The Major in Human Rights Studies at King’s University College is dedicated to the interrogation of intersections between culture, conflict, citizenship and rights within a global framework. This program is designed to place the study of culture, conflict and the history of human rights within the broader, co-disciplinary context of an evolving global citizenship. Through a collaborative disciplinary approach, the program challenges students to explore the myriad nature of human rights and citizenship through various disciplinary and theoretical perspectives which are grounded in the Liberal Arts and King’s tradition of Catholic Higher Education. These are: historical-political, philosophical-ethical and literary-cultural.

The critical study of Human Rights offers students the opportunity to investigate the functioning of relevant institutions so as to participate in, or challenge this order. The module facilitates their exploration of Human Rights, and the violations of those rights, through various Social Science and Humanities lenses. They will be better informed and better able to make connections between the historical development of Human Rights, their political and legal frameworks, their dissemination and critique through cultural production and gendered contexts, their philosophical and ethical groundings, their religious manifestations and their practical applications. The curriculum requires students to engage in the debates that currently occupy Human Rights scholars and practitioners: on the origins of Human Rights, the extent to which these rights are universal or culturally relative, the efficacy of the global Human Rights framework, and the fragility of Human Rights as an ideal. These students will apply their skills and knowledge as they enter careers in the Law, in Policing, in Education and Health Care, and Governance and Policy Development. Their heightened consciousness of the fragility of Human Rights-of their importance as well as their limitations-especially in reference to vulnerable populations, will be applicable to a wide spectrum of possible career choices.