This event has passed
Date and Location
Erin Norris
Rights From Below: A Critical Look at the Theory and Praxis of Human Rights and the Need for a New Emancipatory Framework
Description
This graduate study group critically examines human rights by looking at the framework’s history, theory and praxis. The course will examine how rights can be ineffectual without consequent capacity to enforce them and even oppressive, as they can be used by powerful actors to entrench and extend their power (for instance, should free speech protect reach or does the latter impede the former?). The course will also examine the inherent competition of rights which require mediation by a court system that is not equally available to all actors, and whether claims of cultural and religious rights should be confined within the universality of human rights (for instance, can we accept someone’s religious right to discriminate? Is this really a cognizable right if it in fact impedes other persons’ rights?). The course will also examine the historical and political contingency of identities and how we interpellate social constructions to be natural and immutable and consequent limits on our political possibilities.
Each session will be comprised of 45 minutes of presentation and 45 minutes of student-led discussion.
Session 2: Identities, Interpellation and Intersectionality
- the historical and political contingency of identities
- intersectionality compounding discrimination and marginalization
- the paradox of identity- fluid, contingent, reflexive and oppositional on the one hand, the potential to mobilize and create community on the other
- interpellation and subject formation
- mediation, depersonalization and diffusing responsibility via the reification of roles
- case studies: surveillance, policing, criminal justice
Readings
- Althusser L. (1971), Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays, “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses (Notes towards an investigation)” (B. Brewster trans.) pp. 142-147; 162-167; 170-177; 183
- Deleuze G. and Guattari F. (1987) A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia (translated by Massumi B.) (selection) pp. 3-12
- Zuboff S. (2019), The Age of Surveillance Capitalism (selections) pp. 8-12; 74-82; 97; 351-361; 376-379
- Crenshaw, K. W. (1995). “Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color” In Crenshaw K. et. al. (Eds.), Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings that Formed the Movement (pp. 357–383).
- Fanon, F. (2004), “The Trials and Tribulations of National Consciousness”, The Wretched of the Earth (R. Philcox trans. pp 97-144) (originally published 1961) pp. 97-120
- Fanon, F. (2008), Black Skin, White Masks (R. Philcox trans.) (originally published 1952) pp 89-95; 178-181; 191-194
Biography
Alexandra Arneri is a Partner at the bicoastal boutique firm Cittone Demers & Arneri LLP, where she practices complex commercial litigation and serves as outside general counsel to several media and tech companies. She has a robust and diverse pro bono practice, including having helped children who have been injured during illegal child labor, protected people on disability from losing affordable housing, stopped deceptive trade practices, helped people obtain healthcare and back wages and prevailed in asylum cases in the 9th Circuit. Alex spearheaded and advised GLAAD in its successful campaign to amend IMDb attribution to stop deadnaming and protect the privacy of below the line transgender artists. Alex has an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School, an LLM concentrating in international law from NYU School of Law and a B.A./LLB from Sydney University