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Global Studies

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Human Rights Interdisciplinary Minor

Requirements & Policies & Forms

Human rights have become the moral language of today, the idiom in which we discuss our common humanity and weigh competing claims for resources, rights, and protections. The Human Rights Interdisciplinary (HRI) minor at UC Berkeley allows students to shape their education around coursework which investigates the legal, political, historical, economic, social, psychological, and representational dynamics of human rights.

Helping undergraduates explore issues via multiple forms of thought and media of expression—through literature as well as politics, journalism as well as law, film as well as anthropology—the HRI minor emphasizes the many different intellectual spaces in which human rights questions are currently being posed. In so doing, it encourages students to recognize how human rights are intertwined with fields as disparate as postcolonial literature and medical ethics, as well as with the more familiar fields of political science and international law.

Minor Requirements
Lower Division:
None

Foreign Language:
None

Upper Division:
5 Courses

Students must take 5 upper-division classes including one of the following: HISTORY C187, LEGALST 154, or GLOBAL 173; four courses from the Human Rights Interdisciplinary Minor course list; or three courses and a 3-4 unit Supervised Field Study (internship).

Completing the Minor

Students are eligible to declare when they:

  • Have completed at least one course for the HRI minor with a grade of B or better, OR:
  • Have completed at least two courses for the minor (not necessarily at UCB) with a minimum GPA of 2.0;
  • Not be in their final semester of undergraduate work

To complete the HRI minor, students must:

  • Complete one of the following: HISTORY C187, LEGALST 154, or GLOBAL 173
  • Four courses from the Human Rights Interdisciplinary Minor course list, or three electives and a 3-4 unit Supervised Field Study (internship). Please consult with an HRI Minor advisor if you are interested in the internship option.
  • Complete at least three minor courses at UC Berkeley. Transfer courses must be approved by an academic advisor
  • Take all courses counting for the minor for a letter grade
  • Achieve a minimum overall GPA of 2.0 in the courses used to satisfy minor requirements
  • Use no more than one course to satisfy requirements for both a major and a minor

Global Studies Major Map

How to Declare a Major

Meet with an Advisor