Human Rights

This MA draws on Sussex’s academic expertise in law, international relations, anthropology, education, human geography and migration studies, combining internationally recognised research with an interdisciplinary approach that enables fresh thinking and contributes practical insights of great value to policy-makers.

We address key debates in the field (including cultural relativism, indigenous rights, and multiculturalism), compare philosophical positions within the historical evolution and contemporary form of human rights, identify and assess the contemporary international human rights regimes (including the United Nations, regional institutions, national bodies and international and local advocates), and apply human rights to broader concerns (such as migration, health, humanitarianism and post-conflict reconstruction).

By the end of the course you will have strengthened your analytical, research and presentation skills and gained specialist knowledge on a particular subject through research for a 10,000-word dissertation.

Although some of our students do have experience in the field of human rights (and related fields), which contributes to a rich learning environment, you do not require any previous work experience to do this MA.

• Human rights at Sussex goes beyond a narrow legalistic approach and explores how human rights are socially embedded in wider processes of poverty, violence, identity, globalisation and the emergence of global forms of governance. Our Human Rights courses reflect this critical perspective.
• Sussex has a worldwide reputation for excellence in the field of human rights. Faculty teaching on our courses come from a range of disciplines, each of which is excellent in its own right.
• Based in the School of Global Studies, the distinctively interdisciplinary MA in Human Rights brings together expertise from anthropology, law, international relations and politics
• Faculty have undertaken consultancy and commissioned work in a range of human rights fields and regional contexts. Many of our graduates find employment in rights work, within which we have very strong international networks.

Core modules

• Human Rights and the Politics of Culture
• Liberalism, Modernity and Globalisation
• Research Methods and Professional Skills (Int Dev)

Options

• Activism for Development and Social Justice
• America in the World: Race, Coloniality and Knowledge
• Anthropology of Childhood
• Anthropology of Reconciliation and Reconstruction
• Critical Debates in Environment and Development
• Culture and Identity Rights
• Dissertation (Human Rights)
• Dissertation with Placement (Global Studies)
• Fair Trade, Ethical Business & New Moral Economies
• Human Rights in International Relations
• International Crimes
• Knowledge, Power and Resistance
• Liberal peace, liberal war?
• Livelihoods, Inequalities and Rural Change
• Medical Anthropology: Cultural Understandings of Health and Healing
• Migration, Inequality and Social Change
• Postcolonial Africa: Politics and Society
• Poverty, Vulnerability and the Global Economy
• Refugees, Displacement and Humanitarian Responses
• Sex and Violence
• Transnationalism, Diaspora and Migrants' Lives
• Women and Human Rights

Requirements

• Magistr or Specialist Diploma with a minimum average mark of at least 4
• A first- or upper second-class undergraduate honours degree in politics, international relations, philosophy, law, history, sociology, anthropology, development studies or a related field
• IELTS 6.5, with not less than 6.0 in each section.
• Reference
• Transcript
• A personal statement
• The application fee is £13 if you’re applying to just one course

Scholarships

• Sussex Graduate Scholarship