Are rights universal moral entitlements, or historically contingent claims rooted in particular political communities? Is the language of rights the strongest foundation for common life, or does it distort what it means to be human and to share a collective world? This seminar explores the historical and theoretical relationship between rights and citizenship from the ancient world to the present. Beginning with classical conceptions of citizenship in Greece and Rome, the course traces the emergence of modern rights discourse through early modern social contract theory, liberalism, empire, and Marxism, and into contemporary debates over freedom, equality, and belonging. Students examine the central tension between liberal and republican traditions: rights as protections of individual liberty versus rights as practices embedded in civic membership and collective self-rule. The seminar also considers rights as instruments of political claim-making—part of the practical language through which historical actors have negotiated power, authority, and obligation. Throughout, we ask whether rights discourse travels across time and space, and how its meaning changes across historical contexts, political forms, and social worlds.