The Human Rights Curriculum Development Project

On Saturday, November 21, 2009, the University of Chicago Human Rights Program hosted a round table on human rights teaching with faculty and top administrators from human rights programs in the liberal arts from around the country. With the funding from the original "Big Question" grant from the Teagle Foundation, the U of C Human Rights Program brought in participants from Columbia University, Macalester College, University of Minnesota, University of Iowa, Grinnell College, University of Connecticut, University of Dayton, Duke University, Webster University, University of California - Berkeley, Bard College, and University of Wisconsin. The discussion focused on disciplinary and general-education perspectives in teaching human rights; on the future role of human rights in liberal arts education; and on the issue of academic education and skills training in universities and colleges. A more detailed summary of the discussions will be posted on this website soon.

The Human Rights Program of the University of Chicago, in conjunction with Macalester College and the Midwest Faculty Seminar, has been awarded a grant from the Teagle Foundation to determine how human rights education can advance answers to the “Big Question”: What can I do to right the wrongs of the world? A grant from the Teagle Foundation will support a Working Group of 18 – 20 faculty members who will meet over a two year period to address this question in an on-going discussion of and research into contemporary human rights problems as well as comparative pedagogy and curriculum development.

This website is intended as an open, online information center that will include papers commissioned for the Working Group sessions, a record of the Working Group discussions, and a set of syllabi for human rights courses based in the humanities and social sciences that can be adapted by other colleges and universities.