Exploring human rights with new History course

This fall, King’s will offer a new course entitled “History 2891E: Human Rights: Past, Present, Future.” Dr. Robert Ventresca and Dr. Jennifer Tunnicliffe will serve as instructors.

The course comes at a time when many groups are pressing for rights. At the same time, there is a backlash against our current rights and freedoms and media coverage around issues of racism, gender discrimination and the spread of online hate.

“Students at King's want to debate these issues, and History 2891E will provide them with the historical context, the theoretical background, and the language to be better prepared to fight for equal rights and justice,” says Dr. Tunnicliffe.

“Even a quick glance at the news these days reveals just how relevant human rights have become to the lives of people around the world,” says Dr. Ventresca.

Questions remain: How much do we really know about human rights and how they have come to be celebrated as representing the highest moral and political ideas? Guest speakers and workshops will give students access to the more practical side of human rights from people with real-world experience. One such workshop will focus on enforcing Canadian human rights laws, to be taught by two Ontario human rights lawyers. “The point is to underscore how critical reading and study in a traditional classroom setting and applied learning are complementary and mutually enriching,” says Dr. Ventresca.

“Human Rights: Past, Present, Future” will attempt to answer these questions, providing students with a course of study which begins with the history, origins, development and early religious, philosophical and political influences of human rights. From there will be discussions of what led to the formation of our modern understanding of human rights and our current international human rights system.

“Our purpose is not to only study the history of human rights, but to teach students human rights can be approached from many different perspectives: as a legal concept, as part of a social movement, as a set of cultural values, from a feminist perspective, etc.,” says Dr. Tunnicliffe. The course will also look at the understanding of human rights from other points of view besides the Western understanding of rights, such as African and Asian traditions, as well as Indigenous approaches.

History 2891E is open to all senior students, regardless of discipline.  This course may also be used toward the requirements of the proposed Human Rights Studies program, which is entering the final approval stages at Western.

“We believe all students interested in current issues relating to human rights would benefit from a better understanding of this history. Non-history students can take this course as an introduction to complement their other studies around social justice,” says Professor Tunnicliffe.

For more information, please visit https://www.kings.uwo.ca/kings/assets/File/academics/history/History2891E.pdf

To learn more about History at King’s: https://www.kings.uwo.ca/academics/history/