For those of you with graduate students interested in human rights research:
Please see the brief description below for a new course offered this fall by Dr. David Richards, HRTS 5899-001 Methods in Human Rights Research and Practice (listed on Student Admin as “Seminar in Human Rights”), Thursdays 1:30pm-4:00pm in Fall 2020.
This course uses two approaches by which graduate students will be introduced to professional modes of human rights research and practice: (1) a workshop-centric study of data-oriented human rights evaluation/measurement, and (2) introductions to other human rights research methods from a diversity of academic disciplines.
(1) Data play an important part in enabling human rights conditions and practices to be evaluated. For policymakers, data facilitate evidence-based policy making, which is the making of policy decisions based on careful and rigorous analysis using reliable and valid data. For activists, data-based research and reports can generate a good deal of public pressure to improve human rights practices by mobilizing discussion about, and drawing attention to, human rights issues. For scholars, data-based evaluation helps understand the causes and consequences of respect for --and violations of-- human rights.
(2) Our fullest understanding of human rights can only come by means of a heterogeneous set of methodological tools sourced across a wide variety of academic disciplines. Faculty from across the University will participate in this second part of the seminar: sharing their research, methods and experience with seminar students.
This course is suited for graduate students with some basic understanding of human rights and who have an interest in exploring new avenues of research in a collaborative environment.
For more information, contact: David Richards at david.richards@uconn.edu