The Human Rights & Global Justice program (HURI) takes an interdisciplinary approach to global and international dimensions of human rights, their dynamics, and reach, as well as their diverse forms and expressions in local, regional, and National settings. The curriculum is organized around the key themes of legal instruments, historical foundations, societal movements, and critical examinations of human rights limitations. It is offered with the co-operation of the following departments and programs: Canadian Studies, Gender & Social Justice, Indigenous Studies, Philosophy, Political Studies, and Sociology. Curriculum Map: Human Rights and Global Justice below.
Course Listing - Human Rights and Global Justice
Small Group Teaching
The Department of Global Justice and Development at Trent is committed to small group teaching and individual attention to students. Professors know most students by name and provide personalized support for assignments and related work. Enrollment in upper year courses usually does not exceed twenty students which allows for a vibrant learning environment where students interact closely with their instructors and peers.
Theoretical and Experiential Learning Combined with Critical Thinking
Courses are theoretically grounded and at the same time address real world policy initiatives. Our aim is to reach a balance between theory and practice, while challenging students to rethink conventional wisdom about international development. Several upper year courses include an experiential learning component which provides hands-on experience and an entry point into the job market. Through such an approach, students acquire critical thinking skills that serve them well.
Thematic Focus
The Department offers core courses at the first and second year, which provide students with the necessary historical and theoretical grounding. Students can pursue particular international development themes through other courses offered by faculty in the Department, such as globalization, food and agriculture, the environment, cultural change, identity and ethnicity, human rights, social transformations, international political economy, gender issues, and courses focused on particular regions of the world, to name but a few.
Curriculum Map: Human Rights and Global Justice
I. Understanding Human Rights
Core Foundations
1. HURI 2005H – Law, Violence, and Transitional Justice (3, 4, 5)
2. HURI 2006 – Work, Labour and Justice in a Global Perspective
3. HURI 2251H – Gender, Human Rights and Development (2, 3)
4. HURI 3121H – Human Rights: Law and Institutions (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
5. HURI 3761Y – Bolivian seminar: Indigenous Rights and Jurisprudence (5)
6. HURI 4001H – Human Rights Honours Seminar (3)
7. HURI 4260H – Global Governance, Human Rights and Social Justice (3)
8. HURI 4512H – Global Health and Human Rights
Essential Contexts and Conditions: Power, Development, and Global Justice
1. HURI 2001H – Global Justice, Decolonization, and Development
2. HURI 3115H – Citizenship Rights and Development (2, 3)
3. HURI 3150H – Global Migration (2)
4. HURI 3881H – Gender, Globalization, Resistance (2)
5. PHIL 2150H – Philosophy of Law
6. PHIL 3140H – Justice and Rights
7. INDG 3402H – Law and Indigenous Peoples: Litigating Aboriginal Rights (5)
8. HURI 4750H – Ethnicity, Political Conflict, and Genocide (2, 4, 5)
9. HURI 4130H – Global Cities and Social Justice
II. Community & Field-Based Learning
1. GDST 3830H – Andean Community Development Field Course
2. GDST 3850H – Migration Field Course (2)
3. HURI 4220/4221Y – Rights-based Methods & Research Project; Rights-based Methods and Migration Project (2, 3)
4. HURI 3200D – Community Field Placement – Bolivia (2, 5)
5. POST 4850H – Public Policy Field Placement: Human Rights (3)
6. GESO 3122H/4122H – Activists and Activisms: Social Justice and Decolonial Perspectives (1, 5)
III. Thematic Pathways and Specializations
Gender, Law and Human Rights Advocacy (Specialization)
Global Migration and Refugee Studies (Specialization)
International Law and Policy (Specialization)
Conflict, Genocide and Transitional Justice (Pathway)
Indigenous and environmental rights (Pathway)
IV. List of Electives
1. GESO 3962H – Gender, Sexualities, and the Law (1)
2. HIST 3320H – A History of Comparative Genocide (4)
3. POST 3092H – Law and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms (3)
4. SOCI 4630H – Advanced Seminar in the Sociology of Gender
5. CAST 4621H – The Critical Space of Law in Canadian Society
6. CHYS 3010H – Global Child Rights
7. GDST 3282H – Political of the Arab Israeli Conflict
8. GESO 3151H – Transnational Sexualities
9. GESO 3966H – Criminalizing Women (1)
10. INDG 2307H – Colonial Encounters (5)
11. INDG 3401H – Law and Indigenous People (5)
12. INDG 4180H – Great Law of Peace (4)
13. PHIL 3110H – Ethical Theory
14. PHIL 3180H – Social and Political Philosophy
15. POST 3420H – Poverty, Politics and Protest
16. POST 3422H – Dimensions of Poverty (3)
17. POST 3605H – Developing & Communicating Public Policy (3)
18. POST 3850H – Leadership Lab: Research and Practice
19. POST 4252H – Refugees, Forced Migration, and Experience in the Canadian Context (2)
20. POST 4272H – Liberal Democracy at the Crossroads
21. SOCI 3822H – The Canadian Labour Movement: Class, Protest, and Confronting Neoliberalism in the Digital Age
22. HIST3625 – Famine in Modern History