In June 2025, several scholars from higher education institutions convened at APSA headquarters in Washington, DC, for a three-day symposium on approaches to teaching human rights. Hosted by APSA’s Teaching and Learning Program in partnership with the Human Rights Review, the gathering gave participants space to share strategies, exchange ideas, and develop new pedagogical materials for the discipline.
The following resource collection contributes to a growing conversation among political science instructors about how to teach human rights. Organized in two parts, it brings together 5 peer-reviewed articles from the Human Rights Review and classroom materials to help students.
APSA thanks the symposium co-facilitators and participants for their contributions.
Human Rights Review
- Experiential Learning and Civic Engagement: Assessing the Impact of Political Impact Projects in Human Rights Pedagogy
- Human Rights Narratives, Punitive Power, and Procedural Liberalism in South Korea
- Cultivating Change-Makers: Teaching Human Rights Advocacy Through Experiential Learning
- Beyond Human Rights Critique? Teaching Critical Approaches to Human Rights in an Age of Rights Skepticism
- Situated Assessments: Centering Positionalities To Ground a Critical Human Rights Education
Classroom Materials
Getting Started
An Instructor’s Guide to Human Rights Advocacy Ι Carrie Walling
Human Rights Advocacy in the Middle East Syllabus Ι Brian Mello
Assignments
Human Rights Advocacy Tactics Student Assignment Ι Carrie Walling
Human Rights Assignments Ι Francesca Parente