Course

Syllabus

Other Course Policies

Appropriate Conduct

The Arizona Board of Regents’ Student Code of Conduct, ABOR Policy 5-308, prohibits threats of physical harm to any member of the University community, including to one’s self. See: http://policy.arizona.edu/threatening-behavior-students.

For more information on appropriate and inappropriate student conduct, see http://deanofstudents.arizona.edu/policiesandcodes/studentcodeofconduct http://policy.web.arizona.edu/disruptive-behavior-instructional http://policy.web.arizona.edu/threatening-behavior-students

Notification of Objectionable Materials

This course contains material that some students may find objectionable. If you believe material to be covered will be objectionable, you should consult with the Instructors as soon as possible to discuss potential alternative materials and assignments.

Confidentiality of Student Records

As required by law under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA), student records are confidential. This law and its applicability to your educational records may be accessed at: http://www.registrar.arizona.edu/ferpa/default.htm

Changes to the Syllabus

Information contained in this course syllabus, other than the grade and absence policies, may be subject to change with reasonable advance notice, as deemed appropriate by the instructor.

WARNING!

Cheating and plagiarism will not be tolerated. Plagiarism includes not only the exact duplication of an author’s words but also an unacknowledged close paraphrase. When in doubt give a citation. SPECIAL NOTE: Be sure not to plagiarize when preparing case materials. Students should be especially careful when cutting and pasting material from cases, briefs, and other sources. Use quotation marks and/or citations where appropriate.

Students are encouraged to share intellectual views and discuss freely the principles and applications of course materials. However, graded work/exercises must be the product of independent effort unless otherwise instructed. Students are expected to adhere to the UA Code of Academic Integrity as described in the UA General Catalog. See: http://deanofstudents.arizona.edu/codeofacademicintegrity.

Required Readings

Required readings will be distributed / assigned as needed through D2L or can be found through the UA library or on the Internet. Additional readings will be added to the following if they are deemed especially pertinent. It is expected that students will find many of the course topics quite compelling and will additional reading on their own.

1. Studentsshould have access to D2L
2. Studentsshould check their UA email accounts almost every day
3. Studentsshould register on globalhumanrightsdirect.arizona.edu

Course Outline and Readings

Module 1 Introductions and the Voice of the Other July 5-12

Readings:

• de Sousa Santos, The End of the Cognitive Empire: The Coming of Age of Epistemologies of the South (UA Library, Preface and Introduction)
• Simmons, “Introduction: Deconstruction, Concrete Universalisms, and Human Rights of the Other” in Human Rights Law and the Marginalized Other (D2L) Teju Cole, “The White-Savior Industrial Complex” (Internet)
• William Simmons, “Paternal Ignorance in Human Rights Devalues Knowledge of Marginalized Populations” (Internet)
• Burton, Carss, and Twumasi, “Listening to Neurodiverse Voices in the Workplace” (Internet) Decolonial Pedagogy Scale
• Global Human Rights Direct (www.globalhumanrightsdirect.arizona.edu) (Browse thoroughly and register)
• Film: Thomas Balmès Bosnia Hotel: Kenyan Warriors in Bosnia (UA Library Catalog) Assigned: Personal Introductions on Voice Thread
• Introduction to Group Projects Voice Thread on Voices of the Marginalized (10 Points)

Module 2 Myanmar and Patiently Listening to the Voices of the Rohingya July 12-27

Readings:

• Habiburahman and Sophie Ansel, First They Erased Our Name: A Rohingya Speaks (selections)
• Voices of the Rohingya on Twitter, Facebook, etc.
• Yohanna, et al. “Localizing International Human Rights Norms through Participatory Video with People Affected by Leprosy in Niger, Nigeria, and Mozambique”
• Simmons et al. “Measuring Resilience and Posttraumatic Growth at the Individual and Communal Levels in the Context of an Arts Intervention for Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh”
• “China’s Complicated Game in Myanmar” (Internet) Other Readings TBA

Guests: Ye Wint Thu, Burmese Journalist

Others TBA

• Assigned: VoiceThread Project: TBA (20 Points)

Module 3: Oral Histories, Remembrance, and The Lost Boys of Southern Sudan Jul 28-Aug 3

Readings:

• Rädda Barnen, “The Unaccompanied Minors of Southern Sudan” (D2L)
• Lost Boys Found: Oral History Project at ASU (https://keep.lib.asu.edu/collections/141205)
• Lost Boys Reunited (https://lostboysreunited.com/)
• Other Sources for Voices of Lost Boys (TedTalks, Facebook, etc.) Films: Philippe Falardeau (dir.) The Good Lie

Guests: TBA

Assigned: VoiceThread – Remembrance Project (10 Points)

Module 4 Epistemological Mingas: Decolonization and Empiricism

• Aug 3-9 de Sousa Santos, The End of the Cognitive Empire: The Coming of Age of Epistemologies of the South (UA Library, Chapter 7)
• David Lehmann, After the Decolonial (D2L, pp. 35-63)
• Paradies, Franklin, and Kowal, “Development of the Reflexive Antiracism Scale – Indigenous” (Internet)
• Simmons, Chen, and Alves, “Notes toward a Reflexive Critical Consciousness Scale” (D2L)
• Simmons, Boynton, and Landman, “Facilitated Communication, Neurodiversity, and Human Rights”

Selections from the Following

• Boynton, Janyce. 2012. “Facilitated Communication—What Harm It Can Do: Confessions of a Former Facilitator” Evidence-Based Communication Assessment and Intervention 6 (1): 3-13.
• Chan and Nankervis. 2015. “Stolen Voices: Facilitated Communication Is an Abuse of Human Rights” Evidence-Based Communication Assessment and Intervention 8 (3): 151-156.
• Steven Salzberg, “Facilitated Communication Has Been Called An Abuse Of Human Rights. Why Is It Still Around?” Forbes, https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevensalzberg/2018/06/18/facilitated- communication-may-be-an-abuse-of-human-rights-why-is-a-university-teaching- it/#78e9a51329f3
• “The Strange Case of Anna Stubblefield, Revisited,” The New York Times

April 5, 2018

• Film: Temple Grandin, The World Needs All Kinds of Minds, TedTalk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fn_9f5x0f1Q Hannah Gadsby, Douglas (Netflix, Recommended)
• Assigned: Voice Thread: Decolonization, Epistemic Mingas, Epistemic Conversions (10 Points)

Module 5: Trauma, Authenticity, and Testimony Aug 10-19

• Readings: Minh Dang, “Epistemology of Survival: A Working Paper” (Internet)
• Shin and Harden, Escape from Camp 14: One Man’s Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West (UA Library)
• Robert Park, “The Forgotten Genocide,
• North Korea’s Prison State” (http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/article/forgotten- genocide-north-korea%E2%80%99s-prison-state)
• Blaine Harden, “Foreword” https://www.blaineharden.com/escape-from-camp-14- reviews/
• Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the General Assembly (A/69/548) (http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Countries/AsiaRegion/Pages/KPIndex.aspx) (Selections)
• Gilmore, Leigh. 2017. Tainted Witness: Why We Doubt What Women Say About Their Lives (selections, UA Library)
• Ana Belén Martínez García, “TED Talks as Life Writing: Online and Offline Activism” (Internet)
• Song, “The “Savage–Victim Saviour” Story Grammar of the North Korean Human Rights Industry” (Internet)
• Artwork: “Telling the Stories of Defectors from North Korea: Introduction by Alexandra Genova, Photographs and Text by Tim Franco” New York Times, April 2, 2018 Tim Franco, Unperson (http://www.timfranco.com/unperson).
• Films: Marc Wiese, Camp 14: Total Control Zone https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGtkAbnsuqo
• Suki Kim, This Is What It’s Like to Go Undercover in North Korea, TedTalk, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6weGCM3sWKc&t=378s
• Hyeonseo Lee, Why I Escaped from My Brainwashed Country, TedX, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ed4SeoQypy0
• Mike Wallace, “Lost in Translation” Library Database: Alexander Street
• Music: “The People’s Paradise (North Korea’s Song of Sorrow)” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLJxcwremh4&t=427s
• Robert Park, “I Am But a Child” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdccI0YjjIQ Assigned: 2 Voice Threads: Trauma, Truth, and Testimony (20 Points)

Guests: TBA

Catalog Description

This course introduces students to the critical role played by first-person testimonies, especially of marginalized populations, in human rights work. We will consider how testimonies are used in a variety of media including official reports, documentaries, and published works. And we will look at the strengths and potential pitfalls of using such testimonies. Key questions include: Where and how can human rights stakeholders— especially survivors and those marginalized in societies—be listened to and heard? Should human rights regimes take extraordinary measures to listen to the voices of the marginalized? What does it mean to undertake justice for the marginalized in society?

Will the voices of the marginalized be co-opted by existing power structures, thus rendering them even more marginalized?

Introductory Quotes

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights “is the voice of millions of human beings, victims of oppression, misery and ignorance, who aspire to live under conditions of greater justice, freedom and simple dignity” — Rene Cassin, a key drafter of the UDHR

Perhaps, the first step in the activist journey of hyper solidarity is for human rights education activists to learn from the victims of the perfidies of power rather than to presume to educate them in the struggle for survival and justice. Humility before the victims of gross and flagrant violations of human rights, I believe, is critically indispensable for the would-be human rights education communities of the future The problem then becomes one of how may we educate the human rights educators, rather than the people whom they so ardently wish to serve? — Upendra Baxi, Scholar, Attorney, and Activist,

We wish to plead our own cause. Too long have others spoken for us. Too long has the public been deceived by misrepresentations, in things which concern us dearly (Freedom’s Journal, March 16, 1827).

Epistemologies of the South is in all likelihood the most compelling and practicable framework for social transformation to emerge at the intersection of the Global North and the Global South, theory and practice, and the academy and social life in many decades. Its reflexivity about its own location, limits and potentialities is a strength of the framework. To paraphrase its author, it is a proposal that constructs passages between the No longer and the Not Yet of critical theory if not thought itself. It does not claim to have arrived at a new land of general theories and Big Ideas —in fact, this is explicitly not one of its goals— yet at the same time it dares to outline trajectories for thinking otherwise, precisely because it carves a space for itself that enables thought to re-engage with life and attentively walk along the amazing diversity of forms of knowledge held by those whose experiences can no longer be rendered legible by Eurocentric knowledge in the academic mode, if they ever were. The Epistemologies of the South framework provides workable tools for all those of us who no longer want to be complicit with the silencing of popular knowledges and experiences by Eurocentric knowledge, sometimes performed even in the name of allegedly critical and progressive theory. The Epistemologies of the South might also be useful to those who have been at the receiving end of those colonialist categories that have transmogrified their experiences, translated them into lacks, or simply rendered them utterly illegible and invisible (Arturo Escobar 2015).

Course Description

Recently, human rights discourses have undergone a quiet revolution. After centuries of human rights thinking being the near exclusive domain of elites such as philosophers and jurists; human rights advocates and scholars are now closely paying attention to the voices of the victims, including the most marginalized. Some scholars and activists, like the instructor, have even argued that the voices of the marginalized should be privileged, and that this is one of the best ways to deconstruct and reinvigorate our understanding of human rights as well as the institutions that have been set up to advance human rights. Others have argued that it is impossible to truly listen to the voice of the Other, especially from a privileged position, and that most attempts end up co-opting the voices of the Other and reinforcing hegemonic power structures that are meant to be deconstructed.

Such debates beg the following questions that we will address in this course..

1. Is it possible for the most marginalized human rights victims to be heard byhuman rights regimes (activists, tribunals, non-governmental organizations, governments, )?
2. Will the voices of the marginalized be co-opted by existing power structures, thusrendering them even more marginalized?
3. Howare hegemonic knowledge structures developed and sustained?
4. Is it possible for hegemonic human rights knowledge structures to bedeconstructed by the voices of the most marginalized?
5. Whatdoes it take to change deeply held beliefs?

Throughout the semester we will critically analyze previous attempts at presenting the viewpoint of the marginalized Other and consider the best ways to do so in our globalized, networked, and technologized, world.

Students should be generous in sharing their knowledge, research, and experiences with the class and should be receptive to the theories, methods, and knowledge of others including those presented in the readings and discussions. We are always open to your ideas and input!

Course Objectives and Expected Learning Outcomes

By the end of the semester, it is expected that students will, inter alia:

1. Be exposed to a wide variety of voices from human rights
2. Be introduced to several recent major cases and controversies related to humanrights in the U.S. and globally.
3. Betterunderstand the various ways that activists attempt to advance human rights through social movements, litigation, and direct action.
4. Have examined in some detail the relationships between the voices of marginalized persons and existing social power
5. Have a more nuanced understanding of what it means to solicit and heed the voices of clients and others in other
6. Have brainstormed and conceptualized how best to gather and present the voices of marginalized human rights stakeholders.
7. Have been actively involved in designing and implementing a major human rights project that involves gathering and presenting the voices of human rights
8. Develop a passion for understanding human rights from the perspectives of the

Course Technology

You will need to know how to work with the UA’s classroom management system or portal – D2L (https://d2l.arizona.edu). Several helpful links are on the class D2L page, including tips on using D2L, netiquette, and tech support links. Also, please register on the GHRD web platform at www.globalhumanrightsdirect.arizona.edu If there are ANY problems or questions about these links, by all means contact me and I will work with you to sort these issues out.

Communicating with the Course Facilitator

I am available through UA email or Zoom (but best to notify me that you desire to talk).

Course Requirements

• Group Projects (30 Points): This assignment aims to advance four interrelated human rights projects: the Human Rights Conversations textbook, the Global Human Rights Direct website, scales to measure decolonial pedagogy and critical consciousness, and a remembrance project for South Sudan. Details of each of these, including their current status, will be provided during the first week of the semester. Groups will be expected to work closely with the Instructor on these projects – they are “his” projects after all :v This should be an ongoing dialogue throughout the semester.
• Participation in the Class Discourse and Weekly Projects (70 Points): Students will be expected to regularly participate on the class VoiceThread or discussion board. We will have seven (7) discussions based upon the readings and films and each is worth ten (10) points. At least two of these will include problem-based assignments related to the week’s themes. As part of these VoiceThreads, small groups of students will take the lead with each of the video guest lectures and will be responsible for soliciting questions from the other students, following up afterwards with the speaker with additional questions, and writing a thank you note.
• Attendance and Participation: Students are expected to “attend” all sessions – either live or via recorded video feed. This MUST be done in a timely fashion pursuant to the dates provided in the online D2L system. Students will have a window of time in which to watch and react to class sessions. It is imperative to follow the course and the discussions (along with the attendant assignments).

Workload Expectations

At the University of Arizona, in a semester-long course for undergraduates—one that lasts 15 weeks—students are expected to have at least 9 hours of workload each week. Since this is a 7.5 week course at the graduate level worth 3 credits, students are expected to have approximately 16 to 20 hours of workload each week. This is an online class with a mix of guest lectures, a video lectures on VoiceThread by the instructor, readings, short assignments, and group work; all of which will vary each week. If you find you are putting in much more time than expected, please consult the instructor.

Attendance

Attendance, preparation, and participation from all students are crucial for the success of this course. The UA’s policy concerning Class Attendance and Administrative Drops is available at: http://catalog.arizona.edu/policy/class-attendance-participation-and- administrative-drop

All holidays or special events observed by organized religions will be honored for students who show affiliation with that religion. Absences preapproved by the UA Dean of Students (or the Dean’s designee) will be honored (e.g. athletes, debate team, military absence, hospitalization, death in family).

Grades

See this link for university grade policies: http://catalog.arizona.edu/policy/grades-and- grading-system

Your grade for this course will be determined as follows:

Reasonable Accommodations

The instructor will be happy to work with students who require reasonable accommodations for disabilities or other circumstances.

It is the University’s (and the Instructor’s) goal that learning experiences be as accessible as possible. If you anticipate or experience physical or academic barriers based on disability or pregnancy, please let me know immediately so that we can discuss options. You are also welcome to contact Disability Resources (520-621-3268) to establish reasonable accommodations.