• Develop a keen understanding of the history, philosophy, tools, and current methods of advocacy with reference to key texts and case studies.
• Identify your interests and refine your skills as an advocate, amplifying your natural talents and developing new ones.
METHOD:
The course applies a “flipped classroom” model using the virtual educational platform Moodle, on which you will find reading assignments and submit classwork. The class sessions are intended as encounters with texts and concepts which will be explored challenged in open dialogue with instructors and fellow students.
Learning Outcomes:
By the end of the course, the students will be able to:
- Develop a keen understanding of the history, philosophy, tools and current methods of advocacy with reference to key texts and case studies.
- Appreciate the capacity of organizing communities and nonviolence strategy in advocacy campaigns targeting policy-makers and transnational companies.
- Identify your interest and refine your skills as an advocate, amplifying your natural talents and developing new ones..
Professional Skills:
1. Understand and employ methods of public narrative in an advocacy campaign.
2. Envisioning and design effective advocacy strategies based on theory of changes
3. Understand and employ methods of powermapping.
4. Use digital technologies to reinforce an advocacy strategy.
5. Recognize key concepts from the history of advocacy, including dialogue, community organizing and intersectionality.
6. Develop corporate advocacy strategies while identifying choke points in supply and investment chains
7. Integrate political communication, social mobilization and advocacy strategies
political communication, social mobilization and advocacy strategies
Lex PAULSON
Séminaire
English
- In Class Presence: 4 hours a week / 24 hours a semester
- Reading and Preparation for Class:8,9 hours during 7 weeks / 62 hours a semester
- Research and Preparation for Group Work: 8,8 hours during 5 weeks / 44 hours a semester
- Research and Writing for Individual Assessments: 5 hours during 4 week / 20 hours a semester
Total: 150 hours
None
Spring 2024-2025
5-page personal essay (40%); small-group research project (50%); class participation (10%).
The personal essays are evaluated with comments and a projected grade range out of 20. Students are given the option to keep the current draft and grade range or do revisions.
The research project is presented weeks 11 and 12 to professor and NGO partners. Feedback is given and integrated for the final deliverable. A single grade is given to all members of a group.
Advocacy is the art of peaceful persuasion to create social and political change.
This course is intended to strike a balance between the collective exploration of key concepts in advocacy, the analysis of personal and professional experiences, and the exploration of emerging trends and problems. We will also take part in a unique research collaboration with NGOs building advocacy campaigns in different parts of the world.
You will form small research groups of 4-6 students, in which you will carry out an advocacy research project with guidance from an NGO partner.
In addition, you will each write a 5-page personal essay on an advocacy problem of special interest, drawing upon the texts and concepts from class.
Readings for Session 1 : Plato's Apology & Crito; Audre Lorde: "The Master's Tools will never dismantle the Master's House" (1979), "Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference" (1980), and "Poetry is not a Luxury" (1985).
Juan Zubizarreta and Pedro Ramino Against Lex Mercatoria (2016); resources from Poder Latam; resources from Following the money; excerpts from Jake Alimahomed‐Wilson and Immanuel Ness Choke points (2018).