Peqod :: Classes - Columbia University Catalog of Classes

Immigration court has been described as akin to trying death penalty cases in traffic court. With a backlog of over two million cases and counting, judges have impossibly full dockets, cases get continued at the last minute, and many people are left to their own devices to try to make sense of what their options might be to stay in the United States. A key part of this confusion is because immigration court – though the stakes of decisions are as high as can be – is civil, not criminal. Given this, individuals are not guaranteed the right to a court appointed attorney. New York City, however, has been on the forefront of trying to remedy at least this part of the equation, piloting a unique program to guarantee representation to New Yorkers facing removal proceedings. While having access to an attorney can make a meaningful difference, immigration judges still enjoy wide discretion in how they decide a given case.

The core idea of this course is that there is a real utility to observing immigration court, both for research and for contributing to social change. This course will center around a practice of court watching in immigration court in order to develop a scholarly analysis of systems, institutions, and the functioning (or not) of the law. At the same time, this court watching practice will also involve the systematic collection of qualitative data that may be directly useful to immigration attorneys and their clients in their perpetual effort to hold immigration courts accountable and create as fair as possible of a playing field that upholds the basic principles of human rights. To that end, in this class we will study how to conduct courtroom observations, drawing from different methodological approaches and findings, study the idea, history, and critiques of immigration law from across disciplines, and conduct extensive, in depth, immigration court watching. We will partner with local legal services organizations in order to sharpen our sense of what kinds of data is useful for their specific legal interventions and to ensure that the data that we do collect and interpret can become part of a larger project to hold courts accountable.

This course will offer students a unique opportunity to see how rigorous social science research and analysis can have real impacts in the world beyond the classroom, and how those two realms, through collaboration, can mutually contribute to advancing social change. They will learn first-hand how the careful application of qualitative

Department: Human Rights (HRTB)
WF 12:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
Instructor: Jennifer Trowbridge
Info
5 points

Details

HRTS BC3935

ANIME EFFECT: JAPANESE MEDIA

Department: Anthropology
M 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
Instructor: Marilyn Ivy
CULPA: 11 Wikipedia Info
4 points

Details

ANTH UN3939

SENIOR THESIS SEMINAR

Department: African American and African Diaspora
T 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
Instructor: Kellie Jones
CULPA: 3 Wikipedia Info
4 points

Details

AFAS UN3940

COMP STUDY OF CONSTITUTNL CHAL

Department: Ethnicity and Race, Center for
R 10:10 a.m.-noon
Instructor: Elizabeth Ouyang
CULPA: 8 Info
4 points

Details

CSER UN3940

History of Human Rights

This course provides students with an introduction to the history of human rights as a compelling, contested, and dynamic constellation of discourses, structures, and practices. As a framework for articulating and pursuing justice at local, national, and global levels, human rights in the 21st century draw on the diverse histories of social movements, moral philosophy, legal institutions, and political maneuvers across the modern period. Claimed most frequently when their violation is most egregious, the history of human rights is also a history of wrongs, with the changing nature and scope of oppression serving to provoke different kinds of human rights struggles. Often invoked as timeless and universal standards, the history of human rights demonstrates their basic malleability, both in terms of which rights are recognized and who qualifies as human, and their fundamental contingency, both in terms of the precariousness of any human rights ‘victory’ and their potential for co-optation in the interests of power. Finally, while this course is primarily concerned with the history of human rights, we will also consider the human rights of history, reflecting on the role of history and historical consciousness in the pursuit for justice.

Learning Outcomes

Aligned with the critical, historical, and integrative grounding of the course, the objectives for student learning encompass areas of
knowledge
,
skills
, and
values
. They include:

Students will analyze the change over time of human rights discourses, institutions, practices.

Students will analyze the continuities and discontinuities between historic and contemporary forms of human rights.

Students will develop knowledge and understanding of various strategies for promoting human rights deployed by historic actors.

Students will develop knowledge and understanding of the role of history and historical consciousness in contemporary efforts to secure human rights.

Students will develop their capacity for empathy across difference.

Students will orient their own values in relation to the dynamic principles of human rights.

Department: Institute for Study of Human Rights
MW 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
Instructor: Glenn Mitoma
Info
3 points

Details

HRTS UN3940