Graduate Human Rights Practice Courses for Summer 2025
Summer 2025 Human Rights Practice Graduate Level Courses
Fully online
Summer I (May 19 – July 3, 2025)
HRTS 501 - Advancing Human Rights Organizations (3 units, required for MA students. Certificate students may take either 501 or 510)
Instructor: Mette Brogden, Ph. D.
The course focuses on the practical aspects of advancing human rights through civil society organizations (CSOs) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with a special emphasis on some of the dramatic transformations they have undergone in the past couple of decades. The course will cover such critical issues as: management of resources, relationships with personnel and boards of directors, marketing human rights issues, fundraising and financial management, accountability, navigating governmental corruption, program evaluation, and delivering outputs such as shadow reports and white papers.
HRTS 520: Community-based Participatory Action Research (CBPAR) (3 units elective, may substitute for HRTS 521 requirement for GBV Certificate)
Instructor: William Simmons, Ph.D.
This course focuses on how to plan and implement community-based participation action research projects relevant to protecting and advancing human rights in marginalized communities. Students will learn to work collaboratively with communities in developing research questions, choosing and implementing data collection methods, interpreting findings, and sharing/presenting of results. Community ownership of the research process and conducting research ethically will be emphasized. A wide variety of case studies of community research that resulted in empowerment and transformation will be presented. Students will work with faculty and community members on at least one community-based action research project.
HRTS 541 – Advancing Human Rights Through Documentary Media (3 units, required for Doc Media Certificate, elective for others)
Instructor: Beverly Seckinger, MFA, Professor and Documentary Filmmaker
This course surveys current models for making and using documentary media in the service of human rights practice and activism. Interrogating concepts such as witness, testimony and evidence, historical memory, trans-media storytelling and convergence, strategic partnerships and impact campaigns, and emergent participatory frameworks, the course explores a variety of approaches to media production, exhibition, distribution and advocacy. Each course module includes interactions with filmmakers and/or media activists in the field via video conferencing; exploring media products such as films, websites and online tutorials; and critical and practical readings. Students will develop term projects in consultation with the instructor.
*******The following courses require permission to enroll**********
Certificate Projects courses 3 units each (required for Certificate students, by Certificate Type)
HRTS 598a Certificate Project in HRTS and Technology
HRTS 598b Certificate Project in Gender Based Violence
HRTS 598c Certificate Project in Human Rights and Doc Media
Arrange a project with a professor with whom you want to work, and then fill out an independent study form (599 form) and send to the professor. The professor will forward the request to Mette Brogden to provide permission to enroll.
HRTS 599: Independent Study (1-3 units, elective)
Arrange a project with a professor with whom you want to work, and then fill out an independent study form (599 form) and send to the professor. The professor will forward the request to Darcy Roman-Felix to provide permission to enroll. Independent studies are useful for helping to explore a literature or a topic that prepares you for undertaking your MA capstone or Certificate Project.
HRTS 909: MA Capstone (3 units, required for MA Students)
Arrange a project with a professor with whom you want to work, and then fill out an independent study form (599 form) and send to the professor. The professor will forward the request to Darcy Roman-Felix to provide permission to enroll.
Summer II (July 7 – Aug 22, 2025)
HRTS 502 - Advancing Human Rights Non-Governmental Organizations II (3 units, elective)
Instructor: Mette Brogden, Ph.D.
Advancing Human Rights Organizations II addresses practical aspects of non-governmental organization (NGO) management and operations. Students will explore a variety of envisioning, planning, fund development, and evaluation tools commonly used by NGOs to guide, support, and govern their work. The course will also feature guest speakers talking about their work in local, regional, national or international NGOs. HRTS 502 is a highly practical, creative, interactive class to help students prepare for future NGO careers and learn to research potential positions of interest based on preferred workstyles. Major learning objectives: exploring and applying multi-revenue generation approaches to NGO sustainability; the how-to’s of project management and drafting logical frameworks to help with strategic planning and implementation.
A special focus of this class iteration: Much is rapidly changing in the NGO world with the new U.S. administration’s rapid executive orders. The fields of philanthropy and international development—which typically grant funds to NGOs—have garnered criticism for their failures to address deep causes of wicked problems, including poverty, global climate change, migration, human rights violations, and structural violence. Accordingly, we will begin the course with a quick review of the rapidly changing political environment in which NGOs must operate and generate funding and recent critiques of philanthropists as determining NGO agendas through grant programs. We will closely examine how NGOs are learning to maintain their focus on mission and vision via other methods of revenue generation, including via social media, donation solicitation, merchandising related to human rights campaigns, making and marketing products related to mission, and fee-for-service provision. Storytelling, narration, and engagement are all part of this mix, along with foraging and hunter-gatherer mindsets. Students will also learn grant writing and grants management skills for NGOs, as these remain critical skills for HRTS practitioners.
HRTS 542: Advancing Human Rights through the Arts (3 units, elective)
Instructor: Ozlem Ozgur, Ph.D.
Explores visual arts, performance, theatre, puppetry, music, dance, poetry, ritual, and arts consortia/communities/venues as sites for human rights documentation, advocacy, appreciation, critical examination, and commentary. Students will meet and talk online with guest artists and arts advocates who have crafted responses to human rights issues with cannot be "spoken of" fully or compellingly except through use of artistic non-verbal or performative actions/creations. Students will examine with guest artists the conceptualization, execution, and personal/social/ political/historical impacts of their projects. Key theoretical learnings will include use of play and as-if frames in addressing human rights, and how to explore arts' impacts. Students will acquire basic skills and create a human rights-focused art project during the class.
HRTS 543: Advancing Human Rights through Technology (3 units, required for Technology Certificate, elective for others)
Instructor: Onur Bakiner, Ph.D., M.Sc.
This course provides a broad overview of the range of technology applications used in human rights reporting, documentation, data sharing, and secure communications. Students will gain an overview of emerging technologies and applications for human rights advocacy, such as using satellite imagery, analyzing big data, working with Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and using text messaging and participatory video to build grassroots support communities.
*******The following courses require permission to enroll**********
Certificate Projects courses 3 units each (required for Certificate students, by Certificate Type)
HRTS 598a Certificate Project in HRTS and Technology
HRTS 598b Certificate Project in Gender Based Violence
HRTS 598c Certificate Project in Human Rights and Doc Media
Arrange a project with a professor with whom you want to work, and then fill out an independent study form (599 form) and send to the professor. The professor will forward the request to Mette Brogden to provide permission to enroll.
HRTS 599: Independent Study (1-3 units, elective)
Arrange a project with a professor with whom you want to work, and then fill out an independent study form (599 form) and send to the professor. The professor will forward the request to Mette Brogden to provide permission to enroll. Independent studies are useful for helping to explore a literature or a topic that prepares you for undertaking your MA capstone or Certificate Project.
HRTS 909: MA Capstone (3 units, required for MA Students)
Arrange a project with a professor with whom you want to work, and then fill out an independent study form (599 form) and send to the professor. The professor will forward the request to Mette Brogden to provide permission to enroll.