Australian experience provides a lens from which to cast a wide historical view of the development of settler societies over two centuries, drawing comparisons with Canada, Argentina, Uruguay, South Africa and New Zealand. Despite their common focus on natural resources production and close engagement with the international economy, the experience of these economies often differed. Themes include: geography versus institutions as development determinants; colonialism’s impact on indigenous economy; and the...
The course uses interdisciplinary, critical, and transnational/global perspectives to study racism and other systems of oppression, poverty, and the disempowerment of peoples subordinated based on race, gender, and class. The sessions include readings regarding the experiences of Black Americans, Burakumin people, Dalit people, Jewish people, Romani people, Palestinians, and other oppressed and racialized peoples. This is an introductory course examining four main topics to be discussed in...
The seminars will be based around some themes and questions in the discussion of music in Australia and beyond, with an emphasis on my personal experience and output as a composer and on the work of other musicians and composers.
Topics to be covered may include: • landscape, seascape, open space and ‘country’; • tradition, innovation and influence in indigenous music; • ‘irreconcilable synchronicities’ - cross-cultural music encounters; • “Did you use the didj?’ - artistic debates about...
The world is on fire. Smoke darkens the sky. Scorching heat. Violent storms. Mass extinction.
In this perilous moment in human history, the world desperately needs leaders with the courage, drive and hardball political skills to fight climate change and help restore the natural world. Environmental leaders must also recognize how marginalized communities suffer disproportionately from pollution and climate change. Leadership is difficult in any enterprise, but it is especially...
Can international law be a tool for promoting global justice? In this class, we will explore diverse issues such as why the laws of war didn’t constrain the Russian invasion of the Ukraine and whether international criminal accountability for mass atrocity can deter human rights violations and satisfy victims? How could reparations for slavery be delivered? Can environmental law help reduce climate change and provide justice for climate refugees? Can trade law contribute to a fairer and...
Prerequisites: A prior or concurrent course or clinic in international human rights law is recommended but not required.
Exam Type: No Exam
During the last 70 years, the Inter-American System for the protection of human rights (IASHR) is the venue for some of the most significant developments in international law. Placed at the heart of the oldest international organization in existence (the Organization of American States, successor to...
s prison abolition a serious proposal, an aspirational ideal, a trendy slogan, or a blueprint for social transformation? This interdisciplinary and community-engaged course situates the prison abolition movement in deep historical context and explores its current relation to the politics of criminal justice reform. We will study the movement’s connections to slavery abolitionism, anti-lynching activism, Indigenous struggles for sovereignty, and the Black Power movement. We will examine the emergence of...
How do we understand justice? What are the connections between trauma, education and mass incarceration? From cradle to prison cell, what is our praxis—that is, how do we do education, and what are its fruits? This course explores the systems of racialized punishment that have created the current conditions around school suspensions, arrests, and incarceration. It focuses on the growing movement for restorative/transformative justice, paying particular attention to factors...
*Lottery-based Enrollment* Engaging in conversations about racism, past and present, is essential to building bridges and promoting democratic values. Many educators wish to teach about racism but may hesitate to explore controversial topics with students, especially younger learners. In this course, participants develop the knowledge and skills to teach the histories and realities of racism in the United States. We consider the developmental needs of students in grades K-12, racial-...
F - Split Schedule: 9:00am to 12:00pm or 1:15pm - 2:30pm
The UN IPCC reports on climate change make it clear that to avoid the most devastating climate impacts, we need a global societal transformation, and we all have a role to play in advancing solutions. Education has been identified as a critical social tipping point to help the world meet the decarbonization needed by 2050, and yet education is underutilized in climate solutions. Whether transitioning our largely diesel school bus fleet to electric, leveraging post-...
An exploration of the ethics of scientific and social eugenics in 20th/21st century U.S. through historical, bioethical, critical race, Indigenous, gender, and disability frameworks. Attention to roles of medicine, law, and government in relation to eugenic techniques: sterilization, segregation, and marriage restriction as well as genetic technologies, land conservation, and immigration policy. Consideration of resistance to eugenics (moral, scientific, religious, artistic, political) and recent strategies of...
Mass incarceration is a catastrophe in the United States, especially affecting Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and poor communities. Different forms of carceral confinements have long been an integral part of the formation of the United States and other settler colonies in the Americas. In this course, we will focus on the history of Indigenous confinements. While the incarceration of Indigenous peoples today resembles the incarceration of other minoritized peoples, it has similar and distinct historical genealogies...
Health inequities within and between societies are garnering increased attention, but some historical and structural processes are insufficiently considered despite their significant contributions. This course introduces students to the concept of settler colonialism and its health equity implications for indigenous and settler populations. Utilizing case studies from the United States, South Africa, and Palestine/Israel, comparative analyses in this discussion- and lecture-based seminar will...
This seminar focuses on the public memory of settler colonialism and Indigenous dispossession in North America and Turtle Island, with a focus on stories told within museums. We will be oriented by remediation in two senses: telling a story in a new medium and efforts of remedy and repair. In addition to readings and class discussions, we will have multiple class visits with curators and staff at three Harvard museums: the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, the Harvard Art Museum, and the Harvard...
As the original inhabitants of the Americas, Indigenous communities resist and thrive across the hemisphere, despite the dynamics of colonization that still affect their existence and way of living. Many prejudices affect these communities, sometimes perceived as ‘timeless’ and ‘pure’ subjects, when in reality adaptation and migration have been a constant characteristic for many of these groups. The course offers an exploration of the diversity of Indigenous Latinx communities...