Humanitarian Action: Past, Present and Future (DHP-D230)

Fall 2025 · DHP D230 · Tufts University · 3 credits · Undergraduate

This is a course about global humanitarian action. It looks at the historical roots of what has become today’s humanitarianism, including differences in humanitarian thought, the development of the UN and NGO systems, donor behavior and initiatives and organizations that are outside mainstream humanitarian architecture. This course centers and privileges the experience of crisis-affected communities, including their own responses to crisis, and how the formal humanitarian system supports, ignores, or hampers these responses. We take a look at the laws, principles, and ethical codes of conduct underpinning the humanitarian enterprise, as well as dilemmas humanitarians face in applying these norms, principles and codes, historically and presently. We examine various types of humanitarian responses from prevention to emergency responses, to “medium-term” and “long-term” prevention. We learn how to evaluate information coming from the sector, and conduct our own inquiries. Importantly, this course is taught with a continuous critique of the politics and norms underlying the sector, whether formally acknowledged or not. With this in mind, two cross-cutting topics will be taught throughout the course: local responses to humanitarian action and neo-colonialism in humanitarianism.

Course codes: DHP-D230

Course Discovery