Disciplining Human Rights (abstract)

Hundreds of thousands of people work in human rights. They work for one of the international or local non-governmental organizations, international organizations, government ministries of human rights, and even corporate divisions of human rights. Despite this, it is not being taught as an academic discipline in the US. It is treated like an interdisciplinary subject in the few universities with degree programs. While about a dozen universities offer a BA in the US, there is not a single course common to them all. It is not clear that a student graduating from an interdisciplinary human rights program is leaving with a specific set of skills or body of knowledge. Thus, it is time for the nascent field of human rights to be taught as an academic discipline. The subject fits all the criteria of what it means to be a discipline and there is a strong consensus on what students should know. This agreement can be discerned from the academic literature on human rights education, the content areas being taught in the US, and from the older more rigorous curricula being offered in Europe, especially in the UK. Through research on where and how human rights is being taught throughout the world we can construct what a strong human rights curriculum should look like in the US academy. Armed with this information, pedagogy can be directed as well as research areas since there are gaps in available resources for university faculty

The perceiving process and mystical orientation : an empirical study in psychological type theory among participants at the parliament of the world's religions

A sample of 580 participants attending the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Barcelona 2004 completed the Francis-Louden Mystical Orientation Scale together with a measure of psychological type (the Francis Psychological Type Scales) in order to test the thesis based on Christopher Ross’ work that intuitive types would record significantly higher scores of mystical orientation in comparison with sensing types. The data supported Ross’ theory, and also added to the growing body of evidence supporting the relevance of psychological type theory for shaping testable hypotheses within the empirical psychology of religion

The parliament of the world's religions : who goes and why? : an empirical study of Barcelona 2004

The Parliament of the World's Religions met in 1993 (Chicago), 1999 (Cape Town), 2004 (Barcelona) and 2009 (Melbourne). The 1993 declaration affirmed that a common set of core values is found in the teachings of religion that provide the conditions for a sustainable world order. The present study provides the first detailed profile of the religious background, beliefs, and motivations of participants at the Parliament, drawing on data provided by 658 individuals who attended Barcelona 2004. These data profile a group of people committed both to their own religious and spiritual practices and open to engagement with the religious and spiritual practices of others. In such a context religious diversity functions as the generator of peace, not of conflict

Honoring Controversy: Using Real-World Problems to Teach Critical Thinking in Honors Courses

Discussing controversy is an important practice for living in a democracy. If we want to live in a pluralist society, then we have to accept differences and be able to talk in light of them. In addition to examining opinions they do not hold, honors students, perhaps more than most other undergraduates, face the possibility of disagreeing with faculty and each other in the safe and controlled environment of the seminar classroom. Since respectful disagreement is not usually modeled in TV shows or the news media, it becomes morally imperative for us as honors teachers to practice it with our students who will be leaders in and outside of academe. Using controversy to teach critical thinking in honors classrooms accomplishes two important pedagogical goals: it helps our students who already have at least a rudimentary awareness of the utility of research learn to research differences (avoiding the availability heuristic) and to accept that sometimes good reasons exist for holding differing opinions on a topic. Teaching them such skills forces them to employ higher-order thinking not only in an honors class but beyond the classroom in their lives as twenty-first-century citizens of the most powerful and influential nation in the world

Honoring Controversy: Using Real-World Problems to Teach Critical Thinking in Honors Courses

Discussing controversy is an important practice for living in a democracy. If we want to live in a pluralist society, then we have to accept differences and be able to talk in light of them. In addition to examining opinions they do not hold, honors students, perhaps more than most other undergraduates, face the possibility of disagreeing with faculty and each other in the safe and controlled environment of the seminar classroom. Since respectful disagreement is not usually modeled in TV shows or the news media, it becomes morally imperative for us as honors teachers to practice it with our students who will be leaders in and outside of academe. Using controversy to teach critical thinking in honors classrooms accomplishes two important pedagogical goals: it helps our students who already have at least a rudimentary awareness of the utility of research learn to research differences (avoiding the availability heuristic) and to accept that sometimes good reasons exist for holding differing opinions on a topic. Teaching them such skills forces them to employ higher-order thinking not only in an honors class but beyond the classroom in their lives as twenty-first-century citizens of the most powerful and influential nation in the world

Social Justice Education in Honors: Political but Non-Partisan

In Why Are Professors Liberal and Why Do Conservatives Care?, Neil Gross introduces research that suggests fifty to sixty percent of college professors are leftist or liberal, a much higher proportion than the seventeen percent of Americans in general (7). He posits the conservative fear that “bias” in higher education is a “very serious” problem (Gross 5). April Kelly-Woessner and Matthew Woessner examine studies that also show that college students are more ideologically diverse than the professoriate (498) and, further, that students tend to discredit information presented by biased professors and consider them untrustworthy sources (499). If the majority of faculty placing emphasis on social justice education (SJE) are liberal, how do we nullify the apparent conflict with the essential honors mission, as defined by the National Collegiate Honors Council (NCHC), to develop critical-thinking skills? The answer lies in the fallacy that correlation equals causation. The fact that faculty are liberal does not mean that SJE must be taught with an ideological agenda. I contend that we can and must teach social justice from a non-partisan perspective and will offer recommendations for best practices for SJE in the context of an honors program. To the question of appropriateness of SJE for honors, the NCHC goals of helping students explore “enduring questions” and teaching skills for “leadership” and “engaged citizenship” parallel objectives of SJE. Also, the LEAP Initiative of the Association of American Colleges & Universities (AAC&U), a “national public advocacy and campus action initiative,” suggests nine principles of excellence for universities, at least three of which are relevant to SJE: “to engage students in the ‘big questions,’” “to foster civic, intercultural, and ethical learning,” and to “connect knowledge with action.” Teaching SJE is thus in line with recommendations for best practices from two recognized pedagogical authorities

Basic Needs Insecurity in U.S. Colleges: Human Rights Unfulfilled

There have now been fifteen years of research on the basic needs of college students in the U.S. The studies have primarily focused on assessing the prevalence of food and housing insecurity. Determining who is responsible and finding solutions have been less emphasized. The scholarship has also not framed the problems of students’ basic needs insecurity (BNI) as human rights violations. This article argues that applying a human rights lens to the issue reveals that the rights to education, food, and shelter are not being realized, but further, higher education institutions bear considerable responsibility for addressing BNI. Human rights education will also be shown to have a role in empowering students them-selves to right these wrongs