PEOPLE'S UNIVERSITY - Human Rights, Class 4: Extensions - Social Movements and Human Rights in the US, 1945-Present

November 20, 2018
7:00pm - 7:00pm

Extensions: Social Movements and Human Rights in the US, 1945-Present

This session introduces participants to the social movement perspective on human rights. We explore three questions. In what ways have the working-class movement, the civil rights movement, the women's movement, and the LGBTQ movement in the US invoked the discourse on human rights? To what degree have these movements shaped the human rights culture of the US? To what extent has the human rights culture of the US assimilated insights from the Global South and the UN system?

Instructor Dr. Mark Frezzo is associate professor of sociology at the University of Mississippi. In The Sociology of Human Rights (Polity Press, 2014) and other publications, Frezzo explores theoretical and substantive issues in the areas of human rights, social movements, and development. His current research includes a book-in-progress, Cosmopolitanism and Social Science (Routledge 2019). He has taught a range of courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. He has served in leadership roles for the Science and Human Rights Coalition of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Human Rights Section of the American Sociological Association, and the Thematic Group on Human Rights and Global Justice of the International Sociological Association. Facebook Event.

The Ohio County Public Library's new eight-week People's University series, Human Rights, will explore the Sources, Critiques, Achievements, Extensions, Deviations, and Challenges of and in the development of what we collectively and, often generically, call "Human Rights." An impressive array of instructors from the fields of philosophy, history, sociology, law, and communications will cover different perspectives on the development of Human Rights from the Ancient Greeks, through the Enlightenment, American, and French Revolutions, to the present. Along the way, we will explore the achievements in Rights from the Magna Carta through the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights, as well as the strong critique presented by Karl Marx and the deviations brought on by tyranny in all of its forms. In the modern context, we will look at 20th Century Postwar developments like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the idea of Economic Rights, consider the ongoing challenges of extending rights, from the American Civil Rights Movement, through Women's Suffrage, and LGBTQ Rights, while also comparing the American view of Rights to that of Europe and the rest of the world. Finally, we will consider the challenge of sentient non-humans, including Animal Rights and Artificial Intelligence.