** This course is part of the Humanitarian Challenges: Borders, Environments, and Rights Focus cluster for first-year students. The Focus Program offers an integrated learning experiences across academic disciplines and opportunities to venture beyond Duke’s campus into the community (such as field trips, travel, community service). Enrollment is open ONLY to students accepted to the Focus Program and applications are due by the Spring before matriculation: see full details at the Focus website. **
What happens to an individual’s human rights when he or she crosses a frontier? When the need to eat is greater than the right to protection? When fear of murder offsets attachment to home? How can environments near refugee camps be protected from human damage? After introducing the international conventions to protect refugees, we will explore the socio-political and environmental drivers of mass migration. Then the practical work begins. Our mission is to design a model refugee camp for the 21st century – in this case, to shelter pastoral nomads fleeing the famine in the Horn of Africa, using GoogleEarth and other programs. Three-person teams will oversee pragmatic problems (siting the camp, protecting its perimeters, sanitation, aid distribution), political negotiations with local leaders, and internal camp life.