Happy New Year
& Welcome Back!
Long Periods: Meet in the classroom first. Come prepared to pick up work on the independent research process in the library and classroom collections after in-class discussions.
Day 1: Introduction.
In-class: Review 2014 Fall Semester Final Exams; review through PERSIA notes, go over syllabus handout; and chronicle current events.
- Homework for Day 2: Begin to read the handout packet from class: Lynn Hunt, "'There Will Be No End Of It.' The Consequences of Declaring," in Inventing Human Rights. A History, pp. 146-160 (up until the section on "Free Blacks, Slavery, and Race"). Prepare notes on the key terms and persons that correspond with the reading, and prepare the questions for class discussion (see below). *Homework notes will be checked in class.
- Key Terms and Persons: Natural, civil, political, and human rights, "the logic of rights," Edict of Nantes, Edict of Toleration of 1787, The Friends of Blacks, Toussaint-Louverture, Condorcet, Olympe de Gouges, and Mary Wollstonecraft.
- Homework questions for Day 2:#1: What is Lynn Hunt's argument?
#2: What is her evidence?
Day 2: "There Will Be No End To It": Inventing Human Rights.
Long periods: Meet in classroom first to discuss the first or second half of Lynn Hunt's article, and then work in the library on follow-up research tasks, conferring with instructor and librarians, searching JSTOR, ordering books through UNM/ILL, etc.
In-class: Discuss the first part of the handout from Lynn Hunt, "'There Will Be No End Of It.' The Consequences of Declaring," in Inventing Human Rights. A History, pp. 146-160; go over key terms and persons, and review the ambivalent legacies of the French Revolution.
- Homework for Day 3: finish reading the handout from Lynn Hunt, "'There Will Be No End Of It.' The Consequences of Declaring," in Inventing Human Rights. A History, pp. 160-175, and answer the following question (*Homework notes will be checked in class):
- Homework question for Day 3:
#1: Do you agree with Hunt's argument? Do you see any problems, limitations or alternative explanations for the rise of human rights in the 19th century? Explain and support.
Day 3: The Logic of Human Rights.
In-class: Discuss the, and the reading question from Lynn Hunt, "'There Will Be No End Of It.' The Consequences of Declaring," in Inventing Human Rights. A History, pp. 160-175.
- Homework for Day 4: Please read the following two articles shared as a handout in class and on Google docs (also available via the links below) and answer the following questions:
- Article#1: Scott Atran and Nafees Hamid, "Paris: The War ISIS Wants by Scott Atran and Nafees Hamid," New York Review of Books, November 16, 2015.
- Article#2: Michael Ignatieff, "The Refugees and the New War", New York Review of Books, December 17, 2015.
- Article#2: Michael Ignatieff, "The Refugees and the New War", New York Review of Books, December 17, 2015.
- Homework questions for Day 4:
#1: What do the authors, Atran and Hamid, claim are the goals of ISIS?#2: Who is joining ISIS, and how are ISIS leaders attracting followers?
#3: According to the authors of both articles, what are people and governments doing to counter the attraction of ISIS? What do the authors think about these efforts (and why), and what do they suggest might work instead?
Day 4: ISIS, the Current Wave of Terrorism, and Counter-Terrorism Efforts.
In-class: Discuss the articles and related homework questions.
- Homework over the weekend: Work on independent research project tasks.
