Admission requirements
This course is part of the (Res)MA History Programme. It is not accessible for BA students.
Description
Human rights are since their ‘birth’ essentially contested concepts. Recently, they became subject of intense debates in historiography. Sam Moyns provocative book The Last Utopia (2010) made in particular clear how important it is to investigate precisely which meaning human rights have been given in a particular context. Moyn argues that it is only since the 1970s that human rights have been defined as liberal freedoms based on individual dignity and protected by international law. Moyn therefore rejects long-term histories of human rights traced back e.g. to the French Revolution. Moreover, he relativizes the importance of human rights in the aftermath of the Second World War and during processes of decolonization. Of course the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was made in 1948 and the concept has since then been used, but not yet on the scale and with the same meaning as it has had since the 1970s. During this seminar we critically evaluate Moyns perspective by discussing related literature with other theoretical underpinnings, alternative methods and new empirical findings, and by applicating acquired insights to case studies.
Course objectives
General learning objectives
The student has acquired:
1) The ability to independently identify and select literature, using traditional and modern techniques;
2) The ability to independently identify and select sources, using traditional and modern techniques;
3) The ability to analyse and evaluate a corpus of sources with a view to addressing a particular historical problem;
4) The ability to analyse and evaluate literature with a view to addressing a particular historical problem;
5) The ability to independently formulate a clear and well-argued research question, taking into account the theory and method of the field and to reduce this question to accessible and manageable sub-questions;
6) The ability to independently set up and carry out an original research project that can make a contribution to existing scholarly debates;
7) The ability to give a clear and well-founded oral and written report on research results in correct English, when required, or Dutch, meeting the criteria of the discipline;
8) The ability to participate in current debates in the specialisation;
9) The ability to provide constructive feedback to and formulate criticism of the work of others and the ability to evaluate the value of such criticism and feedback on one’s own work and incorporate it;
10) (ResMA only:) The ability to participate in a discussion of the theoretical foundations of the discipline.
Learning objectives, pertaining to the specialisation
11) Thorough knowledge and comprehension of one of the specialisations or subspecialisations as well as of the historiography of the specialisation, focusing particularly on the following: in the specialisation Political Culture and National Identitieson political practices, symbols and perceptions, nationalism, and national identities in a cultural and societal context from 1800;
12) Thorough knowledge and comprehension of the theoretical, conceptual and methodological aspects of the specialisation or subspecialisation in question, with a particular focus on the following: in the specialisation Political Culture and National Identities on international comparison and transfer; the analysis of the specific perspectives of secondary studies; a cultural-historical approach of politics and a political-historical approach of culture;
Learning objectives, pertaining to this Research Seminar
The student:
13) Will acquire insights into historiographical controversies in the historiography of human rights
14) Will gain research practice in contributing to historiography from a case study approach
15) (ResMA only) Will gain research practice in contributing to historiography with new theories and/or methods
Timetable
The timetable is available on the MA History website
Mode of instruction
- Seminar
Course Load
Total course load 10 EC x 28 hours = 280 hours
Tutorials: 14 x 2 hours = 28 hours
Study of compulsory literature: 72 hours
Assignment(s): 180 hours
Assessment method
Assessment
Written paper (ca. 7500 words, based on research in primary sources, including footnotes and bibliography)
measured learning objectives: 1-8, (10), 11-14, (15)Oral presentation
measured learning objectives: 3-7, 13-14, (15)Assignment 1 (review literature)
measured learning objectives: 4, 8, 13, (15)Assignment 2 (peer review)
measured learning objectives: 9
Weighing
Written paper: 70 %
Oral presentation: 10%
Assignment 1: 5%
Assignment 2: 5%
Participation: 10%
The final grade for the course is established by determining the weighted average with the additional requirement that the written paper must always be sufficent.
Resit
Should the overall mark be unsatisfactory, the paper is to be revised after consultation with the instructor.
Exam review
How and when a review of the written paper will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the results at the latest.
Blackboard
Blackboard will be used for:
Communication about practicalities of the course
Peer review
Reading list
Samuel Moyn, The Last Utopia. Human Rights in History (Harvard 2012)
All additional literature is electronically accessible through Leiden University Library or will be made available through Blackboard.
Registration
Enrolment through uSis is mandatory.
General information about uSis is available in English and Dutch
Registration Studeren à la carte and Contractonderwijs
Not applicable
Contact
Remarks
none