UGED2622 Political Violence and Human Rights

Time

Lecture: Tuesdays 10:30 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.

Tutorial: T01: Tuesdays 12:30 p.m. – 01:15 p.m. T02: TBA

Instructor

Professor CHENG Sea Ling

Medium of Instruction

English

Course Description

(UGED2622 is double-coded with ANTH2530.)

This course examines the pervasiveness of violence from an anthropological and comparative perspective. We consider a wide range of phenomena that can be called violence within diverse historical and cultural contexts. Violence is always political – whether it is manifest in the spectacular practices of torture, terrorism, or genocide, or the invisible structures of inequalities that generate educational, health, and food inequities. Specifically, we will address four SDG goals in depth: SDG#1 No Poverty, SDG #5 “Gender Equality”, SDG# 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth, SDG #10 “Reduced Inequalities” and SDG #16 “Peace, Justice and strong institutions”; The topics covered will be understood in relation to histories of colonialism and nationalism, ideologies about race, gender, and variant forms of social, economic, and political hierarchies. We further examine the effectiveness and limitations of human rights and humanitarianism as remedies, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Learning Outcome

To comprehend the complex meanings of violence within a web of power relations both historically and cross-culturally.
To analyze the ways current discourses of violence and human rights are specific to our historical moment.
To cultivate historical and cross-cultural sensitivity in understanding diverse human experiences, crucial to the facilitation of dialogues and collaboration in the advancement of transformative justice.
To understand critically the role SDGs could play in addressing global inequalities.