Minor Description

The Minor in Human Rights Advocacy engages students in supervised human rights fact-finding, documentation, and advocacy. Students gain a multidisciplinary understanding of human rights norms; social conflict; and abusive conduct by state, corporate, and private actors. Students train in human rights practice under the supervision of experienced, reflective advocates while taking related coursework in the humanities, social sciences, and other fields. The Minor provides students with an immersive experience that is unique for undergraduate students. Completion of the minor requires one pre-requisite course introducing human rights standards (CSPL228) , two core seminar courses focusing on human rights advocacy and methods (CSPL316 and CSPL328) , one course on writing for advocacy (CSPL338). Students must take CSPL316 before their human rights field practicum, followed by CSPL338 . Students must also take three additional pre-approved courses from a wide list of human rights-relevant courses drawn from Wesleyan's existing curriculum. These three additional courses can be taken at any time during a student's time at Wesleyan. 

Admission to the Minor

Admission to the program/minor will be by application only. This model ensures individualized supervision by an experienced practitioner. To be eligible for admission into the minor, students must already have taken, or must currently taking,   CSPL228: Introduction to Human Rights Standards. The Steering Committee  selects a maximum of sixteen (16) students for admission to the Minor each year. 

Minor Requirements

Students must take seven (7) courses and one human rights advocay practicum to complete the Human Rights Advocacy Minor. Interested students should contact Stephan Sonnenberg (Director of Human Rights Advocacy Minor at Allbritton), as soon as possible to begin charting their path through the minor's requirements. Students can apply into the minor during the Fall semesters of their first, sophomore and junior years at Wesleyan. 

Required courses:

Course List

Code	Title	Hours
One Pre-Requisite Course
CSPL228	Human Rights Standards	1
Two Core Courses
CSPL316	Human Rights Advocacy: Critical Assessment and Practical Engagement in Global Social Justice *	1
CSPL328	Advanced Human Rights Advocacy	1
One Course in Writing for Advocacy
CSPL338	Writing for Advocacy *	1
Three Additional Courses Related to Human Rights
Approval from advisor or minor coordinator will be required to ensure that the course choices cohere sufficiently.

Additional Information

For more information, please contact Professor Stephan Sonnenberg at ssonnenberg@wesleyan.edu