Dear Students,
You can take one of the online courses at the Justus Liebig University Giessen (Germany). If you are interested, please send an email to Prof. Magdalena Rekść magdalena.reksc@uni.lodz.pl
Deadline: 30 January 2023
An offer below!
Course 1
Course Title: 0101 Civil society and human rights challenges in times of war and peace
Course Description
This course analyzes the challenges and paradoxes faced by civil society actors and human rights organization in times of war and peace. This implies o analyze the meaning and causes defended by civil society actors considering their contexts of actions and understanding them as a heterogeneous group.
Depending on the contexts, their interests, values as well as challenges varies. One of the current trends refers to the phenomenon known as “shrinking spaces”. The concept refers to the increasing trend and impact of diverse forms of restrictions and violence against critical actors, including academix and civil society organizations in different regions across the world, especially in the so-called “global south”. In the past few years there has been a new circle and increase of restrictive and punitive measures against political and social activists, practitioners, and scholars.
Extreme violence is being used more frequently, albeit under formally democratic governments, while judicial harassment has become normalized. These and other measures are part of a global political climate that civil society experts have termed “shrinking space for civil society”, “disabled environments” (Van Tuijl 2000), “restricted operational space” (Borgh and Terwindt 2012), some even referring to a “closing space” or, in particularly drastic cases, to “no space for civil society” (Albrecht 2017).
It should be noted that government harassment and repression of social movements, opponents, critical scholars, and non-governmental organizations is not a new phenomenon in many countries. However, this new escalating wave of restrictions has a twenty-first-century twist and combines old and new elements. A crucial feature of shrinking spaces - which helps to distinguish it from past intimidation practices - is its gain in local legitimacy among large groups of local population and modernization through the use of civil and criminal law and of new technologies to suppress fundamental rights and liberties of civil society actors.
To analyze this growing trend of restricting and repressing civil society and especially human rights practitioners, the course will draw on the multiple dimensions of activism dynamica as well as the consequences of shrinking space in different regions across the world.
Faculty: FB01
Institute: Law Faculty
Lecturer: Rosario Figari Layus
Study Period: 11/04/2023 - 14/07/2023
Online Tool for Teaching: Stud.Ip Cisco
Language of Instruction: English
Target Group: Bachelor, Master
Prerequisites :English knowledge
Examination format :final paper
ECTS: 6
Course 2
Course Title: 0402 Chernobyl disaster: Politics and Society
Course Description
The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is the biggest man-made disaster in history, it not only claimed thousands of lives, but also brought down the main religious cult of the 20th century - faith in technological progress and became a symbol of the failure of the entire Soviet project.
The perception of the disaster, and the ways in which states and communities dealt with it, were clearly bifurcated by Cold War divisions; but like many things, they also transcended them geographically and temporally, reaching far into contemporary discourses. We will discuss the existing discourses of describing and comprehending this catastrophe, this will allow us to learn a lot about how the Soviet system worked as a whole.
Faculty: History and Cultural Studies
Institute: Historical Institute
Lecturer: Iryna Ramanava: Study Period (dd/mm/yy)
11/04/2023 - 14/07/2023
Mode and Time: Synchronous (live), Time (CET): Friday 10-12
Online Tool for Teaching: BigBlueButton
Language of Instruction: English
Target Group: Bachelor, Master
Prerequisites: English (no less then B2)
ECTS: 5
Course 3
Course Title: INT02 Peace and Conflict Studies
Course Description
The course will give an introduction to the field of peace and conflict studies. After discussing basic concepts, the course will deal with topics including Peacebuilding; Transitional Justice and Human Rights; Gender; Natural Resources and Education
Faculty: FB01
Institute: Faculty of Law
Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Stefan Peters
Study Period (dd/mm/yy): 18/04/2023-10/07/2023
Mode and Time: Synchronous (live), Time (CET): Monday 14.00-16:00 pm
Online Tool for Teaching: WebEx
Language of Instruction: English
Target Group: Bachelor, Master
Prerequisites: English B2
ECTS: 6