| Unit name | Human Rights in History |
|---|---|
| Unit code | HISTM0062 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | M/7 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
| Unit director | Dr. Baughan |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
None |
| Co-requisites |
None |
| School/department | Department of History (Historical Studies) |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted in 1948. Signed by all the members of the United Nations, it proclaimed the entitlements of all individuals irrespective of their race, nationality, age or gender. In this unit, we trace the intellectual origins of human rights within modern British history. In a series of thematic seminars, we ask three key questions: did the 1948 Declaration mark an historical watershed, or was it instead the product of a long process of evolution? What is the relationship between national citizenship and international rights? Were human rights used to justify British imperial expansion and intervention overseas, both in the past and the present day?
To answer these questions, we will engage with a vibrant, burgeoning literature on human rights in modern history. This will allow us to examine the role of British liberalism, American Independence and the French Revolution in the development of individual and universal rights discourses; Allied diplomats as the ‘architects’ of the United Nations; the role as human rights activists; and the extent to which imperial power was extended, or curtailed, by United Nations and European Union Human Rights Declarations.
Students will deepen their analytical abilities through close readings of nineteenth and twentieth century rights declarations, detecting subtle changes in the nature and form of contemporary rights.
1) To give students a broad grounding in the development of Human Rights in the modern era.
2) To improve students’ ability to argue effectively and at length (including an ability to cope with complexities and to describe and deploy these effectively).
3) To be able to display high level skills in selecting, applying, interpreting and organising information, including evidence of a high level of bibliographical control.
4) To develop the ability of students to evaluate and/or challenge current scholarly thinking.
5) To foster student’s capacity to take a critical stance towards scholarly processes involved in arriving at historical knowledge and/or relevant secondary literature.
6) To be able to demonstrate an understanding of concepts and an ability to conceptualise.
7) To develop students’ capacity for independent research.
1 x 2-hour interactive lecture per week.
One summative coursework essay of 5000 words (100%). This will assess ILOs 1-7.
T. Buchanan, 'The Truth Will Set You Free': The Making of Amnesty International, Journal of
Contemporary History 37, 4, (2002), 575-97.
S. Hopgood, The Endtimes of Human Rights, (Cornell 2013)
L. Hunt, Inventing Human Rights: A History, (New York 2007)
M. Mazower, No Enchanted Palace: The End of Empire and the Ideological Origins of the United Nations, (Princeton 2009)
S. Moyn, The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History (Boston 2010)
A.W.B. Simpson, Human Rights and the End of Empire: Britain and the Genesis of the European Convention, (Oxford 2004)
