Human Rights and International Politics
PO8016
Syllabus can be downloaded here.
Response Pieces:
Week 1: Human Rights in International Politics
Week 2: The United Nations, Human Rights and Reform
Week 3: The United States: Human Rights and Foreign Policy
Week 4: The International Criminal Court and Human Rights
Week 5: China and the Future of Human Rights in a Non-Western World
Summary on PO8016 Teaching Method
Students are required to write a response piece in the course of the module. Each week’s readings are accompanied by a different focal article from a widely read publication (e.g. The Economist, Foreign Affairs or Foreign Policy) that addresses a topical issue or event with clear implications for that week’s human rights theme. Your assignment will be to reflect on the article for that week’s topic and compose a concise response paper.
The response piece is a forum for you to express critical insights into pressing international concerns. They must draw on either one or several of the week’s required readings (and, if desired, additional sources, but not to the exclusion of the required readings). A high level of analytical mastery of the reading materials is to be combined with a professional, formal but also accessible presentation style in a manner akin to a newspaper editorial.
Response pieces MUST be submitted at least 48 hours prior to class. Response pieces will then be uploaded onto an online ‘Response Forum’ where all students will be expected to post at least ONE substantive comment of around 300 words (the quality of your comment will form part of your participation grade) on any of the response pieces submitted that week. Comments must be posted using your full name at least four hours prior to class.
Our peer review process will be password protected (from the unfiltered “blogosphere”). Please email me for the password.
The response piece should be between 800-1000 words, formatted in Word, single-spaced and submitted to me (pegramt@tcd.ie) by email. The piece should conform to a formal structure which demonstrates clear analytical intent but should also aspire to an accessible, conversational tone. Organization is very important and the piece must be accompanied by a proper, however brief, introduction and conclusion. The piece must also have a title.
As these pieces are partially “research based,” citations should be integrated into the text in the Harvard style (i.e. Donnelly 2007: 23). However, reflecting the op-ed intent, where possible citations should be integrated using hyperlinks (Highlight text → Insert → Hyperlink). Hyper-linking text is a great way to richly supplement material in ways that print does not allow. For an example of a response piece see here.