Societies Without Borders

Human Rights and the Social Sciences

Volume 6, Issue 3

Edited by David L. Brunsma, Keri E. Iyall Smith, and Mark Frezzo

Book Review Editor, Tugrul Keskin

Editorial Assistant, Brian Gresham

Articles

DOUGLAS PARKER, CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY— LONG BEACH

Understanding and Eliminating Discrimination Against Blacks

SUSAN HOLSAPPLE, BOSTON UNIVERSITY

Patient Navigation through the Justice System: A Response to the High Infant Mortality Rate in One Community

MICHAEL SCHWARTZ, STONY BROOK STATE UNIVERSITY

Military Neoliberalism: Endless War and Humanitarian Crisis in the Twenty-First Century

LAUREN M. SARDI, QUINNIPIAC UNIVERSITY

The Male Neonatal Circumcision Debate: Social Movements,Sexual Citizenship, and Human Rights

Notes From the Field

LAURA CORRADI, UNIVERSITÀ DELLA CALABRIA
The Body of the Goddess: Women’s Trans-national and Cross-religion Eco-Spiritual Activism

Expressions

VALERIE BORUM, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS—CHICAGO

Faces of Oppression

List of Reviewers

Volume 6

The editors of Societies Without Borders: Human Rights and the Social Sciences (SWB)—a double-blind, peer-reviewed, open-source electronic journal devoted to cutting-edge research on human rights and public goods—invite authors to submit manuscripts for a special issue on “Social Science without Borders: Looking Back, Looking Forward.”

The special issue seeks papers, commentaries, notes from the field, as well as poetic, visual, and other expressions devoted to critically commemorating 2012, when Sociologos Sin Fronteras/Sociologists Without Borders (SSF) enters its second decade of work with scholars, students, activists, and community members in SSF chapters around the world.

SWB, the flagship journal of SSF, and SSF itself, with all of its chapters, has been deeply involved in the human rights revolution in the social sciences, particularly sociology. SSF is at the forefront of this epistemological revolution. We feel that it is now time to report on the successes and challenges of SSF’s endeavors over the past decade and to project and predict what efforts should be made in the future.

Any and all inquiries into the work of SSF around the world, the building of a social science without borders, and the institutionalization of a human rights-oriented social science are welcome. Some questions for consideration include:

• History and evolution of SSF
• Meanings of a “social science without borders”
• How to undertake social science without borders in the different aspects of our work
• Promises and perils of a “social science without borders”
• History and evolution of SWB
• Founding and growth of the ISA Thematic Group on Human Rights and Global Justice
• Founding and growth of the ASA Section on Human Rights
• Challenges associated with interdisciplinary studies of human rights
• Implications of the Human Rights Program of the American Association for the Advancement of Human Rights

Founded in 2001, SSF is a transnational association of sociologists committed to the following principles: that all people have equal rights to political freedoms and legal protections, to socioeconomic security, to self-determination, and to their personality. That is, old or young, regardless of where they live, their faith, and whether they are male or female, gay or straight, and regardless of their skin color they have the same universal rights, including their rights to their own particular cultures. SSF also promotes an understanding that collective goods, including a sustainable environment, cannot be privatized.

The deadline for submissions is February 15, 2012.

Inquiries may be sent to David L. Brunsma.

For SWB submission guidelines.

Please submit manuscripts as e-mail attachments to the co-editors.

Submissions will be subject to the regular review process of SWB.

As you explore Volume 6, Number 2, we would like to invite you to add your thoughts and feedback.  Write to the author, or write to other readers–a few hundred people visit to see our new issues.

To write a comment click on the title of the article.  Then add your ideas in the text box at the bottom of the page under “Leave a Reply.”  Be sure to click “Post Comment” when you are finished typing.

By taking this step, you are contributing to a dialog across borders about topics of great importance.  Please add your voice.  It will allow us all to begin the work of building a society without borders.

Please subscribe to our site, share the articles widely, offer your comments, and consider submitting your work.

View the full Table of Contents or scroll down this page to see each contribution.

Societies Without Borders Human Rights and the Social Sciences

Volume 6, Issue 2

Special Issue on Human Rights Education, Service-Learning, and Civic Engagement

Edited by David L. Brunsma, Keri E. Iyall Smith, and Mark Frezzo Book Review Editor, Tugrul Keskin Editorial Assistant, John C. Pruitt

THE EDITORS Introduction to the Special Issue………………………………..1-2

Articles

MARK FREZZO, UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI Sociology and Human Rights Education: Beyond the Three Generations?…………………………………………………..3-22

SYLVANNA M. FALCÓN & MICHELLE M. JACOB, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SANTA CRUZ & UNIVERSITY OF SAN DIEGO Human Rights Pedagogies in the Classroom: Social Justice, US Indigenous Communities and CSL Projects…………………..23-50 KATHERINE O’DONNELL, HARTWICK COLLEGE

Feminist Social Justice Work: Moving Toward Solidarity……….51-67 DEMOND MILLER, JASON RIVERA & CHRISTOPHER GONZALEZ, ROWAN UNIVERSITY & RUTGERS, THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW JERSEY-CAMDEN The Deliberative School Approach to Human Rights…………68-91

Notes From the Field

LINDSAY PADILLA, UNIVERSITY OF SAN FRANCISCO Implementing Human Rights Education in Service-Learning Courses………………………………………………………92-108

JUDITH BLAU & MANUEL RAFAEL GALLEGOS LERMA, UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA-CHAPEL HILL After All, Where Do Human Rights Begin? The Case of Two Small Cities in North Carolina……………………………………109-119

J. STEVEN PICOU, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH ALABAMA Sociology and Human Rights: Building Professional Association Capital for Improving the Human Condition………………120-122

Author: The Editors

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Author: FREZZO, Mark

This article examines the uses and limitations of the prevailing classificatory schema in the field of human rights—a tripartite framework that delineates first-generation civil and political rights ensuring liberty, second-generation economic and social rights promoting equality, and third-generation group and cultural rights supporting solidarity. When applied strictly, the framework runs the risk of reifying the three categories, exaggerating the impact of the European Enlightenment on contemporary norms, and overlooking the historical contexts in which rights-claims emerge. Though useful for analytic and pedagogical purposes, the existing paradigm fails to capture the full spectrum of human rights violations and solutions in the contemporary world. More precisely, it fails to account for the intersections among different types of rights. To the end of renovating the paradigm, this article advances the principles of holism, globalism, and historicism as tools for human rights educators.

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Authors: FALCÓN, Sylvanna M. and JACOB, Michelle M.

Community service-learning (CSL) courses provide opportunities in which students engage in learning outside of the normative college classroom and are sites in which students can learn as a collective. In this article, we argue for a human rights pedagogy that considers how a critical engagement of CSL projects has fostered a bridging moment between academic and non-academic communities and offers new possibili- ties for building community. We analyze CSL projects with the American Indian Recruitment Programs – a grassroots, non-profit organization based in San Diego, California. We conclude our article with a human rights-based pedagogical model that is built upon the idea of interwoven liberation.

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Author: O’DONNELL, Katherine

This article analyzes grassroots, feminist, and Freirean community-organizing as platforms for community-based service-learning (CBSL) and human rights work. CBSL is conceptualized as alignment, a first step in the long haul of working with community members in a solidarity relationship to create social justice.

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Authors: MILLER, Demond, RIVERA, Jason, and GONZALEZ, Christopher

Over the past few decades, certain currents in higher education have been engaged in a paradigm shift that highlights the importance of civic engagement and experimental learning as means to a comprehensive, holistic education in the service of social change. In this article, we argue that community-based research, as a component of service-learning, constitutes a vehicle through which we can address the topic of human rights—in much the same way as W. E. B. DuBois recognized both universal human rights for all people and case-specific human rights for particular individuals (Elias 2009). To this end, we offer a brief discussion of the basic schools of human rights thought, present two examples, and discuss the potential for community-based research and the Deliberative School in addressing human rights issues within the broad context of social justice. Finally, we examine ways not only to educate and empower university students and local residents, but also how to use community- based research as a catalyst for meaningful advancement of human rights.

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Author: PADILLA, Lindsay

In an attempt to understand the potential impact of Human Rights Education (HRE) at community colleges, this article calls for an open discussion of human rights and service-learning. I argue that framing my Social Problems course with a service- learning requirement from a human rights perspective offers students a formative educational experience that fosters respect for humanity and introduces the struggle for human rights at home and abroad. Working with vulnerable populations in the community, students can experience the ways in which local organizations and agencies promote human rights. In providing access to my teaching plan, I hope that other teachers will see how HRE and service-learning offer the space for students to connect theory and practice. It is through praxis that educated, global citizens and teachers can further the universal struggle in human rights.

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