University of Essex

HU932-7-SP-CO:
Human Rights and the Arts

The details

Year: 2023/24

Department: Human Rights Centre (Essex Law School)

Campus: Colchester Campus

Term: Spring

Level: Postgraduate: Level 7

Status: Current

Start date: Monday 15 January 2024

End date: Friday 22 March 2024

Credits: 15

Last updated: 20 October 2023

Requisites for this module

Pre-requisites: (none)

Co-requisites: (none)

Pre and / or co-requisites: (none)

Prohibited modules: (none)

Key module (requisite for): (none)

Key module for

(none)

Module description

This module will provide students with an interdisciplinary introduction to and engagement with the relationship between human rights and the arts. The module consists of separate sessions which focus upon the specific contributions which a carefully selected range of artistic forms and genres have engaged with and contributed to the global defence of human rights. The module is team taught by and will draw upon the expertise of colleagues in the areas of contemporary art, cultural studies, dance, literature, mass media and photography.

Module aims

The module has a number of principal aims. These include:

1. Provide a comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the complex relationship between the arts and human rights.
2. To enable students to develop a sound understanding of a carefully selected range of artistic forms and movements and their contribution to the global defence of human rights.
3. To enable students to make informed connections between human rights principles and instruments and ongoing topical debates surrounding the importance of art as an instrument for social justice and human rights.
4. To enable students to situate key debates surrounding the significance and importance of art within the wider human rights PGT syllabus.
5. Provide the core component of the proposed new MATPHR pathway in human rights and the arts.

Module learning outcomes

1. Gain a satisfactory knowledge of core debates within and perspectives upon the role of art in the global protection of human rights.
2. Gain a satisfactory knowledge of a selection of significant artistic forms, genres and activities and the contribution they make to the protection of human rights.
3. Gain a satisfactory knowledge of how human rights has explicitly influenced and contributed to the a selection of artistic forms, genres and activities.
4. Gain a satisfactory knowledge of how the violation of human rights has directly targeted peoples’ cultural and artistic institutions and resources.
5. Gain a satisfactory knowledge and understanding of some of the core challenges which confront artists in their attempts to support human rights. appeals to identity raise for the existing human rights regime.

Module information

Week One: An introduction to human rights and the arts
Week Two: Human rights in literature
Week Three: Dance and human Rights
Week Four: Photography and human Rights
Week Five: The art of protest movements
Week Six: Art and socioenvironmental conflicts on Latin America
Week Seven: Holocaust and art restitution
Week One: An introduction to human rights and the arts
Week Two: Human rights in literature
Week Three: Dance and human Rights
Week Four: Photography and human Rights
Week Five: The art of protest movements
Week Six: Art and socioenvironmental conflicts on Latin America
Week Seven: Holocaust and art restitution
Week Eight: The politics of contemporary arts
Week nine: Colonial past: restitutions of heritage and artistic intervention to re-generate colonial heritage

Learning and teaching methods

The module will consist of a weekly two-hour in person lecture/seminar.

Bibliography

Rorty, R. (1998) ‘Human Rights, Rationality, and Sentimentality’, in Truth and Progress. Cambridge University Press, pp. 167–185. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511625404.010.
Nussbaum, M.C. (2018) The monarchy of fear: a philosopher looks at our political crisis. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Available at: https://search-ebscohost-com.uniessexlib.idm.oclc.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=1848527&site=ehost-live&authtype=sso&custid=s9814295.
Bennoune, K. (2020) ‘Dignifying, Restoring, and Reimagining International Law and Justice Through Connections with Arts and Culture’, AJIL Unbound, 114, pp. 108–110. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1017/aju.2020.23.
Exploring the connections between arts and human rights - Meeting report | European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (no date). Available at: https://fra.europa.eu/en/publication/2017/exploring-connections-between-arts-and-human-rights-meeting-report.
Gready, P. and Dudai, R. (no date) ‘Another World is Possible: Arts-based Human Rights Interventions in Israel.’ Available at: https://artrightstruth.com/blog/another-world-is-possible.
Stevenson, N. (2014) ‘Human(e) Rights and the Cosmopolitan Imagination: Questions of Human Dignity and Cultural Identity’, Cultural Sociology, 8(2), pp. 180–196. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/1749975513494879.
Cole, C.M. (2014) ‘At the Convergence of Transitional Justice and Art’, International Journal of Transitional Justice, 8(2), pp. 314–322. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/ijtj/iju005.
Art Rights Truth: Can The Arts Save Human Rights Project (no date). Available at: https://artrightstruth.com/home.
‘The British Library‘, Yinka Shonibare CBE, 2014 | Tate (no date). Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/shonibare-the-british-library-t15250.
Embrace Diaologue - ReD UK (no date). Available at: https://uk.rodeemoseldialogo.org/.
African Network Against Extrajudicial Killings and Forced Disappearances, Memory House Project (no date). Available at: https://www.aneked.org/memory-house.
Transitional justice art: the creative memory of the Syrian revolution (no date). Available at: https://beta.creativememory.org/.
The Basics of Bertsolaritza: Performative oral art in Spain (expressions of dissent in the Basque Bertsolaritza) (no date). Available at: https://festival.si.edu/blog/2016/the-basics-of-bertsolaritza/.
Dawes, J. (2009) ‘Human Rights in Literary Studies’, Human Rights Quarterly, 31(2), pp. 394–409. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1353/hrq.0.0071.
Nikolaidis, C. (2022) ‘The poetry of rights’, Law and Humanities, 16(2), pp. 289–310. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/17521483.2022.2096766.
Blake, W. (no date) To Mrs Ann Flaxman. Available at: https://www.poetrynook.com/poem/mrs-ann-flaxman#google_vignette.
One Billion Rising (no date). Available at: https://www.onebillionrising.org/about/dance/.
Mills, D. (2016) Dance and politics: moving beyond boundaries. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press. Available at: https://www-degruyter-com.uniessexlib.idm.oclc.org/document/doi/10.7765/9781526105172/html.
‘“A rapist in your path”: Chilean protest song becomes feminist anthem - YouTube’ (no date). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5AAscy7qbI.
Serafini, P. (2020) ‘“A rapist in your path”: Transnational feminist protest and why (and how) performance matters’, European Journal of Cultural Studies, 23(2), pp. 290–295. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/1367549420912748.
Forsythe, W. (no date) ‘Human Writes Dance Performance - YouTube.’ Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTsD8WdqjFw.
‘Human Writes - William Forsythe Recreation/interpretation - YouTube’ (no date). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S62tdMFfPA4.
EmmaGrace Skove-Epes, Kendall Thomas, Thomas Keenan, Mark Franko (2010) ‘Dialogues: Genesis and Concept of “Human Writes”’, Dance Research Journal, 42(2), pp. 1–10. Available at: https://www-jstor-org.uniessexlib.idm.oclc.org/stable/23266895?sid=primo.
Waldorf, L., Marambio, H.-U. and Blades, H. (2023) ‘Performing/Informing Rights: Mixing Inclusive Dance and Human Rights Education for Disabled People in Sri Lanka and Nepal’, Journal of Human Rights Practice, 15(3). Available at: https://academic-oup-com.uniessexlib.idm.oclc.org/jhrp.
Flood, C. and Grindon, G. (eds) (2014) Disobedient objects. London: V&A Publishing.
Holmes, B. (no date) Liar’s Poker. Available at: http://subsol.c3.hu/subsol_2/contributors3/holmestext.html.
Blackmore, L. (2020) ‘Turbulent River Times: Art and Hydropower in South America’s Extractive Zones’, in L. Blackmorem and L. Go´mez (eds) Liquid ecologies in Latin American and Caribbean art. New York: Taylor & Francis, pp. 13–34. Available at: https://www-taylorfrancis-com.uniessexlib.idm.oclc.org/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780367199005-3/turbulent-river-times-lisa-blackmore?context=ubx&refId=5d95be84-ce99-4a14-9709-f2c85344bf86.
entre—ríos (no date). Available at: https://entre-rios.net/.
Shohini Chaudhuri (2014) ‘Introduction’, in Cinema of the Dark Side: Atrocity and the Ethics of Film Spectatorship. Edinburgh University Press. Available at: https://www-jstor-org.uniessexlib.idm.oclc.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctt14brxd1.5.
Chaudhuri, S. (2022) ‘Witnessing’, in Crisis Cinema in the Middle East. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, pp. 27–56. Available at: https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350190542.ch-001.
Pageant of Great Women, Bristol | Historical Pageants (no date). Available at: https://historicalpageants.ac.uk/pageants/1009/.
The Vote - LSE Digital Library (no date). Available at: https://lse-atom.arkivum.net/uklse-dl1wr03011.
Women’s suffrage (no date). Available at: https://www.lse.ac.uk/library/collection-highlights/womens-suffrage.
Anand, A. (2015) Sophia: princess, suffragette, revolutionary. London, United Kingdom: Bloomsbury. Available at: https://app.kortext.com/Shibboleth.sso/Login?entityID=https://idp0.essex.ac.uk/shibboleth&target=https://app.kortext.com/borrow/1013720.
About Firstsite - Our Mission & Vision | Firstsite (no date). Available at: https://firstsite.uk/about-firstsite/.
Art is where the home is: activity packs (no date). Available at: https://firstsite.uk/art-is-where-the-home-is/.
King’s College London (ed.) (2017) ‘The civic role of arts organisations: A literature review for the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.’ Available at: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/cultural/resources/reports/cgf-civic-role-literature-review-final.pdf.
Modern Art Oxford, ‘Voices: A creative investigation into Human Rights’ (no date). Available at: https://www.modernartoxford.org.uk/mao-studio/blog/voices-human-rights-research.
Charlotte Higgins (2023) ‘Culture is not trivial, it’s about who we are. That’s why Labour needs a plan to save the arts’, The Guardian [Preprint]. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/nov/26/culture-labour-plan-save-the-arts-tory-cuts.

The above list is indicative of the essential reading for the course.
The library makes provision for all reading list items, with digital provision where possible, and these resources are shared between students.
Further reading can be obtained from this module's reading list.

Assessment items, weightings and deadlines

Coursework / exam	Description	Deadline	Coursework weighting
Coursework	Essay (HU932 Human Rights and Arts)		100%

Exam format definitions

Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary, for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.

Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.

Overall assessment

Coursework	Exam
100%	0%

Reassessment

Coursework	Exam
100%	0%

Module supervisor and teaching staff

Supervisor: Prof Lars Waldorf, email: lars.waldorf@essex.ac.uk.

Teaching staff:

Contact details: Law Education Office, pgtlawqueries@essex.ac.uk

Availability

Available to incoming Essex Abroad / Exchange students: Yes

Available to Outside Option: Yes

Available to Audit: Yes

External examiner

No external examiner information available for this module.

Resources

Teaching materials: Available via Moodle

Lecture recording: Of 18 hours, 18 (100%) hours available to students:
0 hours not recorded due to service coverage or fault;
0 hours not recorded due to opt-out by lecturer(s), module, or event type.

Further information

Department website: Human Rights Centre (Essex Law School)

Disclaimer: The University makes every effort to ensure that this information on its Module Directory is accurate and up-to-date. Exceptionally it can be necessary to make changes, for example to programmes, modules, facilities or fees. Examples of such reasons might include a change of law or regulatory requirements, industrial action, lack of demand, departure of key personnel, change in government policy, or withdrawal/reduction of funding. Changes to modules may for example consist of variations to the content and method of delivery or assessment of modules and other services, to discontinue modules and other services and to merge or combine modules. The University will endeavour to keep such changes to a minimum, and will also keep students informed appropriately by updating our programme specifications and module directory.

The full Procedures, Rules and Regulations of the University governing how it operates are set out in the Charter, Statutes and Ordinances and in the University Regulations, Policy and Procedures.

Module Directory

HU932-7-SP-CO:Human Rights and the Arts