Thompson Rivers University gets ready to launch Master of Arts in Human Rights and Social Justice

(This story is sponsored by Thompson Rivers University.)

The war in Ukraine has once again focused the eyes of the world on human rights and social justice. These are also important issues in B.C., whether it’s in the discovery of unmarked and undocumented graves at former Indian residential schools, rising homelessness, the opioid crisis, or the treatment of activists protesting logging and pipelines on unceded traditional Indigenous territory.

It’s why the Dean of Arts at Thompson Rivers University (TRU), Dr. Richard McCutcheon, feels that a new graduate program at the Kamloops institution is perfectly timed. The university will be initiating a “soft launch” (the program is pending final approval) of a new Master of Arts in Human Rights and Social Justice (MAHRSJ), which reflects recommendations for education by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.

“The faculty members who created this are so committed and so passionate,” McCutcheon said in an interview.

TRU expects applications to open this spring and to accept the first 30 students in September. The prerequisite is a Bachelor of Arts or related degree.

“The curriculum has core courses, which are very specially designed for human rights and social justice purposes,” McCutcheon explained.

Each course in the 16-month program will be taught by two professors from different disciplinary backgrounds. The Indigenous Ways of Knowing course will be facilitated and coordinated by faculty members, who will bring Secwépemc knowledge keepers into the classrooms to work with students.

“We think this is one of the first at the graduate level where every student coming through will have to take this Indigenous Ways of Knowing course,” McCutcheon said. “We worked with the Indigenous community in developing the course.”

He pointed out that a great deal of Indigenous education takes place on the land, and he hopes that this can be incorporated into the course.

Students enrolled in the MAHRSJ will complete field experience in the summer months as another core component of the program. “We’re placing people into nongovernmental organizations, paralegal organizations, and similar kinds of environments to get hands-on experience so when they graduate, they’ve already got something under their belt,” McCutcheon noted.

Students in the program will learn about international human rights, including treaties and UN declarations. In addition, they’ll gain insights into domestic human-rights legislation and the functioning of human rights tribunals in Canada.

“They will have four degree-completion options,” McCutcheon said. “One would be to complete a thesis.”

Another completion pathway, which is typically not offered, is a “creative-expression option”.

“We have a Fine Arts and Theatre program,” McCutcheon explained. “A student could potentially do projects in one of those areas, such as write a play about a social justice issue.”

Sociology Prof. Dr. Jiyoung Lee-An is an immigrant from South Korea and a critical race feminist.

“Defining intersections of gender and race has been at the centre of my own lived experience living in Canada as a racialized immigrant and activist-scholar,” Lee-An said.

She encouraged people from diverse backgrounds to think seriously about enrolling in the MAHRSJ program at TRU. The advantage of this, she noted, is that potential students will bring their embodied experiences of living in Canada as a minority into the classroom. And through discussing their own experiences and concerns, this can lead to more systemic analysis that sheds light on broader issues to create social change.

“So I really want to be that bridge so that students can actually come and talk to me,” Lee-An said. “Also, we can actually combine our experience to transform society. I see my role in the program in that way.”

Lee-An emphasized that there is great diversity among different racialized groups and different priorities in terms of political struggles. “But I think it’s really important for me and hopefully for other racialized Canadians and immigrants to contribute toward strengthening interracial solidarity,” she said.

According to McCutcheon, there are several ways in which the MAHRSJ degree could be applied in the workforce. First of all, there’s great demand among nongovernmental organizations for people with a great deal of understanding of human rights and social justice. Secondly, he said that in some professions, such as teaching, gaining a graduate degree can actually increase a person’s pay level—and human rights and social justice are very relevant in the educational sphere.

Finally, he added, there’s increasing demand within corporations for people with a deep understanding of these issues because that can help alleviate problems and avoid legal liability.

“We did market research and what it showed was there’s a real hunger for this kind of program,” McCutcheon said. “It makes sense to me.”

Find out how you can change the world by visiting www.tru.ca/ma/.