Postgraduate Module Descriptor


POLM077: The Politics of Human Rights

This module descriptor refers to the 2016/7 academic year.

Module Aims

The module will: 
1) familiarise you with critical perspectives on the politics of human rights within contemporary political theory; 
2) examine the fruitfulness of the concept of the political for understanding the politics of human rights; 
3) reflect on the nature of politics and its thematization within different traditions of political thought.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

This module's assessment will evaluate your achievement of the ILOs listed here - you will see reference to these ILO numbers in the details of the assessment for this module.

On successfully completing the programme you will be able to:
Module-Specific Skills1. critically evaluate what is political (and, potentially, apolitical, unpolitical or anti-political) about human rights;
2. interpret a human rights issue (broadly understood) in terms of one of the key concepts (e.g. biopolitics or dissensus) discussed on this moodule
Discipline-Specific Skills3. work with complex political concepts in order to (re)describe and evaluate political phenomena
4. evaluate the relative insightfulness of competing theoretical interpretations of political phenomena;
Personal and Key Skills5. independently design and undertake advanced research
6. communicate effectively in speech and writing