| DIVERSITY OF HUMAN RIGHTS

Human rights did not “fall from heaven”. They had to be – and still have to be – fought for and defended. In this respect, the question arises as to who the political actors in this struggle are; a struggle that always reflects very specific historical experiences of injustice and degradation. To what extent can the history of human rights be understood as a learning process? Which historical experiences flew and still flow into this learning process and which have not so far? To what extent is the accusation justified that human rights are essentially a “Western” invention against the background of specifically “occidental” experiences? What is the significance today of all those now widespread “counter-narratives” that, from the perspective of intercultural, post-colonial, anti-capitalist or feminist convictions, draw attention to historical and conceptual “blind spots” in common standard narratives of human rights?

These questions relate not least to the always difficult relationship between normative questions of justification on the one hand and more empirically or historically oriented analyses of very specific political human rights developments on the other. While those universal justifications often like to claim an “eternal validity”, the historical “genesis” of the struggle for human rights proves to be contingent and unfortunately also reversible.

This year's course is aimed at scholars from a wide range of disciplines who contribute to the question of the relationship between conceptual and empirical analyses of the history of human rights. In particular (but not only) papers from philosophy, law, sociology, political science, psychology or pedagogy are considered. The presentations may be of a fundamentally theoretical nature or present empirical research projects – in the hope that our course will contribute to a better interdisciplinary integration of both these concerns.

Please send an abstract of <250 words to Arnd Pollmann (pollmann@ash-berlin.eu) by February, 28. 2025. You will be notified of your participation by March 14, 2025. Selected participants will be invited to present their papers. The participation fee for the course is 60 EUR.