Course overview
This course applies feminist, queer and postcolonial understandings to contemporary domestic and international human rights issues, taking a critical approach both to human rights violations, and to the human rights discourses and campaigns that seek to remedy them. Case studies discussed include refugees, human trafficking, international women's rights, LGBTIQ+ campaigns, environmental crises and global Indigenous movements. Students develop knowledge and skills to critically engage with human rights issues presented in diverse ways, including through reports, campaigns, and visual documentary. This course develops students abilities to act ethically in relation to gender and sexuality.
Course learning outcomes
- Participate in informed discussions on human rights issues, from a gender and sexuality studies perspective, in a variety of local and global contexts
- Articulate both benefits and limitations of conceiving of gender and sexuality issues in terms of human rights
- Identify and discuss some major gender and sexuality rights issues currently evolving under 21st Century globalisation
- Conduct informed, independent research on particular human rights issues, paying attention to local context
- Evaluate specific human rights campaigns in terms of social justice, ethics, and empowerment, and feminist and queer critiques
- Critically reflect on diverse ways of presenting human rights issues to various publics or audiences
- Construct a clear, coherent and independent argument which responds to a particular question and is supported by appropriate scholarly evidence, within identified timeframes
- Demonstrate interpersonal, leadership and teamwork skills in class and/or group activities