University of Cape Town Justice and Transformation

University of Cape Town Justice and Transformation

Justice & Transformation

Convenor:  Dr Helen Scanlon

Dr Scanlon is based in the School of African and Gender Studies, Anthropology & Linguistics Rm 2.1, Harry Oppenheimer Building +27 21 650-4205 h.scanlon@uct.ac.za

This interdisciplinary specialisation is offered in collaboration with departments in the Humanities Faculty, the UCT Law Faculty, the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR), the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (IJR) and the International Centre for Transitional Justice (ICTJ).

Specialisation objectives:

This Honours/Master’s specialisation has been designed to locate current concerns and topical interests in justice and transformation in the more general perspectives of normative theory and comparative studies. It is inspired by the new directions in writing, research and teaching generated by the South African TRC-process but not confined to these. Instead, it links these new research interests and current debates in the area of transitional justice (including human rights law, conflict-resolution and peace-building, and social justice in transformation) with the more lasting intellectual perspectives provided by a thorough grounding in relevant academic disciplines.

Admission requirements:

At Honours level: a first degree majoring with an upper 2nd or close approximation. At Master’s level: a good Honours degree or its equivalent.

Applicants should ideally have a major in, or some exposure to, Politics as an undergraduate subject.  However, depending on which area of concentration the applicant is interested in, the following additional study backgrounds may be taken into account when assessing applications:

Transitional Justice	Majors in Politics, History, Philosophy, Sociology, Literature
Human Rights	Senior courses in Law, LLB
Conflict Resolution	Majors in Politics, Psychology, Social Anthropology, Sociology
Social Justice in Transformation	Majors in Politics, Sociology, Social Anthropology, Psychology, Development Studies

Prescribed curriculum:

The full specialisation comprises 4 semester courses in each of the Honours and Master’s years plus an independent research project at Honours level and a Master’s minor dissertation component allowing exit options after the first year with an Honours degree and entry options at Master’s level. The specialisation offers a choice between two core courses and a selection of electives in the areas of Transitional Justice, Human Rights, Conflict Resolution, and Social Justice in Transformation.

PLANNING YOUR CURRICULUM

HONOURS (126 credits)

2 courses selected from: POL4032F (Comparative Transitional Justice) POL5037S (Post-Conflict Justice inAfrica) a List A course	List A or List B Course	List B Course or Internship	POL4007H (Research Project)
*20% + 20%	20%	20%	20%

MASTER’S (192 credits)

2 courses selected from: POL4032F POL5037S a List A course	List A or List B Course	List B Course or Internship	POL5010W (Mini-Dissertation)
*12.5% + 12.5%	12.5%	12.5%	50%

* the percentages provided are a general approximation of the weighting of each course in the overall mark calculation.  Some courses have slightly different credit totals than others, and occasionally students may need to take an extra course to fulfil the overall credit expectation.  In which case, the calculation differs slightly in terms of percentage weightings.

Core Courses

			Credits
POL4032F		Comparative Transitional Justice		24
POL5037S		Post-Conflict Justice in Africa		24

  Electives

Select your electives depending on the area of concentration that you are interested in.  We include recommendations for which courses would fit with which area.  The areas of concentration are:

1. Transitional Justice (TJ)

Courses in the area of Transitional Justice aim to provide a theoretical grounding and comparative understanding of the interdisciplinary field of Transitional Justice at the intersection of human rights discourses, democratic transitions and post-conflict reconciliation.

2. Human Rights Law (HR)

Courses in the area of Human Rights Law aim to ground the professional and specialist studies in law in a broader theoretical and comparative understanding of the historical and political contexts in which Human Rights Law functions.

3. Conflict Resolution (CR)

Courses in Conflict Resolution aim to provide a comparative understanding and practice-orientated introduction to current approaches to peace operations and post-conflict reconciliation in the African context.

4. Social Justice in Transformation (SJT)

Courses in Social Justice in Transformation are designed to combine a focus on issues of social justice related to poverty and development with the combating of legacies of racism and redressing racial, gender and social inequalities within more general normative and theoretical perspectives.

 Some of the areas of concentration provide for Internships, which may be substituted for one of the list B elective options.

List A Electives

		Recommended for:	Credits
AXL4104F	Gender, Peace and Justice	CR, SJT	24
ECO4114S	The Economics of Conflict, War & Peace	CR	14
PBL5631S	International Protection of Human Rights	HR	30
PBL5634F	Human Rights Law	HR	30
PBL5647S	Social Justice, Law and Development	SJT	30
POL4039F	Peace Operations in World Politics	CR	24
POL4048F	Dialectical Political Thought	TJ	24
POL5029S	Political Ethics	TJ	24
POL5034S	Conflict in Africa	CR	24
POL5042F	Peace-building: Issues & Problems	CR	24
POL5046S	Democratisation	TJ	24
SOC5019F	Race, Class and Identities	CR	12

 

List B Electives

Students may select other electives appropriate to the programme and aligned to their research interests, subject to approval by the Convener.

			Recommended for:	Credits
AXL4101F		Gender and Violence	TJ	24
AXL4103S		Development Conflict and Political Change	CR	24
AXL4106F		Introduction to Gender and Transformation	SJT	24
AXL4402S		Anthropology of Societies in Transition	TJ, SJT	24
AXL5402F		Anthropology of Development	SJT	24
CML4501F		Dispute Resolution	CR	9
CML5631S		Mediation	CR	30
CML5671F		Negotiation	CR	30
HST4055S		Racism, Colonialism & Genocide	CR	24
PBL5618S		International Law on Disputes and the Use of Force	HR	30
PBL5623F		Governing Under the Constitution: Law and Practice	HR	30
PBL5647S		Social Justice, Law and Development		30
PBL5648S		Social Justice in Practice	SJT	30
PBL5815S		Punishment and Human Rights	HR	30
PBL5820F		Theories of Crime and Social Order	HR	30
PBL5822S		Victims and Victimology	HR	30
PHI4021S		Topics in Rational Decision Making	TJ	24
PHI4022F		Moral Philosophy	TJ	24
POL4044FS		Global Political Thought	TJ	24
POL5041F/S		History of SA Political Thought		24
SLL4001S		Representation of War in Fiction	CR	24
SOC4010F		Development Theory	SJT	12
SOC5012S		Sociology of Deviance	SJT	12

 

Internships

 

May be substituted as the equivalent of 1 elective course.

 

POL4005H	Internship Component I (Honours level)	24
POL5005H	Internship Component II (Master’s level)	24

 

Research Methods courses

 

For Master’s doing field work/primary research/specialized data analysis. 

 

AXL4401F	Ethnographic Research Methods & Methodology	24
HST4034F	Oral History: Method, Practice and Theory	24
POL5035F	Data Analysis in Political Sciences	12
SOC5030F	In-depth Interviewing and Analysis	12
SOC5052F	Survey Data Analysis	12