SMU's Human Rights Education Program is now a reality.  Dr. Rick Halperin is happy to proclaim that, "It's not a theory anymore, its here."

Beginning Fall 2007 Human Rights officially became a minor degree program at SMU. Halperin, the director of SMU's Human Rights Education Program, has been working on this since July 1, 2006 when Dedman College received a sizeable gift from the Embrey family for the program.

The endowment from the Embrey Family Foundation provides funds for student scholarships, travel expenses and programming.  The endowment, according to Halperin, will "help institutionalize the pedagogy of human rights studies on this campus."

"It was time for SMU to offer a program that coincided with all the opportunities that students on campus who are passionate about human rights have, such as those who went on the Civil Rights Movement this past Spring Break," senior Liz Healy, a member of the Academic Planning and Policy Management Committee said.

Halperin also points out that many of SMU's faculty already cover several aspects of human rights within the context of their classes, but now wants to capitalize on that interest saying, "We want to actually get people into places of the world where terrible things have occurred and ask them to reflect on it and write on it when they get back."

SMU is the 12th school in the country with a human rights program of study, and Halperin is looking forward to receiving student feedback explaining that, "We want the best minor and best program possible."


The Human Rights Minor

The Human Rights minor, which is appropriate for all majors, is an interdisciplinary program introducing students to the study of universally-recognized civil, political, economic, social and cultural human rights.

The minor requires a minimum of six courses (18 term hours), of which at least four courses must be at the advanced level (3000 or above).  HIST 3301 (America's Dilemma:  The Struggle for Human Rights) is required for this minor.  In addition to this foundation course, no more than two courses from any department may be taken unless given pre-approval by the Human Rights Advisor.

In addition to classes, the minor also requires a commitment of students' efforts, time and talent in defense of or in advocacy for human rights.  Students will either complete a 20-hour service-learning placement with a human rights community-based agency (as a component of HIST 3301) or will receive independent credit [HIST 4398/9] by participating in an SMU Human Rights Program group tour to a location where recent human rights violations have occurred (e.g., Cambodia, Rwanda, Poland) and completing a research paper on a human rights topic related to the site.

Course Requirements:
In addition to HIST 3301, students must take at least 5 courses from the following list: