Stream Director
Timothy Cheek
Overview
The interaction of governance and human rights is expressed most directly in the international treaty regime that imposes on governments the duty to protect human rights. But there are often tensions between governmental imperatives, which are often portrayed in terms of economic growth, sustenance, and satisfying basic human needs, and the multitude of human rights requirements ranging from civil and political to economic, social and cultural rights. Policy makers need to understand the interrelationships among these factors, and no policy program on Asia would be complete without addressing governance and human rights issues. This stream is intended to provide students with knowledge and analytical skills on issues of governance and human rights. Among the issues to be considered are (i) role of political institutions and processes in governance and human rights; (ii) interplay of universal and particularist norms of governance and human rights; and (iii) interplay of normative systems, ideology, and governance/human rights practices.
Preparation and Expectations
The topic of human rights and governance is necessarily broad and interdisciplinary. Some background in political science, law, historical and other social sciences is necessary for students to engage the advanced and varied readings in this module. Prospective students should have taken a few university-level courses in one or more of these areas and should consider reviewing and extending their knowledge of social science and political analysis before beginning this stream. Students will be expected to be able to read, analyze, compare and critique different analytical perspectives on human rights and governance.
Courses
IAR 500 (MAAPPS Core Course):
The Governance & Human Rights module is intended to provide students with an overview of governance and human rights issues in Asia, with a view toward developing tools for program and policy development and analysis. During the first hour of each session, the class will discuss selected readings. Students should familiarize themselves with all assigned readings and each student should be prepared to lead discussion in detail for one of the assigned readings for each week. During the second hour, the class will discuss specific program and policy problems by reference to the assigned readings, including current and recent press reports from Canadian and international media.
Student papers count for 70% of the module grade and should demonstrate: (1) knowledge of the reading materials assigned; (2) analysis of the reading materials that involves comparison, synthesis and critique; (3) application of this knowledge and analysis to a specific policy in governance and human rights (based on explicit reference and assessment of media coverage of this policy problem), with specific attention to operational consequences; and (4) understanding of methodological issues discussed in the methodology module of the IAR 500 Core Course.
Other Courses
A range of courses offered at UBC are suitable for students choosing the Governance & Human Rights stream (see MAAPPS registration materials and the UBC webpage). Students taking this stream should consider what core methodological perspective and which areas of Asia they wish to form the basis of their MA program. That is, the organizing principle for selecting other courses and seminars for this stream should be based on, for example, the decision to focus on political science (or environmental analysis, or sociology) and Korea (or Korea and Thailand, or China and India, etc.). Thus, elective courses should be selected strategically to build strengths in a method and a limited set of cultural areas.