Critical Approaches to Human Rights

“Human Rights” encompass an assemblage of ideas, norms, law, institutions, social movements and power relationships. Rather than an already-existing entity, category, or set of norms and practices, we deploy the term as a focus for critical inquiry. We seek dissertation projects broadly associated with human rights, and yet committed to a common conceptual focus: a critical analysis of the co-constitution of power, knowledge and violence. Questions that animate this research field include, for example, what constitutes ‘reconciling’ and ‘rescuing’ (in Foucault’s terms, to ‘let live’)? How are certain acts of violence celebrated as heroic acts of war, and others prosecuted as crimes? Projects may interrogate why, where and how particular regimes of protection of human rights, or accountability for international crimes, are applied, and who the critical actors are in such decision-making. Dissertations that will benefit from this conceptual focus could include projects that critically evaluate, for example: international political, humanitarian, and military interventions; peacekeeping missions; resettlement policies and aid programs; conflict resolution and post-conflict reconstruction projects; historical memory and landscapes of commemoration; transitional justice mechanisms (such as truth commissions); international tribunals; gendered analysis of violence and security. Projects that address what might be called ‘the humanitarian-industrial-complex’ ---the network of agencies and activities that function at the intersection of disaster and humanitarianism---are encouraged, especially research relating to the condition and creation of vulnerable populations. For example, a critical approach might interrogate discourses regarding rights, humanitarianism, and sovereignty in the international community’s responses to the crises in Libya and Syria.

Through the workshop sessions in the spring and fall, we will also address and debate three key considerations in human rights research: 1) security in the field for research informants and the researcher, 2) the handling and interpreting of sensitive and conflicting data, such as testimonies influenced by trauma, political and social repression and manipulation, and 3) the critical epistemological tools to identify what research problems can be feasibly and ethically addressed in complex and conflictive environments.

Applicants are welcome from any discipline. We invite scholars who employ diverse methodologies, include historical and contemporary case studies; discourse analysis; textual legal analysis; comparative social science methods including interviews, participant observation, process tracing and quantitative analysis; ethnography; genealogy, and Geographic Information Sciences. The envisioned multidisciplinary community will help ensure that dissertations are oriented, from their conception through publication, towards broader audiences of theorists, practitioners, and other interlocutors, across geographical regions.