Course homepage

Tuesday 8/25: Course Introduction: Human Rights and Storytelling

2.      Readings:

• History of human rights

• Human Rights: History of Human Rights

• Declaration of the rights of Man 1789

• US Bill of Rights 1791

• GENEVA CONVENTION

Tuesday 9/1: Slavery and Slave Narratives: Frederick Douglass

Reading Assignments:

• Missouri Compromise

• Dred Scott

• Dred Scott case

• Emancipation Proclamation intro

• Emancipation Proclamation

•  About Slave Narratives

• Begin Reading Douglass’s narrative

For Further info: From Slavery to Civil Rights: A Timeline

Also Visit: Free the Slaves - Abolish Modern Slavery

Thursday 9/3: Douglass continued: Working group day.

Reading Assignments:  Finish reading Douglass’s Narrative

Tuesday 9/8: The Holocaust, WWII, and the UDHR

Reading Assignments:  

• Universal Declaration of Human Rights

• UDHR - History of human rights

• Introduction to the Holocaust

• Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

• Hayden White, “The Value of Narrativity in the Representation of Reality” Critical Inquiry, Vol. 7, No. 1,  (Autumn, 1980), pp. 5-27 (Available on JSTOR)

Thursday 9/10: Case Study #1: The Ethics of HR Storytelling/ Fact versus Fiction

Reading Assignments:

• Kay Schaeffer and Sidonie Smith, Chapter 1 Conjunctions, from Human Rights and Narrated Lives (posted on Angel)

• Prepare Case Study

Tuesday 9/15: Drawing Death: Maus and Barefoot Gen

Reading Assignments:

• Read volume 1 of Barefoot Gen and Volume 1 of Maus

Thursday 9/17: Maus and Barefoot Gen continued. Working group day.

Reading Assignments:

• finish volume 2 of Maus

Tuesday 9/22: Testimonio: The Case of Rigoberta Menchú

Reading Assignments:

• John Beverley, “The Margin at the Center: On Testimonio” in The Real Thing (On Angel)

• Read first half of Rigoberta Menchú

Thursday 9/24: Rigoberta Menchú continued.  Working Group Day

Reading Assignments:

• Finish Menchú.

Tuesday 9/29: Screening Genocide

Reading Assignments:

• Daniel Chandler's: the Grammar of TV and Film

• Some guidelines for analysis of film sequences

Thursday 10/1: In class screening: The killing fields

Assignment: Homework screening: Hotel Rwanda

Tuesday 10/6: In class screening 2: The killing fields

Reading Assignments:

• Genocide Definition

• Cambodian Genocide (visit the series of pages)

• Rwandan Genocide (visit the series of pages)

Thursday 10/8: Class discussion of films: Working group day.

Reading Assignments:

• James Dawes, Chapter 2 Genocide That the World May Know

For more information: Rwanda: The Wake of a Genocide , Rwandan Genocide and Cambodian Genocide Program

Tuesday  10/13: Midterm review

Thursday 10/15: Midterm

Tuesday 10/20: Truth Commissions: Chile and South Africa

Reading Assignments:

• Kay Schaeffer and Sidonie Smith, Chapter 3 “Truth, Reconciliation and the Traumatic Past of South Africa”, from Human Rights and Narrated Lives (posted on Angel)

• Read first half of Country of My Skull

Thursday 10/22: Country of My Skull

Reading Assignments: Finish Country of My Skull

Tuesday 10/27: Death and the Maiden

Reading Assignments: Death and the Maiden

Thursday 10/29: Case Study #2 Insiders and Outsiders: Who has the right to tell the story?  Who is obligated to?  What are the risks? Working Group Day

Reading Assignments:

• James Dawes, Introduction and Chapter 4 “Storytelling” from That the World May Know (on Angel)

• Article Summary of The Difficulty of Imagining Other Persons by Elaine Scarry (Or read the full text: Elaine Scarry, "The Difficulty of Imagining Other Persons," in The Handbook of Interethnic Coexistence, ed. Eugene Weiner, (New York: Continuum Publishing, 1998), pp. 40-62. to be posted on Angel)

Tuesday 11/3: Iraq, Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo: 9/11 and exceptional HR

Reading Assignments:

• Jonathan H. Marks, "The Logic and Language of Torture"

• Julie Gerk Hernandez “The Tortured Body, the Photograph, and the U.S. War on Terror”

Thursday 11/5:  Post 9/11 Photography/ Video/New Media

Reading Assignments:

• Susan Sontag, Section 1, Regarding the Pain of Others (on Angel)

• Guy Debord, Chapter 1 from Society of the Spectacle "The Culmination of Separation"

• Henry Giroux, “Rethinking the Politics of the Spectacle in the Society of the Image” (on Angel)

Websites to visit: http://witness.org/

Tuesday 11/10:  Myths, metaphors, and mysteries: 9/11 and the case of Afghanistan

Reading Assignments:

• Sophia A. McClennen “Reading Afghanistan post 9/11” (on Angel)

• Begin Reading The Kite Runner

Thursday 11/12: Discussion of The Kite Runner

Reading Assignments:

• Finish Reading The Kite Runner

Tuesday 11/17: Post 9/11 Poetry: The Poems of Guantanamo

Reading Assignment: The Poems of Guantanamo

Thursday 11/19: Post 9/11 Narrative: The Sirens of Baghdad

Reading Assignment: The Sirens of Baghdad

Tuesday 12/1: Communal Failures and Collective Storytelling: The Laramie Project

Reading Assignments:

• The Laramie Project

• Matthew Shepard

Thursday 12/3: Conclusions, Questions, Final Exam review

Assignments: Work on Final Project

Tuesday 12/8: Final Project presentations

Assignments: Work on Final Project

Thursday 12/10: Final Project presentations

Assignments: Final Projects DUE in Class

Final Exam: Date tbd