Major Spotlight: Human Rights

The next major spotlight major is the highly requested interdisciplinary human rights major. Human rights is a combined major, meaning students are required to do it in conjunction with another primary major. 

We heard from Paulina Rodriguez and Ilana Cohen, both class of 2024, about their experiences with the human rights major. 

What is the human rights major?

I: Yeah, so it’s a bit of a smaller major and it’s a joint major. So everyone who is in the human rights major is pursuing another major and human rights. The human rights portion is six classes – three specific human rights courses and then three courses in related areas, which makes it very interdisciplinary. On top of that, you do your primary major. 

What is your combination of majors?

I: I’m studying psychology and human rights.

P: I’m a joint American studies and human rights major. 

Do you think you have a more traditional major to combine with human rights?

I: I know people pursuing political science, econ, history… those are probably the most common. But if you can find an intersection or an overlap that you want to pursue, you can really do anything. 

P: I assumed that this was going to be a pretty common combination, but I don't think I've met anyone else doing American Studies with Human Rights.

How did you decide on this major and combination?

I: I found out about the human rights major right before I came to Barnard, and I was immediately like “I have to do this” because it’s a really unique department. I don’t know that human rights programs exist at a lot of other colleges. When I was looking through the course catalog I saw all these courses that I had an interest in but didn’t think I could actually study. The human rights program seemed like a really interesting mix of academics and social justice, and I wanted to study that overlap with psychology. 

P: When I was applying to Barnard I read a lot about the human rights major and I thought it sounded really cool. Not a lot of schools I was applying to had something like this, and I thought it sounded really interesting. When I did my Barnard tour my tour guide was also a human rights major, and I got to talk to her about it as well. Once I got here, I tried out a variety of different departments since I knew I needed to do a joint major, and ended up with American studies.

What is American Studies?

P: I think of it as interrogating the various systems that make America, America and what makes it culturally, politically, and historically distinct. Because it’s so interdisciplinary, American studies really means something different to everyone based on their focus area. I take a lot of classes around race and ethnicity, colonization in the Americas, structural racism, and the cultural specificity of America.

What have your favorite classes been?

I: Every class that I’ve taken with Professor Brown… I just feel like she’s had such an interesting life and interesting experiences. She also brings in a lot of exciting guest speakers that she knows from working in the field of human rights. I took “Human Rights and Personal Autonomy” and “Human Rights and Public Health” with her. 

P: In the human rights department, I’m really enjoying “Narrative and Human Rights”. The class focuses on films and literature that talk about human rights and looks at the narrative structure used to communicate human rights issues.

I’m also taking a class called “Latinx, ICE, and the Prison Industrial Complex” which has been cool and counts through the related courses section of the major. 

What is your favorite part of the human rights major?

I: What I find really interesting is talking to people in human rights who are pursuing different primary majors. When you’re in a human rights class, because the major is so interdisciplinary and everyone has a second field of study, a lot of different topics come up. The human rights classes I’ve been in have all been really small and focused on broad topics. For example, “Human Rights and Public Health” – that could involve so many different things. Everyone is encouraged to bring up what they have learned in other classes, so we talk about a variety of different topics and experiences. 

P: I find that human rights has a little stronger of a common theme through all of its classes than American studies, but still has a lot of space to mold it to your interests. It’s split up into a certain number of human rights core classes at Barnard or Columbia, and a certain number of electives that are tied into the theme of human rights. This gives you a lot of opportunities to find a niche within the field of human rights, whether that be a gender focus or a specific region or issue. 

What is your senior requirement going to be like?

I: It depends – sometimes they’ll have you do a separate senior seminar in human rights with a longer paper if your primary major doesn’t have a longer senior requirement. But for me, since I’ll probably end up doing a longer psychology thesis I’ll probably just add a section about how it relates to human rights. 

P: It can go one of two ways – because it’s a joint major, a lot of people do one big thesis that encapsulates their other major but with a human rights theme. The other option is to do your traditional thesis for your other major and then do a senior seminar for human rights where you produce a longer research paper. I haven’t decided which I’m going to do yet. 

How hard has it been to plan your schedule with the two departments?

I: It ended up being surprisingly manageable for me because a lot of my courses ended up counting for Barnard’s foundation requirements, and a lot of the related courses are courses I wanted to take anyway. Also, two of my related courses weren’t on the original approved list for the major, I got them to count, which made it easier. Because Barnard is pretty flexible with requirements and human rights is a smaller major, it was pretty easy to plan, just involves a little bit of thinking ahead.

P: It’s been a lot easier once I got to my junior year. Upper-level human rights courses are tricky to get into as an underclassman, so I mostly focused on American Studies requirements in my first two years. But the human rights major also only requires a few courses, so it’s pretty manageable. Also, because human rights is a joint major and not a double major, you can take up to three classes that overlap with your primary major and they still count for both. (Note: Barnard does not traditionally allow students to double count classes towards a double major or major/minor). 

How would you describe the intersection between your majors?

I: I was expecting more of a focus on the link between the two majors built into my coursework. For me, in all of my human rights classes, the final paper is pretty open-ended, so I write about something related to both my majors. So I’ve written about psychological aspects of incarceration, drug use and the legal aspect of that, as well as child development in a way that links to both. But there isn’t that much overlap in coursework between the two majors.

P: For me, I focus regionally on human rights in an American context. The fact that I have a race and ethnicity focus in my American Studies major drives some of the human rights content, so a lot of my related courses tie into that. 

What is the Barnard Columbia relationship like for you?

I: Columbia also has a human rights major, but theirs is a standalone major, so it’s more structured with more requirements. We can take Columbia courses for the major, so if you want to, it can overlap, but for some reason I’ve taken most of my Human Rights courses at Barnard.

P: I take around half of my American Studies courses at Barnard and half at Columbia. For my human rights courses, they skew a little more heavily toward Columbia. It’s been really helpful to be able to take Columbia courses because Columbia has a much bigger human rights department, so there are more offerings. 

What do you wish you could change about the major?

I: I don’t know if this is a critique of academia in general, and I think it is, but sometimes I feel like we’re speaking in very academic terms about subjects that impact real people. It can feel very detached, so it’s like yes, I’m writing a paper about this problem and how we could hypothetically solve this issue. But it can feel like there's no action in that. There are a lot of ways to get involved on campus and I’ve had professors talk about their experiences working firsthand with issues, but it can still feel a little bit detached. 

P: As I mentioned, there aren’t a ton of Barnard specific human rights course offerings, it’s a very small department. To fulfill your core and introductory requirements relies pretty heavily on Columbia, and while I have had a good experience in those courses, it would be nice if it was easier to fulfill those requirements at Barnard. 

What is the culture of your classes like?

I: I haven’t found any of my classes to be competitive, in either human rights or psychology. All of my human rights classes have been seminars where we are bringing in different ideas and discussions, and both the students and the professors have made it an environment where everyone just talks and learns together. I haven’t had any exams, which I think also contributes to that experience. 

P: That definitely depends on core versus related and Barnard versus Columbia. A lot of the classes that I’ve taken for human rights at Columbia are graduate school classes, which is different. While there are still undergrads in them, it’s a different vibe and can be a bit intimidating at first.  

What has the experience of being in a grad level class been like?

P: It can be a little intimidating to participate since some people have already worked in the field. But generally, professors are aware of the different levels students are at in mixed classes. It probably depends on the professors and TAs you have, but with the right professor, it can be manageable. The graduate class I’m in right now is pretty midsized, and there are a lot of undergrads in it. 

Is there anything else you’d like to share?

I: I think it’s been really interesting to see how different events I see in the world and experiences that I have had outside of class directly relate to what we are doing in class. I also always love discussing human rights with other people pursuing different majors. 

P: I would say overall the human rights major is very doable. If you’re interested, you can make it work, even if you’re nervous about finding a link with your primary major. There are a lot of courses that count for it, so it’s definitely something to pursue if you have an interest.