U-HMNRGT-C - Human Rights Certificate

Six courses are required for completion of the human rights certificate.

1. A required Gateway, Introduction to Human Rights. This course gives priority to first-year students and sophomores, ideally building a cohort with other students also interested in human rights.

2. Four electives. A course can count toward the human rights certificate if it contains a preponderance of readings or other materials of inquiry that reference human and civil rights history, concepts, theory, practice, discourse, advocacy or a combination of these elements. A course may have a thematic focus on human rights, including in areas of civil rights and social justice; it may have a regional focus, examining rights in a specific location; or a disciplinary focus, as in how a specific type of study, like biology or literature, approaches a rights question. Prior to registration each semester, the DHRC@FHI will prepare a list of pre-approved courses in consultation with the Faculty Advisory Board. Students are required to take courses from at least two disciplines. No more than two of the four courses may come from the same home department. Students may petition for a course to count toward the certificate by submitting a syllabus and rationale for the relevance to the Director of the certificate, specifying how it meets the criteria listed above. This would include courses taken outside Duke, including study abroad. Students are encouraged to search out study abroad courses that would count toward the human rights certificate.

3. A capstone seminar, Capstone in Human Rights. This course is offered to students in their senior year who have completed the Gateway and are enrolled in the human rights certificate program. A primary learning objective of this course is to connect the intellectual themes and scholarly knowledge they develop in the Gateway, electives and any rights-related experiences (through DukeEngage or internships and volunteer placements). The capstone requires students to critically re-visit themes introduced in the gateway course. The capstone culminates with a final project that requires students to choose a subject and produce research. Students may work in teams toward a final project but each student’s work will be evaluated separately and at a high standard.

4. All human rights certificate students are required to present their work to their peers in a mini-conference or other forum. Students are encouraged to present their work in other public settings for or in benefit of an individual or group engaged in rights work. This could be through performance or web-based pieces, videos, op-ed columns, published essays, public exhibits, or other media. Where appropriate, students’ projects can link or be combined with departmental honors projects.