During the taught component of this course, you will be required to take the following core modules addressing sociological debates on human rights, citizenship, globalisation and identities. These modules will also give you a critical understanding of their application in a range of discourses (political, legal, academic and popular):
- Globalisation, Citizenship and Identity (20 credits)
- Human Rights and Modern Slavery (20 credits)
- Civil Society: the role of NGOs (20credits)
- Researching Global Citizenship, Identities and Human Rights (20 credits)
- Migration, Multiculturalism and Mobilisation (20 credits)
- Between Europe and the Middle East: Critical Questions of Citizenship and Identity (20 credits)
The module Civil Society: the role of NGOs involves a combination of classes and seminars featuring presentations by outside speakers who undertake research and/or advocacy work around human and citizenship rights in NGOs, international agencies, or media, and is assessed by means of a project evaluating the work of an NGO of your choice. This module builds upon and develops the School's existing links with research users and collaborators in NGOs, media and international agencies.
The dissertation is a key component of this degree. It affords you the opportunity to conduct independent research on a topic of your choice under the supervision of sociologists who are nationally and internationally known for their expertise on citizenship, national and ethnic identities, globalisation, human rights and children's rights.
The course programme offers opportunities to develop specialist understanding of human rights law; post-conflict cultures; and/or media and globalisation, rights and identities. We encourage all students to undertake voluntary work with an NGO.
The MA in Global Citizenship, Identities and Human Rights can be taken full-time over 12 months or part-time over two years.
The MA consists of taught modules totalling 120 credits (which are taken during the autumn and spring semesters) and a 60-credit dissertation (undertaken over the summer period).
The taught modules are assessed by written work of either 2 x 2,500 or 1 x 5,000 word assignments.
A dissertation of 15,000 words in length must be submitted by the end of the summer period.
This module provides a general introduction to a range of key issues in the design and conduct of social research, explores the interplay between philosophical, methodological and ethical issues in research on global citizenship, identities and human rights, and provides guidance on writing both a dissertation proposal and a dissertation. The module is taught by means of seminars and workshops. By the end of the module students will be equipped with the methodological and practical skills to critically evaluate research evidence on global citizenship, identities and human rights and to carry out independent research for their dissertation.
This module critically interrogates dominant liberal discourse on human rights. It examines the theoretical and political assumptions that underpin this discourse, paying particular attention to the ways in which the concept of ‘human rights’ is classed, gendered, raced, aged and sexualised. It then goes on to explore contemporary academic, popular and policy debate on human rights violations deemed to constitute ‘modern forms of slavery’, including trafficking, prostitution, inter-country child adoption and forced labour in a number of sectors and regions. Through an examination of when and why such phenomena are discursively constructed as ‘slavery’, the module draws attention to the socially and politically constructed nature of ‘human rights’; explores the relationship between human rights, power and hegemony under conditions of globalisation; and highlights the tension between governments’ desire to protect national sovereignty and their obligations to protect universal human rights.
This module provides students with an opportunity to develop an advanced understanding of the relevance of academic debates on globalization, citizenship, identities and human rights for social, public, and civic policy; awareness of the work of a range of human rights NGOs, and a critical appreciation of their role in the construction of civil society.
It involves a combination of seminars featuring presentations by outside speakers who undertake research and/or advocacy work around human and citizenship rights in NGOs, international agencies, or media, and classes based on a supervised critique of the interface between academic and public discourses. It is assessed by means of a project evaluating the work of an NGO of the students’ choice. It builds upon and develops the School of Sociology & Social Policy’s existing links with research users and collaborators in NGOs, media and international agencies.
It thus also provides a means through which MA students are integrated into the vibrant research culture of the School, as well as providing a forum within which students can learn about and prepare for a career in the human and citizenship rights’ NGO sector, and opportunities for dialogue, networking and exchange between students and teaching staff on the one hand, and activists and practitioners on the other.
This module will focus on two geo-political regions: Europe and the Middle East in order to explore and analyse a set of relevant discourses that pertain to understandings and experiences of citizenship and the political conditions for full citizenship. Discourses of freedom, human rights, democracy, gender and multi-culturalism will be of particular concern. These discourses will be situated within the specific Regions of Europe and the Middle East and the module will end with the case example of Turkey as a country which perhaps bridges the Middle East and Europe.
Five sessions will focus on Europe and will concentrate on neo-liberalism, historical formations of freedom and citizenship, democracy and multi-culturalism. The following five lectures on the Middle East aims introduce students to the particular challenges and opportunities that being a citizen in the Middle East provides. A central focus of this module is that citizenship is closely tied to matters of the self and gender in this geo-political region. The issue of rights and obligations is framed through a profoundly gendered lens as are matters of jurisdiction, political participation and responsibilities. The Middle East is a complex socio-political region and the diversity of the Middle East will be addressed through specific case studies that focus on a particular country, for example Egypt and political participation, Saudia Arabia and religion.