UMBHRWG'S TASK FORCE TO DEVELOP A

 

CERTIFICATE PROGRAM IN HUMAN RIGHTS

 

The University of Massachusetts Human Rights Working Group (UMBHRWG) has formed a task force to: 

 

i.                    develop a certificate program

ii.                  get the program approved. 

 

Once a human rights center is established at UMB it may offer undergraduates the opportunity to major or minor in human rights or to earn a certificate in human rights.  No doubt many, if not all, of the courses appropriate for the certificate program would also form part of an undergraduate human rights major. 

 

TASK FORCE

 

Professor Terry McLarney (terry.mclarney@umb.edu) is the coordinator of UMBHRWG'S human rights certificate program task force.  Other members of the task force are: Pepi Leistyna (pleistyna@hotmail.com), Elaine Morse, (elaine.morse@umb.ed), Rajini Srikanth (rajini.srikanth@umb.edu), Diana Bell (senoritadianita@netscape.net), Diane Dujon (diane.dujon@umb.edu) and Pratyush Bharati (pratyush.bharati@umb.edu).

 

CERTIFICATE PROGRAMS AT UMB

 

Students at UMB can earn certificates in technical writing, communication studies, women in politics and public policy, Spanish/English Translation and many other areas.  These programs may serve as models for a certificate program in human rights.  Certificate programs offer students the opportunity to acquire specialized knowledge and to have that knowledge recognized on their transcripts and/or with the presentation of a certificate. 

 

HUMAN RIGHTS RELATED COURSES AT UMB

 

UMB has many courses which would readily fit into a human rights curriculum.  English Professor Rajini Srikanth, a member of UMB's human rights certificate program task force writes, for example, "I'm currently teaching a course in the Honors program that's titled  "Post-Apartheid South Africa: Narratives of Truth and Justice." It's centered on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings.  I hope sometime in the future to research, in the mode of literary journalism, the issue of pricing of AIDS drugs by multinational corporations and the decision by one company to go against the norm and offer dramatically reduced prices to South Africa and other countries in Africa. I see drug pricing as an important human rights issue."  Hispanic Studies Prof. Reyes Coll-Tellechea, furthermore, has prepared a course in Spanish literature which focuses on human rights.  And, Political Science Professor Primo (Vannicelli @umb.edu) indicated that courses in the political science department which have or easily might be given a human rights focus include:   Third World Development (PolSci 375), Comparative Politics of Transitional Societies (PolSci 202), Political Change and Group Identity (PolSci 307), World War II Internment of Japanese Americans (PolSci 225), Central American Politics (PolSci 372), and Latin American Politics (PolSci 371). 

 

TWO KEY QUESTIONS

 

Two key questions the UMBHRWG Human Rights Certificate Task Force must address are: 

 

  1. What will be the requirements for earning a certificate in Human Rights?

 

  1. Pending the establishment of the Human Rights Center where will the human rights certificate program be housed and who will be responsible for supervising it?

 

HOW YOU CAN HELP

 

  1. Join the UMBHRWG Human Rights certificate task force.

 

  1. Suggest courses you teach or have taken that might form part of a human rights certificate program. 

 

For more information contact:

 

Terry McLarney

617-287-7375

terry.mclarney@umb.edu

 

or

 

The Human Rights Working Group

umbhrwg@hotmail.com