This course offers an introductory survey of human rights issues such as: foundations and nature of rights, roots of inequality and oppression, aboriginal rights, racism, women and rights, sexual orientation, state and corporate power, economic exploitation, the environment and rights (animal rights versus human rights: seal hunt as case study), warfare, torture, and social movements. This is an opportunity to become involved in a robust conversation on rights and responsibilities while earning a university credit. Learn to critically engage with human rights resources including texts, videos, works of art (literary and visual), and web resources. The course will include lectures, class discussions, web-based presentations, guest speakers and workshops. This course follows a flexi-schedule model designed for maximum flexibility for non-traditional students with demanding careers.

Nunavut Arctic College computer laboratories are well equipped with high-speed Internet access available to NAC-Carleton students. Students can access numerous full-text articles through the course web page.

Students will be encouraged to weave relevant aspects of everyday life experience and information gleaned from these resources into weekly classroom thematic discussions. Visual arts will be used to stimulate discussion.

Using a model developed for an Off-Campus Aboriginal program Maureen combines her experience as visual artist and web designer to encourage the development of web-based shareable resources. Students will contribute to an ongoing project of developing and sharing web-based resources such as bibliographies, timelines and glossaries of relevant terms in Inuktitut for northern-centred social science courses.

The pedagogy is based on the 4-R’s: relevance, reciprocity, respect and responsibility. Sociology is the study of human society. Projects are centred on starting-from-where-you-are. The final project is broken into easy to complete segments including visualizations and in-class presentations. Students design their own exams.

Recommended for those working in (or considering) further education, in the fields of: Sociology, Political Science, Public Administration, Health Care, Social Work Corrections/Criminology, and Human Resources.

COURSE FORMAT

Information for the course can be gathered from in-class presentations, lectures, slide-lectures including guest speakers, videos, selected texts, web-based resources and tutorials. Students will be encouraged to weave relevant aspects of everyday life experience and information gleaned from these resources into weekly classroom thematic discussions. Visual arts will be used to stimulate discussion.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

This course aims to encourage students:

- to develop an empathetic imagination

- to critically examine basic theories, research tools and language in current use in an international human rights culture

- to incorporate useful terms, concepts related to human rights into everyday conversation

- to increase comfort level with introductory level texts, documentaries and discussions on human rights

- to provide students with strategies for discovering, developing and maintaining sustainable reading, writing and learning habits necessary in undergraduate university level courses

- to encourage students to find and share useful strategies for time-management, self-motivation and efficient, effective habits needed for success in undergraduate university level courses

- to provide a safe place to discuss issues related to human rights

- to encourage students to contribute to public education about human rights through the sharing of study research and review projects