HIST 2637

Humanitarianism: A Counter-History

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2024-2025.

This course is a counter-history of modern humanitarianism, humanitarian law, and human rights, with perspectives from the Near East. Humanitarianism aspires to fulfill the promise of human rights. It envisions a world based on peace among nations, individual liberties, and the sanctity of life – and of markets. To that end, what means are justified? During this semester, we will critically analyze the ideology of human rights, examine the practices of humanitarian rescue, and question the necessity of humanitarian violence. We will scrutinise the ideological and material entanglements of humanitarianism with the forces of empire, nations, and markets, and how humanitarianism shaped the peoples and borders of the modern Near East. We will discuss how the demands for solidarity, equality, and justice challenge and subvert the work of humanitarianism. In doing so, we will consider how the atrocities of the past and the pursuit of justice haunt our turbulent present.

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