168S The Atlantic Slave Trade
MF 2:50-4:05PM Carr Building 229
INSTRUCTOR: Barry Gaspar
The development of the slave trade from the fifteenth century to its abolition in the nineteenth century; organization and mechanics, impact on Europe, Africa, and the Americas.
AMES 195S- 02 Human Rights in Islam
Th 3:05 – 5:35PM Trent 038A
INSTRUCTOR: Ellen McLarney
Traces a genealogy of human rights thought in Islamic cultures and societies, not only how it has been used by Muslims, but against them. Explores how ideas like freedom, equality, human rights, and women’s emancipation became conceptually integrated into Islamic thought, and how these concepts were assimilated, adapted, and transformed.
ARTHIST 174 The Black Atlantic
TuTH 2:05 – 4:05PM – location: TBA
INSTRUCTOR: Richard Powell
The African diaspora–a direct result of the transatlantic slave trade and Western colonialism–has generated a wide array of artistic achievements, from the “shotgun” houses of New Orleans to the urban graffiti of NYC. The course surveys several major cultural groups in West and Central Africa and their aesthetic impact on the arts, religions, and philosophies of peoples of African descent in South America, the Caribbean, and the United States.
ECON 103 Prisoner’s Dilemma and Distributive Justice
MW 4:25 – 5:40PM Gray 228
INSTRUCTOR: Geoffrey Brennan, Jonathan Anomaly
Economic, political, and philosophical perspectives on distributive justice and the problems in each discipline raised by variations on the prisoner’s dilemma. Classic texts include Hobbes and Hume, Smith and Marx, Mill and Rawls. Gateway course to the Politics, Philosophy, and Economics certificate program. Joint course with the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill so may be offered on both campuses during the semester.
ENVIRON 152S Environment and Conflict
TuTh 1:15-2:30PM Link seminar rm1
INSTRUCTOR: Erika Weinthal
Environmental and natural resources as a source of conflict and/or peace-building between and within nations and states. Analysis of the role of the environment in the conflict cycle and international security. Topics include refugees, climate change, water, and infectious disease. Particular focus on post-conflict and rebuilding in war-torn societies. Examination of the role of international organizations, non-governmental organizations, and emerging standards for environmental management. Examples drawn from conflicts such as Rwanda, Israel/Palestine, Nepal, Sierra Leone and others.
HISTORY 135B – 01 Weimar and Nazi Germany
WF 1:15-2:30PM Carr Building 240
INSTRUCTOR: Claudia Koonz
The impact of World War I on German morale, the emergence of an exciting avant-garde culture in Berlin, the establishment of a multiparty parliamentary government, women’s emancipation, and economic crisis in the hyperinflation of 1922 and the Great Depression. Against this progressive background, Hitler’s mobilization of masses of followers, seizure of power, and establishment of the first racial society. The killing fields and concentration camps on the Eastern Front.
HISTORY 136A Intro to Contemporary Latin America
MW 2:50-4:05PM Carr Building 240
INSTRUCTOR: Jocelyn Olcott
Interdisciplinary introduction to the peoples, cultures, and burning issues of contemporary Latin America and the Caribbean. Required course for students seeking the certificate in Latin American Studies.
HISTORY 196QS Immigration Policy History
W 4:25-6:55PM, location: TBA
INSTRUCTOR: Gunther Peck
Immigrants and immigration policy in the United States from the late nineteenth century to the present, with focus on origins of immigrant exclusion during two waves of immigration: new immigrants from Europe and Asia, 1880-1920, and Central American, African, and Asian migrations, post 1965. Immigrant roles in shaping policy debates, citizenship requirements, free labor, and American culture. Ethical dilemmas generated by immigration. Research paper required.
(recently added!) HIST 196S-03 Dictatorship, Democratization, and Memory in Latin America
Thursday 3:05-5:35, Languages 312
INSTRUCTOR: Bryan Pitts
Every Thursday, a dwindling group of elderly women marches in a slow circle around the Plaza de Mayo in the center of Buenos Aires. As they have for over three decades, the Madres de la Plaza de Mayo demand to be told what happened to their children, in large part activist high school and college students who were “disappeared” by Argentina’s 1976-1983 military dictatorship. The Madres serve as not only a poignant reminder of the human toll taken by a quarter-century of authoritarian military rule in Latin America, but also an example of the continuing political and social fallout from military dictatorships.
This junior-senior research seminar will analyze Latin America’s military dictatorships that flourished between 1964 and 1988, with an emphasis on Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Peru. What led the military to seize power throughout Latin America? Why did they especially target students and intellectuals for repression? What ways did people find of opposing these dictatorships, and what was daily life like under military rule? Why did the military regimes ultimately collapse, and how have countries’ experiments with democracy fared in the
quarter century since? What sorts of memories are being constructed of these regimes, and what steps have been taken to bring the perpetrators of torture to justice?
We will learn about Latin America’s military dictatorships through a wide variety of primary sources, including documents, speeches, video footage, movies, and music, as well as relevant scholarly articles. Students should expect about 75-100 pages of reading per week, several shorter writing projects, and one longer research project. The research project will involve primary source research, dialogue with relevant secondary sources, and drafts of short portions of the project but will NOT require a polished final paper.
LIT 163N Germany Confronts Nazism and the Holocaust
TuTh 10:05AM – 11:20AM Old Chem 101
INSTRUCTOR: William Donahue
The ways in which official German culture comes to terms with its Nazi past. Background reading in history and politics; primary focus on films, dramas, novels, and poetry, as well as public memorials, monuments, and museums. Authors treated include: Wolfgang Borchert, Rolf Hochhuth, Peter Weiss, Ruth Klüger. Taught in English.
POLSCI 145 – 01 Political Analysis for Public Policy-Making
MW 1:15-2:30PM Sanford 04
INSTRUCTOR: Pope McCorkle
Analysis of the political and organizational processes which influence the formulation and implementation of public policy. Alternative models. Prerequisite: Public Policy 55D.
POLSCI 158 Non-State Actors in World Politics
MW 10:05AM – 11:20AM East Duke 204B
INSTRUCTOR: Tim Buthe
Survey of broad range of non-state actors in world politics, including international organizations, supranational courts, NGOs, multinational corporations, trans-governmental and private transnational networks. Issues include environmental politics, human rights, globalization, and international terrorism.
POLSCI 173 Ethnic Conflict
TuTh 4:25PM – 5:40PM Soc Sci 119
INSTRUCTOR: Anoop Sadanandan
An examination of ethnic conflict and discrimination in the United States, Africa, Europe, and Asia. Theories of ethnic identify formation, ethnic conflict, the role of ethnicity in politics, and the economics of discrimination. How ethnic conflict is likely to change in the next few decades. The impact of a freer trade environment and the increasing integration of the world economy on ethnic conflict. The effectiveness of international institutions like the United Nations and NATO in preventing the reoccurrence of tragedies like Rwanda.
SOC 112 Gender, Poverty, and Health
WF 1:15-2:30PM LSRC A156
INSTRUCTOR: Jennifer Erausquin
Examines interconnections among gender, poverty, and health. Adopts global perspective with focus on US and resource poor countries. Discusses frameworks for understanding health as well as in depth case studies of particular health areas. Major focus on HIV/AIDS.
SOC 116 Comparative Race and Ethnic Studies
TuTh 4:25 – 5:40PM SocPsy 127
INSTRUCTOR: Staff
The social, legal and cultural construction of racial and ethnic hierarchies in a comparative international context with the United States and the United Kingdom of central analytical concern. Racial formation and racial segregation in specific historical and national contexts including the normative case of the Anglo-Saxon core in the United States and how its dominance has led to patterns of ethnic antagonism and discrimination; the historical context of racial stereotypes and their representation in various mediums. Social justice movements and public policies designed to challenge racial and ethnic domination including controversial topics such as “positive discrimination” (United Kingdom) and Affirmative Action (United States/South Africa). May include comparative case studies from India, South Africa, Brazil, and continental Europe.
SXL 130S Gender, Sexuality and Human Rights
MW 1:15-2:30PM White Lecture 201
INSTRUCTOR: Ara Wilson
This course investigates gender and sexual dimensions of human rights, considering key international human rights campaigns and emphasizing the historical and philosophical contexts involved in advocacy for Women’s Human Rights and Sexual Rights. May include a service-learning component.
THEATERST 130-S01 Performing Social Justice
TuTh 2:50 – 4:05
INSTRUCTOR: Nina Prieur
Can theater change the world? What, in effect, are the politics of performance? In this course, we will explore how a wide variety of artists have responded to pressing social and political issues in the contemporary United States with a focus on how people in Durham and the greater Triangle Area are currently using theater and performance to advocate for human rights and social justice. We will engage with diverse theories and practices of activist art-making by reading, viewing, and critiquing performances from the late 20th and early 21st century civil rights, feminist, Chicano/a, LGBTQ, anti-globalization, and prison reform/abolition movements. We will then place that work in conversation with our own community-based experiences volunteering for local social justice organizations.