Undergraduate research and human rights: A case study on human trafficking and migrant smuggling

This article describes a pilot teaching collaboration at The University of Queensland involving inquiry-based, interdisciplinary learning in the undergraduate curriculum, specifically in the study of human trafficking and smuggling of migrants. It describes collaboration between the university’s School of Political Science and International Studies and its School of Law to facilitate a student working group to plan, present, and disseminate students’ research
on this topic. An interdisciplinary learning environment was encouraged by having two academics, one from each of the schools, facilitate the working group.
We argue that the inquiry-based learning (IBL) format, as exemplified by the working group, has advantages to offer human-rights educators. These advantages include teaching techniques and assessment approaches that help
to highlight the importance of information sources, and the role of disciplinary knowledge and student’s own belief systems within human-rights research.