Your guide to all things Human Rights (program) related at Barnard! 

If you’re anything like the humanities majors in Bwog, the fact that Barnard has an entire department dedicated to studying “Human Rights” has long been a selling point. That said, as you approach the major declaration deadline, you might be wondering if the program is really the right move for you. Not to worry! Bwog is here to help with the compiled wisdom of our numerous Rightsers (a name we made up for ourselves for the purpose of this article).

At Barnard, the Human Rights major is unique in that it’s what’s called a “joint major,” meaning anyone who declares a Human Rights major must complete it in concert with a primary major. This status also means that the Human Rights major requirements are significantly less strenuous than other departments; the major can usually be completed in six-to-seven classes, and up to three of those classes can be overlapping with the requirements for your primary major. That means if you’re an English major, for example, as many as three of your Human Rights requirements can be fulfilled by classes you’re also taking for your English major, so long as both of your advisors approve. This also means that come Senior Thesis season, most students complete one thesis that encompasses both majors (though, there are definitely ways to get around this!). 

The Human Rights department is also one of the smallest at Barnard, with only five full-time faculty members (though, many faculty members from other departments also work with this one). Because of this, the department has significant overlap with Columbia’s Human Rights program—in fact, most HRTS-coded Human Rights courses (i.e., those not cross-listed with another department) come from the Columbia side of campus, and most majors take a mix of Barnard and Columbia courses. The vast majority of Human Rights majors at Barnard are advised by J.C. Salyer, who is also the current program director. 

Overview of Classes

Speaking from experience, the flexible “joint major” structure is a double-edged sword: while it does mean you have fewer requirements to complete, it also means that completing the requirements usually takes some extra planning on your part. Human Rights, like most Barnard Humanities programs, is incredibly interdisciplinary and allows students to take courses from a whole range of departments—Political Science, Anthropology, Economics, WGSS, Philosophy, Sociology, Education, and many more—to fulfill their requirements. However, Barnard’s Human Rights department itself does not always have the most up-to-date list of course offerings from each of those intersecting departments, so in order to make the most out of the program, you’ll often end up filling out a petition form explaining why a particular course should count toward the Human Rights major. More on that under the “related courses” section of this article! 

Requirements

• One Introductory Course: HRTS-BC1025: Human Rights in Theory and Practice, or HRTS-UN3001: Introduction to Human Rights
  • All Human Rights majors will start by taking one of these two introductory courses. As is the case in most departments, these courses are designed to give an overview of Human Rights as an academic subject while helping you as the student decide if it’s the right fit for you.
    
• Two Core Courses
  • All students will take two courses that are focused entirely on human rights as an academic field or a specific human rights issue. Generally, these courses are those offered directly by the Human Rights departments at Barnard or Columbia, though some courses from adjacent departments will also fill this requirement if they are entirely focused on human rights. These courses are usually pre-determined by the department—while it’s certainly possible to petition for a new course to count as your core requirement, the criteria are more stringent.
  • Pro-Tip: Columbia generally has more robust offerings when it comes to core courses, though these courses tend to be on the larger side (and for some reason, are often held in the evening). Barnard typically only offers a very limited number of core courses per semester, though they have attempted to expand their offerings in recent semesters. All that to say, prioritize finding the courses that interest you most and that work best with your existing schedule. Since there are only two core course requirements, you have plenty of time to fulfill them! 
    
• Three Related Courses
  • The related course requirement is a little more lax—all students will take three courses in a subject somehow related to human rights. Beyond that, the parameters are pretty wide! These courses can come from the same list as the core courses, but they can also come from any number of adjacent humanities departments, so long as they somehow tie into a human rights issue. 
  • Pro-Tip: While the Human Rights department does attempt to keep a running list of all the related courses, it’s not always entirely up-to-date. In Bwog’s experience, we’ve had to petition for most of the courses we’ve used to fulfill this requirement. (If you’re wondering what it means to “petition” a course, it’s very simple! You’ll fill out a form emailed to you by the department, explaining why a particular course has a strong enough human rights-related theme to count as a related course, and sending them a copy of the syllabus. They will get back to you later in the same semester and let you know if your request has been approved!). Generally, as long as you can make a strong case for why a particular course has a human rights theme, petitioning is not difficult at all! While that does mean it can be tricky to search for related courses, it also means you can really tailor the major to your interests. Plus, once you successfully petition a course, other students can use it as a related course in the future. We recommend searching the catalogs for Political Science, WGSS (Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies), Anthropology, and CSER (Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race) for possible related courses. 
    • Extra-pro-Pro-Tip: This requirement is typically where the three-class overlap rule will come in handy—check your primary major ahead of time to see if there’s anything that sounds like it could be a related course for Human Rights.  
      
• Senior Capstone Project
  • As a Human Rights major, your senior capstone project will typically follow the guidelines set by your primary major, but its content will intersect with human rights in some way. For example, one Bwogger completed a thesis about Indigenous cultural rights to satisfy the senior capstone for both American Studies and Human Rights simultaneously. However, if you find that to be entirely impossible (or just have your heart set on a thesis topic that has nothing to do with human rights), there are some other ways to go about completing your major. Of course, always discuss with your adviser ahead of time, but generally, students who can’t create an overlapping thesis can instead opt to complete the capstone for their primary major as planned while simultaneously taking a research seminar in Human Rights during their senior year, and produce an extended term paper in lieu of a second thesis (so, think of it as a third core course requirement, with the added task of a longer research paper attached).   

Class Recommendations 

• Core Courses: 
  • ANTH-BC3911: The Social Contexts of U.S. Immigration Law and Policy
  • CLEN-GU4550: Narrative and Human Rights
  • HRTS-UN3940: History of Human Rights
  • HRTS-GU4270: Social Media and Human Rights
  • POLS-BC3521: Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.
    
• Related Courses:*
  *Again, this one comes with a couple of caveats: A). You can take any core course to count as a related course, and B). You can petition just about any course with a viable Human Rights theme to count for this requirement. That said, here are some of Bwog’s favorite courses that we’ve successfully petitioned to count as Related Courses!
  • AMST-BC3220: Abortion in Context
  • CSER-UN3303: Whiteness, Sentiment, and Political Belonging
  • CSER-UN3924: Latin American and Latina/o Social Movements
  • HIST-UN2533: US Lesbian & Gay History
  • RELI-UN3415: Climate, Religion, and the Anthropocene
  • WMST-BC1050: Women and Health
  • WMST-BC2140: Critical Approaches in Social and Cultural Theory
  • WMST-UN3125: Intro to Sexuality Studies
  • WMST-BC3514: Historical Approaches to Feminist Questions.

Last-Minute Tips 

While it can seem intimidating to choose a major where so much of the path is undetermined and relies on your own drive, it’s absolutely worth the extra planning! We’re fortunate to be at one of the few universities in the country to have not one, but two specific academic departments dedicated to Human Rights, and on the Barnard side, we’re even more fortunate that the joint major structure makes it easy to add Human Rights to any course of study. So, definitely take some extra time ahead of each registration period to carefully plan your course of study (the department website and CU Directory of Classes will be your best friends in this pursuit), but don’t be afraid to really tailor the major to your interests.

Antique Barnard Postcard via Bwog Archives