Globalization
& Human
Rights










Globalization & Human Rights is a semester-long senior history elective offered in the spring by Greg Feldmeth at Polytechnic School in Pasadena, California.  Students study the history of human rights, develop an understanding of globalization, and investigate both globalization and human rights issues in the world today. Course features include weekly reading and issue analysis of articles in The Economist, readings, viewing documentaries and films, creating human rights report card web sites, student presentations, and guest speakers. The course is an elective of the Global Initiatives Program Certificate curriculum and has been approved by the University of California.


Each spring the course hosts a guest speaker on a topic of relevance.

Saira Mohamed, UC Berkeley international law professor (Poly '96), led a discussion of the difficulties nations face when deciding on when and how to intervene in another nation's affairs when citizen safety is threatened.
Reed Johnson, Los Angeles Times reporter, who has covered a number of human rights-related stories from various locations in Latin America, spoke about the difficulties journalists face.
Jane Olson, chairperson of the international board of Human Rights Watch, who shared about a recent trip to Rwanda and provided an insightful perspective on the role of non-governmental organizations in serious humanitarian crises.