Fall 2026
Human Rights Defenders and Advocates
Dates: October 05, 2026 – December 21, 2026Day/Time: Monday; Wednesday 10:50 AM - 12:20 PM EDT
Level: 300-Level
Certificate: Civic Engagement, Human Rights
Civic Engagement certificate requirement: A community-engaged Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS) course.
Human Rights certificate requirement: Introductory course in human rights law, politics, advocacy, or practice. Human rights as a transnational or global practice or phenomenon.
Instructor: Liudmila Ulyashyna, European Humanities University
This seminar serves as an introduction to human rights advocacy, with a practical component. Half of the course focuses on the history and theory of human rights. What is it to make claims for human rights, or to denounce suffering or rights violation, especially on behalf of others? How and when and why have individuals and groups spoken out, mounted campaigns, published reports and exposés? How do they address, challenge, and sometimes work with governments and international organizations like the United Nations, particularly through transnational advocacy networks? What allows some campaigns to succeed while others fail? As we look at human rights advocacy from the campaign to abolish the slave trade to the founding of Amnesty International and the advent of digital activism, this half of the course serves as an introduction to human rights work as a mode of legal, political and cultural practice. The other half of the course involves hands-on work with the human rights organization Scholars at Risk (SAR) to support detained and disappeared scholars connected to the SAR Scholars in Prison Program. We will research events and individuals, communicate with families and lawyers and other advocates, write country and case profiles, propose strategies and tactics for pressuring governments and other powerful actors, and develop appeals to public opinion -- all while recognizing the ethical and political risks this work may involve.
This course is a part of the "Critical Human Rights Advocacy" Network Collaborative Course.
Credits: 3 US / 6 ECTS