My vacation has ended! After spending a week jetting around Rome, Florence, and Budapest, I came back to UCM on Tuesday feeling refreshed and ready for the rest of the year. Since UCM is on a quarter system, I’m tackling a whole new set of classes for the next seven weeks. This semester, I’m taking Human Atrocity Triangle, Crucial Differences in the 21st century, and Research Methods II, as well as continuing my Basic Dutch lessons.
One of the reasons I wanted to go on exchange to UCM was because of the class options. As someone aiming for two majors and one minor, I have a mess of academic interests that can make planning my schedule extremely difficult. When those interests intersect, it not only makes my scheduling easier but also makes learning easier. As the saying ~loosely~ goes, if you’re studying what you love, it’s fun and easy. While last semester I focused on more specialized classes, this semester both of my classes intertwine with all three of my favorite subject areas: Crime, politics, and gender.
Human Atrocity Triangle focuses on bringing a criminological understanding to Gross Human Rights violations. It seeks to define what these crimes are, the role of different actors on the macro (state) and micro (individual) level, and also look at who the victims are. Last semester at GW, I was lucky enough to get into the Human Trafficking course, and I see this class as a natural progression on this section of my academic journey. Instead of focusing on one type of atrocity, I am looking at case studies of a whole range of atrocities. After three classes, i can affirm you that it is a grim subject, but absolutely fascinating. For example, the first class focused on definitional issues — what populations did you leave out by codifying these violations? How does the legal definition allow for states to work around that definition and violate rights? Is there, or should there, be a definite line defining what is and isn’t torture? It’s always the best when you leave a class with more questions than answers.
Crucial Differences of the 21st Century focuses more on the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Political Science aspect of my education. While the course will cover human rights violations, it’s been more theory based for the most part. We’re starting off by reading on Intersectionality, Identity, and Queer theory, as well as the general histories of the civil, gay, and women’s liberation movements. Understanding how these differences manifest today will also help us understand how to deal with the political and personal ramifications of these constructed differences.
Research Methods is exactly what it sounds like — figuring out what methods of research are, and understanding what methods might be appropriate in which situations. It’s not too exciting, unlike my other classes. But it’s a nice break from constantly puzzling through genocide or discrimination. Or just letting my brain rest after spending 2 hours trying to figure out the right way to conjugate “gaan” or when to use “lekker.” Spoiler alert: the Dutch language is not very descriptive, and “lekker, which is essentially tasty, is also a catch-all that can describe chairs, carrots, people, and cars.
I definitely have a full schedule for the next seven weeks, so figuring out how to balance traveling, exercising, studying, and feeding myself will surely be an interesting and chaotic game. While the last few weeks I’ve explored multiple countries, I’m probably going to spend the rest of this quarter using my Museumkaart across the Netherlands and visiting nearby Aachen. If, that is, I can survive the four 8:30 am classes I have. Seriously, you don’t really appreciate the beauty in making your own schedule until it’s gone. If there's one thing I'm looking forward to returning to when I'm back on campus, it's returning to my almost exclusively evening classes.
Me (left) and my host mom Khadija (right)
