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. In so doing, it encourages students to recognize how human rights are intertwined with fields as disparate as postcolonial literature and medical ethics, as well as with the more familiar fields of political science and international law.
Declaring the Minor
The first steps in declaring the HRI minor are to fill out the application form, the program worksheet and meet with a Human Rights Interdisciplinary Minor advisor to get the forms approved and have yourself declared in CalCentral.
The department encourages students to meet with an HRI minor 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.
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
- All courses taken to fulfill the minor requirements below must be taken for graded credit.
- A minimum of three of the upper division courses taken to fulfill the minor requirements must be completed at UC Berkeley.
- A minimum grade point average (GPA) of 2.0 is required for courses used to fulfill the minor requirements.
- Courses used to fulfill the minor requirements may be applied toward the Seven-Course Breadth requirement, for Letters & Science students.
- No more than one upper division course may be used to simultaneously fulfill requirements for a student's major and minor programs.
- 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.
- All minor requirements must be completed within the unit ceiling. (For further information regarding the unit ceiling, please see the College Requirements tab.)
A complete Human Rights Interdisciplinary minor application consists of:
- Minor Application Form and Program Worksheet.
- A current CalCentral (unofficial) transcript with your name printed on it. Please highlight any courses that apply to the minor. Also, indicate which course (if any) will overlap between the minor and your major.
- Copies of transcripts from other colleges attended (if course work taken there will be counted for the minor). Electronic transcripts are accepted only if the relevant coursework also appears in your transfer credit summary on CalCentral.. If it does not appear oin CalCentral, we require official transcripts. (We do not have access to transcripts in the Registrar’s Office.)
- The Petition for Confirmation of Minor Program Completed signed by the student and the major adviser.
Requirements
Code | Title | Units |
---|---|---|
Select one of the following three courses: | ||
HISTORY C187 | The History and Practice of Human Rights (Choose one of the following three courses:) | 4 |
GLOBAL 173 | International Human Rights | 4 |
LEGALST 154 | Human Rights, Research & Practice | 4 |
Select three courses from the Human Rights Interdisciplinary Minor course list. | ||
Complete the Human Rights Interdisciplinary Minor capstone: | ||
UGIS 156 | Human Rights Interdisciplinary Minor Capstone Workshop (and thesis project) | 3 |
Permanently Approved HRI Minor Courses
The courses below may be counted in any semester they are offered. There may be other courses available on campus that are suitable for the minor, however, such courses will require a curriculum petition.
Code | Title | Units |
---|---|---|
AFRICAM 111 | Race, Class, and Gender in the United States | 3 |
AFRICAM 112B | Political and Economic Development in the Third World | 4 |
AFRICAM 116 | Slavery and African American Life Before 1865 | 4 |
AFRICAM 118 | The Slave Trade and Culture in the Modern Atlantic World | 3 |
AFRICAM 125 | History of the Civil Rights Movement | 4 |
AFRICAM 139 | Selected Topics of African American Social Organization and Institutions | 1-4 |
AFRICAM/RELIGST 173AC | Gandhi and the Civil Rights Movement in America | 3 |
AMERSTD 139AC | Civil Rights and Social Movements in U.S. History | 4 |
ANTHRO 150 | Utopia: Art and Power in Modern Times | 4 |
ANTHRO 189 | Special Topics in Social/Cultural Anthropology (Mass Violence, Representation, and Justice) | 4 |
ANTHRO 189A | Special Topics in Cultural Anthropology/Area (Topics include: Poverty and Rights in the Asian-Pacific AND Poverty, Culture, and Rights) | 4 |
ASAMST 125 | Contemporary Issues of Southeast Asian Refugees in the U.S | 4 |
ASAMST 141 | Law in the Asian American Community | 4 |
CHICANO 174 | Chicanos, Law, and Criminal Justice | 4 |
EA LANG 101 | Catastrophe, Memory, and Narrative: Comparative Responses to Atrocity in the Twentieth Century | 4 |
ECON 133 | Global Inequality and Growth | 4 |
ENGLISH 175 | Literature and Disability | 4 |
ESPM 155AC | Sociology and Political Ecology of Agro-Food Systems | 4 |
ESPM 162 | Health, Medicine, Society and Environment | 4 |
ESPM 163AC | Environmental Justice: Race, Class, Equity, and the Environment | 4 |
ESPM 169 | International Environmental Politics | 4 |
ETH STD 144AC | Racism and the U.S. Law: Historical Treatment of Peoples of Color | 4 |
ETH STD 173AC | Indigenous Peoples in Global Inequality | 4 |
GWS 102 | Transnational Feminism | 4 |
GEOG 130 | Food and the Environment | 4 |
GEOG 159AC | The Southern Border | 4 |
GLOBAL 173 | International Human Rights | 4 |
GPP 115 | Global Poverty: Challenges and Hopes in the New Millennium | 4 |
GWS 141 | Interrogating Global Economic "Development" | 4 |
HISTART 190F | Special Topics in Fields of Art History: 19th-20th Century | 3-4 |
HISTORY C139C/AMERSTD 139AC | Civil Rights and Social Movements in U.S. History | 4 |
HISTORY 178 | History of the Holocaust | 4 |
HISTORY C187 | The History and Practice of Human Rights | 4 |
ISF 100E | The Globalization of Rights, Values, and Laws in the 21st Century | 4 |
L & S C180U | Wealth and Poverty | 4 |
LEGALST 107 | Theories of Justice | 4 |
LEGALST 132AC | Immigration and Citizenship | 4 |
LEGALST 138 | The Supreme Court and Public Policy | 4 |
LEGALST 140 | Property and Liberty | 4 |
LEGALST 190 | Seminar on Topics in Law and Society (Law, Rights and Minorities) | 1-4 |
LEGALST 154 | Human Rights, Research & Practice | 4 |
PACS 126 | International Human Rights | 4 |
PACS 127 | Human Rights and Global Politics | 4 |
POL SCI 123S | Special Topics in International Relations (Gender and International Human Rights) | 4 |
POL SCI 124A | War! | 4 |
POL SCI 124C | Ethics and Justice in International Affairs | 4 |
POL SCI 157B | Constitutional Law of the United States | 4 |
SOCIOL 115G | Global Health and Social Justice | 4 |
SOCIOL 124 | Sociology of Poverty | 4 |
SOCIOL 130 | Social Inequalities | 4 |
SOCIOL 140 | Politics and Social Change | 4 |
UGIS 110 | Introduction to Disability Studies | 3 |
Faculty and Instructors
Contact Information
Associate Dean, Interdisciplinary Social Sciences
Max Auffhammer
101 Stephens Hall
Undergraduate Academic Adviser
Nithya Raghunathan
101 Stephens Hall
Phone: 510-643-7282