How to Be Successful... Literature of Human Rights

Justin Wu, Noor Zaman

Literature of Human Rights is a semester-long course for juniors and seniors, o ered as either a history or English elective credit. e class, taught by Associate Head of School for Mission, Community, and Culture Tom Perryman ’81, focuses on past and present human rights movements across the globe.

Perryman says that he was inspired to start the class from lessons he learned while attending the Embrey Human Rights Program at Southern Methodist University.

“I just kept thinking about how Greenhill kids would eat this up, and they’re in a position to go out and make the world better,” Perryman said.

e course begins with students discussing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a document that establishes the rights and freedoms of all human beings, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly. is guides the conversation away from partisan politics and toward more basic human rights, said Perryman.

As the class unfolds, students learn about the civil rights and LGBTQ+ movements and other national human rights movements. Local and cultural human rights issues are also examined.

“I want students to know that these sorts of atrocities aren’t things that happen on the other side of the world,” Perryman said, “ ey happen right here.” e Evergreen asked Perryman and some current and former Literature of Human Rights students about the keys to success in the class. Here’s a lightly edited transcript of what they had to say: en we analyzed it [and] we wrote an essay about how the poet used gurative language ... to further the message of the poem. at was my favorite project because the poem I chose was ‘Pocket-sized Feminism’ by Blythe Baird, which really meant a lot to me.” — junior Sanjna Kalisetty

“My favorite project that we did was the protests poem project. We got to choose a poem in the poetry anthology.

“A lot of reading of the texts, a lot of responding to prompts. ey’ll do an ‘I Believe’ speech where they’ll share a personal belief that they have, they’ll do an in-depth literary analysis of a poem. We’ll do a case study presentation of a legal case of wrongful incarceration, so it’s a lot of di erent kinds of things.” — teacher Tom Perryman

“ ey are going to encounter awful, ugly, mean-spirited, unimaginable behavior by human beings in this country. ey are going to see things they can’t unsee and they’re going to read people saying awful things. ere’s a lot of depressing stu we learn about, but ultimately, I try to keep the focus on, ‘What are we going to do about it?’.” — teacher Tom Perryman

“I de nitely would recommend this class to other students. I think it’s important to learn about social and political issues. It’s also very important just to listen to other people and try to understand perspectives that are di erent than your own, because you might be in uenced [by them] and really begin to change your mindset just based o of what other people are talking about.” — senior Aaron Johnson

“If you don’t see yourself as an actor making this world better, this isn’t the right class for you… You’ve got to be a willing and active participant.” — teacher Tom Perryman

“I would say you just have to show up with an open and understanding mind, you have to be ready to listen to other people’s perspectives and really consider them.” — senior Aaron Johnson