www.smu.edu/humanrights
Professor of Practice Rick Halperin, Director
A human rights minor consists of a minimum of 18 credit hours of coursework. HRTS 3301 /HIST 3301 is required. The remaining 15 credit hours must be taken from the approved elective list. Nine hours of these must be at the advanced level (3000 and above). In addition to HRTS 3301 /HIST 3301 , no more than two courses from any one department may be taken as electives unless preapproval is given by the director. Students may not earn both the B.A. in human rights and the minor in human rights.
The minor also requires a commitment of students’ effort, time and talent in defense of or in advocacy for human rights. Students will complete either a 20-hour service-learning placement with a human rights community-based agency (as a component of HRTS 3301 /HIST 3301 ) or will receive independent credit (HRTS 4390 , HRTS 4391 ) by participating in an SMU Human Rights Program sponsored journey to a location where recent human rights violations have occurred or are occurring (e.g., Cambodia, Rwanda, Poland, Argentina, the U.S.-Mexico border) and completing a research paper on a human rights topic related to the site.