JSIS 478H – LGBTI Rights in International Affairs

During this course, students will examine the intense global debate over LGBTI equality norms and how it impacts international affairs. Discussions will address how human rights concepts have evolved, strategies of social movements, and how states influence one another based upon normative values. Through guest speakers, group projects, and policy simulations, students will gain experiential learning of human rights advocacy. The course offers an overview of LGBTI rights in international affairs, U.S. and E.U. human rights foreign policies, and contemporary debates in the UN on global rights. Class participants will investigate NGOs and civil society advocacy strategies that lead to foreign policy reform, Sweden’s feminist foreign policy, and how human rights is, or is not, prioritized over security interests. The course ends with a negotiation simulation of the U.S. conditioning aid to Uganda based upon LGBTI rights abuses.