Law and Ethics Courses
Current Course Offerings
Click a course title to jump to the description. Note that these courses only represent the Department of Philosophy. Check with other departments for course availability.
Course Descriptions
ENGL 1250 Literature and Law
3 credit hours
Students study the relationship between legal and literary texts. Special emphasis is placed on the literary invocation of legal phenomena, the regulation of criminality, and the ways in which legal texts deploy literary conventions to advance the cause of justice.
PHIL 1201 Introduction to Philosophy
6 credit hours
Philosophy is devoted to the critical and creative examination of such fundamental questions as: What can be known? Does existence have meaning? What is a worthwhile life? What moral obligations do people have to one another? What makes a society just? Philosophy provides systematic training in the framing of these questions and in the rigorous analysis of the issues they involve.
Note: Students cannot receive credit for PHIL 1306 or PHIL 1600 if they receive credit for PHIL 1201 and vice versa; however, students can receive credit for both PHIL 1306 and PHIL 1600.
3 credit hours
The philosophy of sex and sexuality concerns the nature and moral significance of sexual behaviors. Topics may include the concept of sex, sexual identity, sex and love, sex and marriage, rape, and prostitution.
PHIL 1248 Killing and Letting Die
3 credit hours
When, if ever, is it morally permissible to kill another human being, or yourself? What is morally problematic about killing? Is killing morally worse than letting die? Are we morally obligated to prevent as many deaths as we can? This course explores these questions and others through a discussion of classical and contemporary philosophical readings.
POLI 1230 Law and Politics
3 credit hours
An examination of the practical and theoretical connections between law and politics. The course will concentrate on contemporary public law issues and constitutional reform in liberal-democracies.
3 credit hours
Students examine theories of right and wrong. Some of the questions students will discuss include: do the ends justify the means? Is right and wrong relative to a culture? Can we justify a particular set of moral rules? Is deception always morally wrong? When, if ever, is killing morally permissible?
Note: Students cannot receive credit for both PHIL 2303 and PHIL 2302
6 credit hours
Prerequisite: 9 credit hours
An introduction to moral philosophy designed to lead the student to examine the foundations of their moral positions. To this end historical and contemporary answers by philosophers to questions such as the following will be examined: What ought I to do morally and ultimately why I ought to do it? Are ethical positions simply relative: (a) to a person? (b) to a society? What is the relation between science and morality? Why be moral?
PHIL 2332 Ethics and Criminal Law
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: 9 credit hours
Students study topics related to the criminal justice system, including settler and Indigenous definitions of crime, police, courts, and prisons. Ethical questions about these legal topics, considering both defences and critiques of the Canadian system, exploring alternative systems, and attempting to discover what true justice looks like are raised
PHIL 2335 Ethics of Common and Constitutional Law
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: 9 credit hours
Students are introduced to ethical issues within constitutional and common law to answer the following questions: Does the Charter protect human rights? When is it ethical to sue another individual (or corporation) for trespass, defamation, or negligence? How might we change these legal systems to better serve the public good?
ANCS 2450 The ‘Cradle of Civilization’: The Ancient Near East (formerly CLAS 2450)
3 credit hours
Students explore the history and cultures of Anatolia, Mesopotamia, and the Levant from the first cities, ca. 3000 BCE, to the fall of the Persian Empire, ca. 323 BCE. Students unravel the complex histories of the ‘first civilizations’, exploring such topics as kingship and religion, urbanization, commerce, legal and social structures and scientific innovations.
ANCS 2453 Republic and Revolution: Roman History I (formerly CLAS 2453) HIST 2453
3 credit hours
Students are introduced to the history of Italy and the city of Rome from the Iron Age through the end of the Roman republican system of government. Students explore the origins and evolution of the Roman Republic, including the interaction among Romans, their Italian neighbours such as the Etruscans, and the Greek and Phoenician peoples of the eastern Mediterranean. Among the topics students examine are the political and military history of the period as well as the social and cultural context that encapsulates and informs this history, and the eventual decline of the republican system amidst the political turmoil and revolution of the first century BC. Students read the works of various ancient authors and to consider archaeological and epigraphic evidence for this history of the Roman republic. Content will vary from year to year.
ANCS 2454 Bloody Caesars: Roman History II (formerly CLAS 2454) HIST 2454
3 credit hours
Students are introduced to the history of the Roman world from the establishment of the Principate under Octavian/Augustus to the decline of the Roman empire in the western Mediterranean and Europe. Students explore the evolution of the Principate and its eventual replacement by the Dominate, the nature of Roman imperialism, the role of the emperor as a political and religious figure, the interaction among the Romans and their neighbours in central Europe and the Near East, and the eventual political and economic disintegration of the imperial system. Students consider such topics as different models of Roman economic, social, and political organization, the role and status of women in the Roman world, the codification of the Roman legal system, and the intellectual and religious developments that laid the foundations for subsequent historical periods in Western Europe and the Mediterranean. Students read the works of various ancient authors and to consider archaeological and epigraphic evidence relevant to the history of the Roman imperial period. Content will vary from year to year.
ANCS 2455 Ancient Empires (formerly CLAS 2455)
3 credit hours
Students are introduced to the empires of the ancient Near East, Egypt, and the Mediterranean, including Greece and Rome. Throughout the course various imperial systems and experiences will be contrasted, and models of imperialism and colonialism explored. Students are also introduced to ancient history, culture, art, architecture, and literature as these topics relate to imperialism.
ENGL 2261 Postcolonial Literature: Africa, the Caribbean, and South Asia
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: Three (3) credit hours in ENGL at the 1000-level
This course introduces students to postcolonial writing in English from Africa, the Caribbean and South Asia. Authors to be studied may include Chinua Achebe, Buchi Emecheta, Shyam Selvadurai, Samuel Selvon, Jamaica Kincaid, Kamala Das and Anita Desai.
ENGL 2262 Postcolonial Literature: Canada, Australia, and New Zealand
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: Three (3) credit hours in ENGL at the 1000-level
This course introduces students to postcolonial writing in English from Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Authors to be studied may include Eden Robinson, Sky Lee, Rudy Wiebe, Gerry Bostock, Jack Davis and Witi Ihimaera.
ENGL 2537 Ireland in Revolution, 1890-1922 IRST 2537
3 credit hours
Students study Irish literature and culture as a case study in anti-colonial revolution. Focusing on Ireland’s major revolutionaries and writers, including Patrick Pearse, James Connolly, Constance Markievicz, Lady Gregory, W.B. Yeats, and James Joyce, students examine how and why colonized peoples resist, and what the long-term effects of colonialism, and its overthrow, might be.
HIST 2381 China Before 1800
3 credit hours
This course explores roughly four millennia of Chinese history, from the distant origins of Chinese society to its zenith during the Qing Dynasty. Divided into three eras - Ancient, Early Imperial, and Late Imperial - the class follows a thematic approach that considers the dynamics of political, economic, intellectual, and social change within each era. No previous study of China is required.
HIST 2401 Canadian Political History
3 credit hours
This course is an analysis of the development of Canadian politics and public policy from confederation to the Chretien years. While the main focus is federal politics, developments at the provincial level will be analyzed through a number of case studies. Public policy initiatives including social welfare programs, bilingualism and multiculturalism will also be analyzed.
PHIL 2311 Political Philosophy: The Classic Texts
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: 9 credit hours
A critical examination of core works in the history of political philosophy. Philosophers discussed often include Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Mill, Rousseau, Marx, and Nietzsche.
PHIL 2345 Greek Philosophy: The Presocratics and Plato ANCS 2345
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: 9 credit hours
Students examine Greek philosophy before the time of Socrates followed by careful readings of selected dialogues by Plato.
PHIL 2346 Greek Philosophy: Aristotle and The Hellenists ANCS 2346
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: 9 credit hours
Students study Aristotle’s views (focusing on topics in metaphysics, psychology, knowledge, and ethics), together with a brief examination of several Hellenistic philosophers.
RELS 2323 The Islamic Religious Tradition
3 credit hours
Islam is one of the most rapidly expanding religious traditions in the world. This course will examine the origins of Islam, its fundamental teachings in the Qu’ran and in the works of some of its major teachers. In addition, the course will survey the history of Islam and contemporary developments in selected areas.
RELS 2370 Introduction to the Qur'an
3 credit hours
Students examine the Qur’an as scripture, including sources, structure, style, transmission, sciences, interpretation and basic themes.
ANTH 2282 Introducing Forensic Anthropology
3 credit hours
This course is an introduction to the multidisciplinary nature of forensic anthropology. It explores the myths and realities of the search for human remains in crime scenes, what should be expected from a forensic anthropology expert in the courtroom, some of the challenges in mass fatality incident responses, and what a student should consider if they want to pursue a career in forensic anthropology.
CMLW 2201 Legal Aspects of Business - Part I
3 credit hours
The formation of a contract will be discussed along with the requirements for enforcing a contract, the discharge of contracts, the assignment of contractual rights, privacy misrepresentation, mistake, and duress. Students will be introduced to intentional torts, negligence, different forms of business organizations, the sale of goods, real property,the Canadian legal system, and methods of dispute resolution.
CRIM 2304 Canadian Criminal Justice System
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: Completion of 24 credit hours including CRIM 1303
Students examine the process of the criminal justice system in Canada. The roles, powers, and discretion of the police, the courts, and the correctional system are explored.
ENGL 2461 Mi’kmaq Storytelling and Literature
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: Three (3) credit hours in ENGL at the 1000-level
Students are introduced to Mi’kmaq literature and oral storytelling tradition in order to examine how Mi’kmaq people and culture have endured, adapted and flourished. As the original inhabitants of the lands now known as Canada’s Maritime provinces, the Mi’kmaq peoples are the holders of a wealth of Indigenous knowledge. These stories, both oral and written, give evidence to the deep connections the Mi’kmaq have with this coastal land base, and exhibit their intimate knowledge of all creatures native to the area.
ENGL 2513 Introduction to Indigenous Literature
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: Three (3) credit hours in ENGL at the 1000-level
Students are introduced to contemporary Indigenous literatures of Turtle Island, in English, through writing by Indigenous peoples in Canada (First Nations, Inuit, and Métis) and Native Americans in the U.S. Through the lens of Indigenous worldview and intellectual ways of knowing, class discussion and analysis centers on social, political, historical, spiritual, and environmental issues with an eye towards decolonization.
PHIL 2304 Evil
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: 9 credit hours
This course is about the nature and significance of evil events, actions, characters, and institutions. Topics include historical accounts of evil, suffering, skepticism about evil, evil and mental illness, terrorism, torture, and genocide.
PHIL 2305 Environmental Ethics
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: 9 credit hours
The nature of the ecological crisis will be examined. Philosophical responses to it will be presented which will involve analysis of the concepts of animal rights, of the intrinsic value of nature, and of obligations to future generations. A portion of the course will be spent on the application of the theoretical concepts to specific ecological issues including population and world hunger, pollution, and the sustainable society. Part of the objective of the applied section will be to raise issues of public policy within a philosophical framework.
PHIL 2312 Contemporary Political Philosophy
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: 9 credit hours
This course introduces students to the major schools of contemporary political thought, such as utilitarianism, liberal egalitarianism, libertarianism, Marxism, communitarianism, and feminism. Among the issues addressed are the justification for state power, the role of human nature in determining political arrangements, democracy and the rights of minorities, the tension between liberty and equality, and the just distribution of resources.
PHIL 2318 Science and Society
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: 9 credit hours
This course studies science in its social context. Contemporary and historical case studies provide a basis for examining effects of scientific and technological innovation on society, whether social values are implicated in scientific discovery and justification, and ways in which social and economic institutions shape scientific practice.
PHIL 2331 Business Ethics
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: 9 credit hours
An examination of the extent to which business objectives can, must, or do conflict with moral objectives, and of the extent to which business organizations can be brought into harmony with moral objectives. This will involve treatment of the relevant aspects of ethical theory.
PHIL 2334 Health Care Ethics and the Law
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: 9 credit hours in any courses in the Faculty of Arts
Students consider ethical and legal questions about the delivery of healthcare, including questions about caring for the vulnerable while respecting their dignity, assessing the values involved in decisions about the end of life, and how healthcare would be delivered in a just society.
PHIL 2358 Philosophy of Human Nature
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: 9 credit hours
Is there such a thing as a fixed and essential human nature? If so, what is it? What are we like as beings in the universe, on earth, in history? This course will consider a range of classical and contemporary responses to these questions. Included among the views that will be addressed are those of Aristotle, Hobbes, Rousseau, Darwin, Marx, and Freud, as well as existentialist, behaviorist, and feminist accounts.
PHIL 2385 Philosophical Issues in Feminism [WMST 2385]
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: 9 credit hours
This course examines philosophical issues in feminism, such as sexism, oppression, social construction, essentialism, gender, race, and class. Attention is paid to ties between theory and practice.
RELS 2350 Faith in Action: Religion and Social Movements
3 credit hours
Students explore the religious dimensions of important social movements throughout the world, such as Engaged Buddhism and the Abolitionist, Anti-colonialism, Peace, Social Gospel, Temperance, and Civil Rights movements. Students will examine the stories of such important activists as Louise McKinney, Mohandas K. Gandhi, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King Jr., The Dalai Lama, and Thich Nhat Hanh. The emphasis will be on social justice movements. The causes of the rise of reactionary, so-called “fundamentalist” movements will also be considered.
PHIL 3333 Philosophy of Law (formerly PHIL 2333)
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: 6 credit hours in PHIL
Topics covered often include natural law theory, legal positivism, the separability thesis, relations between law and morality, legal interpretation, the economic analysis of the law, and legal skepticism.
PHIL 3470 Normative Ethical Theories
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: 6 credit hours in PHIL
This course is a critical investigation of normative ethical theories, such as theories about what makes right actions right, good states of affairs good, and virtuous people virtuous. The theories discussed may include: those that evaluate the morality of actions based on their consequences, those that evaluate the morality of actions based on intrinsic features such as whether they respect autonomy, and those that evaluate the morality of actions based on the sorts of people who characteristically perform such actions.
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: 6 credit hours in PHIL
The course investigates the moral concepts that are used in the formulation and evaluation of ethical theories, including: ‘morality’, ‘moral value’, ‘virtue’, ‘vice’, ‘moral right’, ‘moral obligation’, ‘justice’, and ‘good’.
PHIL 3472 Foundation of Ethics
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: 6 credit hours in PHIL
The course will involve the study of the nature of moral judgments and the logic of moral reasoning.
PHIL 3475 Moral Psychology
3 credit hours
Prerequisites: 9 credit hours
Moral Psychology is an interdisciplinary study that draws on empirical research about human psychology and behavior and conceptual work in philosophical ethics.
ANCS 3352 Women and Family in Ancient Greece (formerly CLAS 3352)
6 credit hours
Prerequisite: 6 credit hours in ANCS or 30 credit hours overall
Students study the ancient Greek oikos (family, household) and the daily activities, roles and legal position of women, children and other dependents in the ancient Greek households (ca. 800-31 BCE). The focus will be on women of different social classes and family life in ancient Greece, with some comparative consideration of the lives of women in other regions of the ancient world (Italy, Mesopotamia, the Levant and Egypt).
ANCS 3400 Rome’s Eternal Glory: The Age of Augustus (formerly CLAS 3400) HIST 3400
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: 6 credit hours in ANCS or 30 credit hours overall
Students examine a key transitional historical period in the Roman world, with the dissolution of the republic and its replacement with a monarchy during the reign of Rome’s first emperor. Through a close analysis of ancient material and textual evidence, students will examine and evaluate the Age of Augustus.
ANCS 3411 Great Trials of Ancient Athens (formerly CLAS 3411)
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: 6 credit hours in ANCS or 30 credit hours overall
Students study Athenian democracy, law, life in 5th-4th century BC Athens through speeches (in translation) from a selection of cases (e.g. homicide, impiety, sexual misconduct and slander) in combination with other documentary evidence and archaeological remains. Topics include: aspects of the legal and political systems, Athenian social life and the core Athenian.
ANCS 3420 International Relations Eastern Mediterranean Style (formerly CLAS 3420)
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: 6 credit hours in ANCS or 30 credit hours overall
Students study the intercultural relationships among the inhabitants of the eastern Mediterranean during the Archaic and Classical periods of Greek history (ca. 900 to 323 BCE). The focus will be on the interactions among the Greeks, the Phoenicians and the Persians and the impacts their exchanges had on the political, commercial and cultural activities of the regions.
HIST 3301 Crime and Punishment in England Before 1800
3 credit hours
This course is a survey of the history of crime and punishment in England in an age before professional police forces and standing armies. Students trace the evolution of criminal courts, the role of juries and the shift from physical punishments to imprisonment and transportation. Other topics include medieval ordeals, dueling, riots and popular protest.
HIST 3303 Law and Society in Britain 1500-1800
3 credit hours
The law was an essential constituent of pre-modern English society, shaping everything from inter personal relations to the nature of government. Students examine the institutions and culture of law from the end of the medieval period to the dawn of the modern age, excluding crime and criminal law. Topics include law courts and litigation, church law and the policing of morality, community justice, law and literature, defamation, censorship and state formation.
HIST 3475 Histories of Indigenous and Settler Relations
3 credit hours
Relations between indigenous peoples and settler societies have been problematic wherever European colonization has taken place. Students study how these relationships have evolved over time with a view to developing a historical understanding of contemporary issues.
ANCS 3506 Cultural Property Protection in a Global World ICST 3506
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: 30 credit hours overall
Students examine ethics, policies, and legal frameworks associated with the protection of cultural property in a global world with a cross-cultural perspective. The emphasis is placed on the roles of law enforcement, cultural institutions, and intergovernmental agencies with respect to the preservation of cultural property. International cases involving the restitution of material culture, illicit trafficking, destruction of cultural monuments, and looting is considered.
CMLW 3202 Legal Aspects of Business - Part II
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: CMLW 2201
Students critically examine additional legal aspects of business. Topics covered may include laws and legal issues pertaining to human rights, the constitution, war, competition, criminal enterprise, employment, labour, sports, defamation, tax, immigration, the environment, and the law of the sea.
CRIM 3205 Restorative Justice Theory
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: Declaration of Criminology Major or Minor
Restorative justice defines crime as a violation of social or interpersonal relationships, rather than a violation of an official rule or regulation. Students examine how restorative justice offers a wholesale shift in thinking about wrongdoing challenging the common belief that justice is best achieved through punishment and retribution.
CRIM 3505 Prisons & Punishment
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: Declaration of Criminology Major or Minor
Students analyze efforts to respond to individuals who have been convicted of criminal offences. Topics covered include: the objectives of punishment, alternatives to confinement, correctional institutions and administrations, the inmate prison experience, release and re-entry, and the effectiveness of prisons and punishment.
Note: Student may not receive credit for CRIM 3505 if they have already taken SOCI 3505.
CRIM 3510 Criminal Law
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: Declaration of Criminology Major or Minor
This course is designed to familiarize students with Canadian criminal law. The course will focus on topics such as the history, nature and functions of criminal law, its elements and role in a democratic society, exemptions from criminal responsibility, its principles and procedures, and its administration and enforcement.
Note: Student may not receive credit for CRIM 3510 if they have already taken SOCI 3510.
CRIM 3546 Crime and the Media
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: Declaration of Criminology Major or Minor
This course focuses on the depiction of crime in various media of mass communication. Areas of study include corporate crime, violent crime, gangs, organized crime and terrorism. This course also examines how gender, race and class are related to the way crime is depicted in the
Note: Student may not receive credit for CRIM 3546 if they have already taken SOCI 3546.
ENGL 3462 Post 1945 Black Brit Writing
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: Three (3) credit hours in ENGL at the 1000 level
Students are introduced to post-1945 black British and Caribbean literatures. Through the work of key thinkers read alongside a selection of generically diverse texts (fiction, film, poetry), students will examine the historical, political, and aesthetic debates that have shaped the field of Black British studies. Writers and filmmakers investigated may include: Sam Selvon, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Hanif Kureishi, Bernardine Evaristo, Caryl Phillips, Zadie Smith, John Akomfrah, and the Black Audio Film Collective.
ENGL 3521 North American Indigenous Literature: United States
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: Three (3) credit hours in ENGL at the 1000 level
Students are introduced to the literature of the Indigenous peoples of North America. Beginning with the oral creationary stories and moving into written works from the 19th–21st centuries, students examine the distinct styles and central themes found in contemporary writing by Native authors in the United States. Students are expected to identify the unique complexities that emerge in the literature, such as issues of voice, gender, experience, critical theory, racism, Indigenous intellectualism, and identity.
ENGL 3522 North American Indigenous Literature: Canada
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: Three (3) credit hours in ENGL at the 1000 level
Students study the works by First Nation, Inuit and Metis writers in Canada, and examine the issues of colonialism, voice, resistance and empowerment, as well as culture, spirituality and intellectual tradition as key themes. Along with exploring the familiar genres of Western writing – autobiography, poetry, short stories, drama, and the novel students address unique approaches to literature as developed by the authors, as well as critical approaches that originate from Indigenous communities.
ENGL 3791 Literatures of the Black Atlantic ACST 3791
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: Three (3) credit hours in ENGL at the 1000 level
Students examine transnational literatures from African, Caribbean, European and North American contexts with a focus on the multidirectional networks and the distinctive poetics of water that constitute the historical and literary formation of the black Atlantic. Writers examined may include; Olaudah Equiano, Phillis Wheatley, Claude McKay, James Baldwin, Derek Walcott, Dionne Brand, Lawrence Hill, Bernardine Evaristo and Caryl Phillips.
PHIL 3415 Argumentation Theory
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: PHIL 1200
Contemporary argumentation theory draws upon several disciplines: philosophy of language, cognitive psychology, feminist philosophy, and communications theory. This course will examine the concept of argument through the lens provided by argumentation theorists. Alternative conceptions of argument will be critically examined and an overview of the development of argumentation theory will be provided.
POLI 3321 International Organizations
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: Three (3) credit hours in POLI
Students examine the tensions between emerging forms of global governance and existing structures of inter-governmentalism. Students explore international organizations such as the United Nations (UN) and topics such as international peacekeeping, humanitarian law, international trade, and civil society.
POLI 3350 Indigenous Politics: Past, Present and Future
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: Three (3) credit hours at the 1000 level in POLI
Students examine Indigenous politics with a focus on political legacies, contemporary challenges, and future political opportunities and constraints. Students explore Indigenous politics vis-à-vis legislatures, courts, and international bodies through broader notions of governance and justice, movement mobilization and protest. The focus is on Canada, but may include comparative political dimensions.
POLI 3418 International Law
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: Three (3) credit hours in POLI
A study of the features of public international law as they have developed and have been invoked in diplomatic practice, international law adjudication, and national courts.
POLI 3419 Comparative Constitutional Law
6 credit hours
Prerequisite: Three (3) credit hours in POLI
A comparative analysis of constitutional systems, this course focuses upon the theory and exercise of judicial review, in the context of Canadian, American, European, or other constitutions. It combines lectures, readings, and the case method.
RELS 3101 Law and Religion
3 credit hours
Students are provided with an overview and an exploration of the relationship between law and religion in Canada. Students examine the roots of the common law and its colonial trajectories by studying key cases on abortion, blasphemy, circumcision, divorce and other issues at the intersection of law and religion.
RELS 3354 Indigenous Peoples, Religion, Spirituality and Social Justice
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: 30 credit hours
Students are introduced to religious, and spiritual traditions of Indigenous peoples in the Atlantic region and beyond. Students learn about connections between religion, spirituality, decolonization, and social justice for Indigenous people. Topics could include colonization, gender and sexuality, environment, education, land rights, policing, and the history of academic study of Indigenous cultures.
RELS 3102 Neoliberalism
3 credit hours
Students examine the ideology of neoliberalism and the ways in which it functions as the religion of the “secular” present. Students explore the ways that neoliberal logics restructure our concepts of personhood, our relationships to each other, and the ways that religions are themselves restructured according to the demands of capital and the market.
SOCI 3000 Social Inequality
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: SOCI 1210 (with a minimum grade of C)
Students apply a life course perspective to explore the extent, causes, and consequences of social inequality in Canada. Students use the intersectional approach to understand how various social dimensions are intertwined to exacerbate disadvantages and reproduce further disparities across the life course (e.g., gender, race/ethnicity, and class).
SOCI 3333 Social Movements
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: SOCI 1210 (with a minimum grade of C)
Students examine some of North America’s most socially transformative social movements. Drawing on social movement theories, students explore not only how and why people organize and mobilize to address perceived grievances, but also when such mobilizations are likely to occur, succeed, or fail.
SOCI 3336 Sociology of Work
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: SOCI 1210 (with a minimum grade of C)
Students examine several ongoing debates about social organization of work and well-being, including precarious employment, work intensification, emotional labour, work-family conflict, and distributive justice. Students also examine job conditions that are harmful to workers, resources that protect workers, and how we contextualize job conditions and situate them in broader systems of stratification.
SOCI 3422 Political Sociology
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: SOCI 1210 (with a minimum grade of C)
Students examine prevalent theories and emerging approaches on political behaviour, change and institutions. Topics include voting behaviour, political parties, international relations, lobbying, political culture, political news media, etc.
SOCI 3431 Women, Migration and Identity
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: SOCI 1210 (with a minimum grade of C)
In this course, students explore the interrelationship between the mobility and identity of migrant women under the current conditions of globalization. Through various theoretical paradigms, students examine how the identities of migrant women are shaped by gender, nation-states, labour markets, and other migrant and non-migrant groups.
SJCS 3216 Unpacking Whiteness
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: SJCS 1211 or permission of the instructor
Students use interdisciplinary, intersectional, and critical approaches to explore the socio-historical construction, practices, policing, and power of white racial privilege, and white supremacy. Students also consider potential solutions to these problems.
SJCS 3218 Racialization and Social Control
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: SJCS 1211 (formerly SOCI 1211), and SJCS 2220 or permission of the instructor.
Students examine key theoretical texts and empirical studies on the construction, policing, and regulation of the Other institutionally, individually, and systemically. Topics include eugenics and temperance movements, prison regulation, racial profiling, policing of Indigenous and Black communities, and the casting out of Muslims from Western law and politics.
SJCS 3408 Urban Social Justice
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: SJCS 1211 or permission of the instructor
Students are introduced to the interdisciplinary study of the city, and urban social relations and communities, with particular attention paid to how these are shaped through unequal power relations, and in historically specific ways.
SJCS 3508 Corporate and State Crime
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: SJCS 1211 (formerly SOCI 1211) or permission of the instructor
Students examine corporate and state crime and social harm, the principal factors in the definition and commission of such crimes, and the ways in which governments and legal systems respond to the problems.
SJCS 3608 Forms of Servitude
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: SJCS 1211 (formerly SOCI 1211), and SJCS 2220, or permission of the instructor
Students explore different forms of servitude at the intersections of imperialism, racialization, globalization, labour, and citizenship. Students analyze a combination of texts that largely focus on Canadian contexts, but also include texts set in other countries. Possible topics could include chattel slavery, indentured labour, and migrant labour.
PSYC 3710 Psychology and Law (formerly PSYC 3320) (Group B)
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: nine (9) credit hours in PSYC, including PSYC 1000 and either PSYC 1310 or PSYC 1510.
Students are introduced to the psychological science relevant to legal procedures, including the reliability of eyewitness testimony, the role of experts in the courts, subject apprehension and interview, deception-detection, and jury decision making.
PHIL 4525 International Justice
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: 12 credit hours in PHIL including 6 hours at the 2000 level or above
This course will consider how major theories of justice such as Kantian constructivism, economic contractarianism, and utilitarianism deal with important issues in international justice such as the law of peoples, distributive justice, human rights, and democratization.
PHIL 4528 Topics in Moral, Political, and Legal Philosophy
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: 12 credit hours in PHIL including 6 hours at the 2000 level or above.
An intensive study of one or more topics in moral, political, and/or legal philosophy
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: 12 credit hours in PHIL including 6 hours at the 2000 level or above
This course examines the contributions of feminist philosophers to historical and contemporary philosophical thought in diverse areas of inquiry, such as ethics, political theory, metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of science, and philosophy of mind.
PHIL 4590 Topics in Social Philosophy
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: 12 credit hours in PHIL including 6 hours at the 2000 level or above
Students engage in an intensive study of one or more topics in social philosophy. Social Philosophy is broadly defined as the study of conceptual and normative issues concerning social relationships, practices, and institutions.
HIST 4200 Women’s Rights in Britain 1500-1925
3 credit hours
The rights and obligations of women in a society are often central to their status, economic power and life experience. Students examine changes in women’s legal rights, entitlements and duties in England and (to a lesser extent) Wales and Scotland over the course of more than four centuries. Topics include property rights, inheritance practices, domestic violence, the gap between legal theory and social practice, the differing experiences of single, married and widowed women, female citizenship and nationality, and women suffrage.
HIST 4401 Crime in Canada
3 credit hours
In this examination of Canadian criminal justice history, subjects include: the changing definition of crime as understood by local communities and the state, law enforcement, the trial process, punishment, moral regulation and the role of gender, race, and ethnicity in shaping the development and operation of the justice system.
RELS 4200 Postcolonialism and Religion
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: Declared Major or Honours in Religious Studies and completion of a minimum of 60 credit hours of university courses or permission of the instructor
What is postcolonialism and how does it apply to the study of religion? When European and North American powers colonized a majority of the globe, they brought with them particular ways of defining legitimate religious behavior. Students explore ways in which these definitions continue to shape and challenge the ways we understand religion after colonialism.
ENGL 4465 Indigenous Literature Seminar
3 credit hours
In addition to studying theories of race and indigeneity, students explore representative works by Indigenous authors in depth and to conduct original research on Indigenous literatures. Students explore the continuity of oral and written traditions in the literary, cultural, and material contexts in which the literature is written, spoken, and read.
ENGL 4466 Representations of Indigenous Womanhood
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: Three (3) credit hours in ENGL at the 1000-level
Students explore writings and cultural productions (including biography, fiction, poetry, theater, media, and film) by and about Indigenous women of North America. This group has experienced oppression and dislocation from land, communities, spirituality, and traditional roles as a result of European colonization. Students examine how such dislocations and acts of oppression arose from creation and perpetuation within colonizer literature and media productions of inaccurate and stereotypical images.
POLI 4317 Charter Politics and Constitutional Change
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: Three (3) credit hours in POLI
A comparative examination of selected sources and authorities respecting fundamental law in democratic countries. The course will provide students of constitutional law with a theoretical basis for the analysis of constitutions and relevant judicial decisions.
POLI 4480 Human Rights, Modern Perplexities
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: Three (3) credit hours in POLI
Students gain an understanding of the historical and philosophical context in which human rights emerged as a modern political concept. Students consider the evolution of human rights from early modern natural law theory, through the French Revolution of 1789, to the aftermath of 20th century totalitarianism, focusing in particular on the intersections between nature, politics, philosophy and the law.
POLI 4481 Human Rights, Contemporary Paradoxes
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: Three (3) credit hours in POLI
Students develop an appreciation of the conceptual difficulties related to international human rights in the contemporary context. Recent debates in critical political and legal theory, particularly regarding the issue of international interventions and humanitarian aid are examined.
RELS 4333 Religion Race & Gender
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: Declared Major or Honours in Religious Studies and completion of a minimum of 60 credit hours of university courses or permission of the instructor
Students consider race, gender, religion and spirituality both as socially constructed, historically situated categories, and as intersecting, embodied human experiences. Students apply critical race and feminist theory to examine histories of colonialism, displacement, migration and resistance.
SOCI 4210 Forced Migration and Refugees
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: SOCI 1210 (with a minimum grade of C)
Students critically examine the key determinants, processes, and consequences of internal displacement and forced migration across borders through the analysis of case studies from around the world. Topics include, selectively, contemporary refugee issues, gender violence in conflict zones, resettlement, repatriation, refugees and development, asylum-seekers, and the Canadian and UN refugee protection systems and various international conventions.
SOCI 4224 Inequality and Human Suffering
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: SOCI 1210 (with a minimum grade of C)
Students examine the social, cultural, political, and environmental, moral consequences of contemporary economic conditions in Canada and around the world. Particular attention is paid to the history of social inequality as well as to the many ways people cope with and resist inequitable conditions.
SJCS 4432 Gender and Law
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: SJCS 2000 or permission of the instructor
Students examine and analyze how the social construction of femininity, masculinity and non-binary gender intersect with other dimensions of identity and power to shape law.
RELS 4389 Religion and Public Life
3 credit hours
Prerequisite: Fourth year, honours, or graduate student in RELS or related field
A pressing question in Western democracies is the place of religion in public life. Students examine the historical presence of religion in public life and the ways in which its presence is manifest in the modern west and the questions/controversies that this presence elicits.