About the Program

Minor

Human rights have become the moral language of today, the idiom in which we discuss our common humanity and weigh competing claims for resources, rights and protections. The Human Rights Interdisciplinary (HRI) Minor at UC Berkeley allows students to shape their education around coursework which investigates the legal, political, historical, economic, social, psychological, and representational dynamics of human rights.

Helping undergraduates explore issues via multiple forms of thought and media of expression—through literature as well as politics, journalism as well as law, film as well as anthropology—the HRI minor emphasizes the many different intellectual spaces in which human rights questions are currently being posed.

UC Berkeley is already a fertile ground for human rights study and work. The campus houses the Human Rights Center, which conducts human rights investigations and promotes research around the globe, The 2048 Project, an interactive website created by faculty at Boalt Hall School of Law allows students to learn about and participate in the evolution of human rights, and The War Crimes Studies Center monitors war crimes worldwide. Berkeley students undertake human rights related internships through a number of campus programs, including CITRUS (Information Technology Research in the Interests of Society), Peace and Conflict Studies, and the Global Poverty Minor, to name just a few.

Dozens of individual faculty members do research into human rights issues, and over one hundred courses across campus are offered each semester which directly treat human rights, while dozens more are indirectly related.

The Human Rights minor offers a teaching program specifically focused on human rights but open to myriad disciplinary approaches and welcoming students from many corners of campus. In so doing, it encourages students to recognize how human rights are intertwined with fields as disparate as post-colonial literature and medical ethics, as well as with the more familiar fields of politics and international law.

Declaring the Minor

The first step in declaring the HRI minor is to fill out an Intent to Declare HRI Minor form and to meet with an HRI Minor faculty adviser to get the form approved.

The department encourages students to meet with an HRI minor faculty adviser early in their academic careers. Advisers will help craft a plan of study, approve elective courses, and help students connect with the faculty members whose work best fits their academic interests.

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Minor Requirements

Students who have a strong interest in an area of study outside their major often decide to complete a minor program. These programs have set requirements and are noted officially on the transcript in the memoranda section, but they are not noted on diplomas.

General Guidelines

1. All courses taken to fulfill the minor requirements below must be taken for graded credit.
2. A minimum of three of the upper division courses taken to fulfill the minor requirements must be completed at UC Berkeley.
3. A minimum grade point average (GPA) of 2.0 is required for courses used to fulfill the minor requirements.
4. Courses used to fulfill the minor requirements may be applied toward the Seven-Course Breadth requirement, for Letters & Science students.
5. No more than one upper division course may be used to simultaneously fulfill requirements for a student's major and minor programs.
6. All minor requirements must be completed prior to the last day of finals during the semester in which you plan to graduate. If you cannot finish all courses required for the minor by that time, please see a College of Letters & Science adviser.
7. All minor requirements must be completed within the unit ceiling. (For further information regarding the unit ceiling, please see the College Requirements tab.)

Requirements

Courses

Human Rights Interdisciplinary Minor (HRI)

Permanently Approved HRI Minor Electives 

The courses below may be counted in any semester they are offered. Each semester, the minor posts a list of those permanently approved electives being offered plus any additional courses that have been approved for that semester only. Students should refer to the online listings to determine past course approvals. Please note that of the three required HRI minor electives, at least one course should designated by the minor as a social sciences elective, and at least one should be a humanities elective. The third elective can come from either category. For additional information, see requirements.

Faculty and Instructors

Visiting Faculty

Ryan Edwards, Visiting Associate Professor.