Courses

Instructor: Kristin Hulme
Term: Fall 2021

Description: An examination of the evolution of constitutional principles in Canada. Topics include developments in federal‐provincial relations, the role of the courts in federal‐provincial disputes, and the nexus between the community values of federalism and the individual rights in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. 

*Not offered in 2021-22

Description: This course provides an introduction to the principal theoretical perspectives and empirical debates in the study of elections, voting, public opinion, political participation and political culture in established democracies. 

Instructor: Paul Nesbitt-Larking
Term: Fall 2022

Description: A critical examination of the relationship between the mass media and politics, focusing on the functions of the media in modern liberal democracies and the ways in which news stories are created and packaged.

Instructor: Kristin Hulme
Term: Winter 2022 

Description: How courts are responding to their responsibility to review legislative and executive decisions in terms of their impact on citizens; the impact of the Charter on the way government is viewed.

Instructor: Asbjorn Melkevik
Term: Fall 2021 

Description: An examination of the character and functions of the Canadian welfare state. Theoretical explanations of the welfare state. The historical development of the Canadian welfare state. Proposals for social policy reform and their implications. 

Instructor: Paul Nesbitt-Larking 
Term: Fall 2022

Description: An introduction to Canadian political thinkers who have addressed important themes in contemporary Canadian public, legal and theoretical discourse, including multiculturalism, critical race theory, antipornography campaigns, sexual violence, globalization and modern alienation

Instructor: Danielle Delaney
Term: Winter 2022

Description: An examination of Indigenous politics in a Canadian context, including aboriginal self‐government. Lakota scholar and indigenous activist, Vine Deloria Jr, once said: “I do not believe that demonstrations can carry a group of 1 million in a nation of 203 million very far without getting them squashed.” Deloria neatly encapsulated the political reality facing indigenous peoples—numerical small, politically limited, and yet deeply resistant to the systems of political control placed over them. This course explores the impacts of, and responses to, colonization by indigenous peoples in a comparative context. Within the framework of political science methodology, this course explores a variety of themes including: land rights, sovereignty, self-determination, and the Indigenising of democracy and social protest. Students are invited to consider these themes from a comparative lens.

As an introductory course, we explore these themes in broad strokes to understand the underlying theories and logics guiding the political and legal discourses of indigeneity. While this course foregrounds the impact of and responses to colonization by Indigenous peoples in North America, we will also study these discourses have evolved in parallel in the Global South, Africa and among circumpolar regions.

Instructor: Sam Twietmeyer (S), Dalal Daoud (F)
Term: Spring 2021 (remote), Fall 2021

Title (F): “Islam and Politics" 

Description (F): The course examines the intersection of Islam and politics. It discusses Islamism as it relates to various themes in comparative politics, including social movements, political parties, democracy and democratization, as well as minority politics. 

Offered only at the Bader International Study Centre, Herstmonceux

Description: An examination of key issues in European politics. Topics will vary from year to year; consult BISC website for availability

*Not offered in 2021-22

Description: An introduction to European politics. The themes and geographic focus vary from year to year; they may include current political institutions and forces, the historical evolution of the European polities, and both Western and Eastern Europe.

Instructor: Fan Lu
Term: Fall 2021

Description: Survey of the political process in the United States; functioning and interaction of the principal formal and informal political institutions, the relationship between those institutions and their environment, the making of public policy, and current issues and trends. 

Instructor: Zsuzsa Csergő
Term: Winter 2022

Description: The politics of the Russian Federation and selected countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

Offered only at the Bader International Study Centre, Herstmonceux

Description: An examination of key issues in British politics. Topics will vary from year to year; consult the department homepage. NOTE Offered only at the Bader International Study Centre, Herstmonceux.

*Not offered in 2021-22

Description: Contemporary problems facing Britain as a result of its historical evolution: economic stagnation, centrifugal forces of nationalism and communal violence, and the decline of the two-party system.

Instructor: G. Grant Amyot
Term: Fall 2021

Description: This course provides an introduction to the European Union.  The first part deals with the history of the EU, the theories used to explain European integration, the EU's institutions and EU decision-making.  In the second part, current issues and concerns in the EU, such as Brexit, the Eurozone crisis, the refugee "crisis," and climate change are discussed.

*Not offered in 2021-22

Description: The course begins with an historical overview of the late Qing dynasty, the origins of the Chinese revolution, and 50 years of the People’s Republic of China. It then focuses primarily on political science concepts and approaches to the study of Chinese politics as well as issues of reform in various sectors of China’s economy and polity.

*Not offered in 2021-22

Description: Comparative study of Latin American politics. Topics include the political legacies of colonialism and independence, the evolution of class structures, populism, the role of the military, and the transition to democracy and free market policies. Emphasis is on the countries of continental South America.

*Not offered in 2021-22

Description: A critical examination of the current theories of development influenced by various post-Marxist, postmodernist and postcolonial tendencies. Growth strategies practised by the state and alternative visions offered by the social movements will also be discussed.

*Not offered in 2021-22

Description: Major issues in the contemporary politics and political economy of sub‐Saharan Africa. The development of the colonial and post‐colonial state, capitalist development and the role of indigenous and international capital, and political and socio‐economic aspects of class, ethnicity and gender. 

Instructor: Canan Sahin (S), Rida Abu Rass (F)
Term: Summer 2021 (remote), Fall 2021 (remote)

Description: An examination of the politics of the Middle East, including the legacy of the Ottoman Empire and European colonialism, the rise of nationalism, the role of religion, the nature of the state and political participation in different countries in the region.

Description (F): What are the causes of political instability in the Middle East? What sparked the Arab Spring? What are the obstacles toward stable democracy in the region? What is driving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and how can it be solved? Who are the major powers in the region, and why are they in conflict? 

This course will provide students with the tools that are needed to answer these questions. It will trace the major historical developments in the Middle East in the 20th and 21st centuries, and highlight their lasting impact on domestic and regional politics. We will examine the impact of the Ottoman rule, European Colonialism, Neo-Imperialism and the Cold War on domestic political institutions, regional and international political economy, and the lived experiences of ordinary people in the Middle East. We will highlight endogenous political responses to these phenomena, including the development of Pan-Arabism, the emergence of indigenous and national minority movements, and the rise of political Islam. We will borrow tools from a variety of theoretical frameworks to analyze these phenomena, including political economy, nationalism studies, peace and conflict studies, Marxist approaches, democratic peace theory, and postcolonialism. Utilizing this wide array of theoretical and empirical tools, this course encourages students to come up with their own, unique perspectives on Middle East politics. 

POLS 350: Political Theory: History

Instructor: TBD
Term: TBD

Description: TBD

*Not offered in 2021-22

Description: An examination of the major theories and critiques of liberalism, focusing on the rival conceptions of freedom and equality that animate classical ‘laissez-faire’ liberalism, egalitarian liberalism, left-libertarianism, and perfectionist liberalism, and the critical responses these various kinds of liberalism have provoked from communitarians, feminists, Marxists, and others.

*Not offered in 2021-22

Description: Drawing on historical texts, this course explores the representations of women and the constructions of femininity and masculinity, the body, and gender relations in the history of political thought, and explores contemporary feminist responses to these texts and ideas.

*Not offered in 2021-22

Description: An analysis of the origin and development of certain major ideas in the western political tradition.

*Not offered in 2021-22

Description: An exploration of the normative underpinnings of democracy, based on a survey of selected historical texts, contemporary theories, and current problems.

Instructor: Pinar Dokumaci
Term: Winter 2022

Description: This course discusses important contemporary issues that arise in political theory. Examples include: liberty and paternalism, toleration, punishment, multiculturalism, climate change, intergenerational justice (or injustice), and violence.

*Not offered in 2021-22

Description: Selected topics in the critique of capitalism, e.g. Marxism, democracy, the environment, globalization, employment and popular culture.

Instructor: Margaret Moore
Term: Fall 2021

Description: The course will focus on central issues that arise in political theory: citizens relation to the state and to each other. Specifically, the course will discuss problems of liberty, toleration, punishment, and multiculturalism; and inter-state problems such as global justice, just war, justice and the environment, and inter-generational justice.

Instructor: Stéphanie Martel (S), Simon Marmura Brown (F)
Term: Spring 2021 (remote), Fall 2021 

Description: This course examines the theoretical approaches, concepts, and debates (e.g. levels of analysis, causality, methodology, historiography) that shape the evolution of International Relations as a discipline, including subfields (e.g. international security and international organizations) and how they relate to the conduct of international politics. 

Description (F): In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the efficacy of existing international institutions, like the World Health Organization, have been tested. New institutions and agreements like Covax have been created, and after a series of failures in international leadership, the authority and preeminence of the United States as “leader of the free world” is being questioned. In short, the recent world has seen dramatic changes. Material realities, however, like relative economic and military strength have largely remained unaffected. As such, ideational, rather than material, theories of international relations are well suited to interrogate contemporary changes in the international system. This course does two things. (1) It examines contemporary theoretical shifts in International Relations (IR). Specifically, it engages with and examines constructivist and post-structuralist epistemological and ontological contributions to the field. Through this lens, where in both cases the international system is determined by the ideas, beliefs, and expectations states have for one another, we (2) interrogate those contemporary changes in international politics.  

*Not offered in 2021-22

Description: A survey of selected regional international organizations for political cooperation, military security and economic integration in Europe, Latin America, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific region.

*Not offered in 2021-22

Description: An examination of the concept of international security and the causes of war and conditions of peace. Topics include: the role of nuclear weapons after the Cold War; the economics of security; new security themes (environmental and ethnic factors); regional security and peacekeeping; alliance dynamics; and European security and the future of NATO.

*Not offered in 2021-22

Description: An examination of the principles, institutions and politics of the United Nations, assessing its effectiveness in maintaining international peace and promoting cooperation among states.

Instructor: David Haglund
Term: Winter 2022

Description: An examination of American foreign policy, with particular emphasis on the analysis of concepts and issues and the study of decision-making processes.

*Not offered in 2021-22

Description: An analysis of Canadian foreign policy, its major objectives and orientations. Topics covered include Canada's role and interests in major international organizations and its relations with key countries and regions.

*Not offered in 2021-22

Description: The course introduces students to the scientific method and its application to various puzzles in Canadian and comparative political economy. Following a primer on research methods, several empirical and theoretical puzzles are examined (e.g. relationships between voting and economic interests, the origins and drivers of government taxation, etc.).  

*Not offered in 2021-22

Description: Topics include theoretical perspectives on women and politics, patterns of women’s political socialization and political action, feminist movements, and feminist contributions to contemporary political discourse.

*Not offered in 2021-22

Description: An examination of the role of law in politics, the differences between legal and political reasoning, the law and politics of constitution‐making, and the political character of criminal and civil law. Topics include the victim’s rights movement, pornography and censorship, and the role of litigation in political life. 

Instructor: Christian Breede
Term: Fall 2021

Description: An exploration of major issues and schools of thought in the philosophy of social science and in examination of contemporary approaches to the study of politics.

Instructor: Kyle Hanniman
Term: Winter 2022

Description: This course is an introduction to quantitative approaches to political science research. You will learn how to use quantitative techniques to make causal and descriptive inferences. The course will consist of weekly lectures and tutorials. Tutorials will involve seminar-style discussions and computer and pencil-and-paper based problems. No prior background in statistics is assumed or required.

*Not offered in 2021-22

Description: An examination of the history and political economy of the mass media, exploring the impact of a partisan press, ownership and use of technology on how our identity has been shaped. It will draw upon a comparative assessment of the mass media in advanced liberal democracies.

Instructor: Eleanor Macdonald
Term: Winter 2022

Description: The course explores contemporary approaches to understanding the politics of culture. In the everyday behaviours, attitudes and practices that form our culture, politics play a role. The course considers a range of diverse theoretical perspectives on the interrelationship of culture with social, political, and economic power.

Instructor: Stephen Larin
Term: Fall 2021

Description: POLS 388 will be taught as “Politics of Migration”. Migration is at the centre of contemporary politics around the world, and claims about migrants have played a key role in the shift toward exclusionary, nationalist populism in many countries. The purpose of this course is to provide students with a broad but detailed introduction to the complex politics of both international and internal migration on a global scale. The first half of the course deals with core issues such as the differences between migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees; why people move; migrant legal status and rights; migration and integration policy and governance; and effects of and responses to migration. The second half applies this foundation to the world’s major regions, with weeks on the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Asia–Pacific region.

*Not offered in 2021-22

Description: This course introduces students to the various families of electoral systems in use around the world. It examines their variations and assesses the consequences of electoral systems on political parties, legislatures and governments.

Instructor: Jeremy Wildeman
Term: Fall 2021

Description: This course offers a modern historical and contemporary political overview of Canada’s relationship with the Middle East, a complex region that offers important insights into Canada’s evolving foreign policy and national identities. To do this, it begins by exploring Canada’s connection to the region within the British Empire, the important role the region played in helping Canada define its independent identity on the international stage (i.e., at the United Nations and in peacekeeping), and Canada’s own impact on the region. It includes observations on Canada’s role in the Cold War, as an interlocutor with the Global South, and Canada’s shift away from the United Kingdom to a close embrace of the United States, through the lens of the geopolitically sensitive Middle East.

As we exit the Cold War, the course moves on to consider Canada’s intensive Pearsonian-era foreign policy engagement as a mediator in the Middle East Peace Process, before discussing a shift in policy priorities that took place with the onset of the War on Terror and mid-2000s Government of Canada move away from the Pearsonianism that was once ubiquitous with Canada’s place in the world. Finally, the course explores the complex and evolving economic, diplomatic, and societal relationships Canada has with the states and non-state peoples of the region, including deepening demographic and military industrial ties, support for refugees, the Canadian response to regional conflicts and questions being raised about Canadian liberal internationalism.

The course attempts to be broad in its geographic and thematic scope. It includes classroom discussions, guest speakers, a major research project and group work intended to shed light on different facets of Canada-Middle East engagement, on the many lesser-known elements of that relationship. Throughout, we are asked to consider if Canada has a Middle East foreign policy, if it ever had one and if it should have one, and how Canada might engage with the region going forward.

Instructor: Dax D'Orazio
Term: Winter 2022

Description: This course provides an intimate exploration of free expression in its philosophical, political, legal, and policy-oriented dimensions. Students will first immerse themselves in the history and philosophy of free expression and then move into a series of thematic weeks that include, in part: seminal free expression legal cases, contemporary cases and controversies, free expression on university campuses, new media technologies, and free expression in a comparative perspective. Particular emphasis will be placed on developing analytical and argumentative writing skills, in addition to applying court content to better understand contemporary political events.

Instructor: Spencer McKay
Term: Winter 2022

Description: This course examines the participation of experts, bureaucrats, interest groups, and citizens in public policymaking from the perspective of democratic theory.

Who should make public policy? The answer is not as obvious as it might appear. In a democracy, we may think that elected representatives should make public policy. But various unelected actors – experts, bureaucrats, judges, and interest groups – play key roles in making public policy. At the same time, governments are increasingly involving citizens in policymaking through a variety of democratic innovations. In this course, we will explore how democratic legitimacy contends with other principles – such as epistemic quality, neutrality, and efficiency – in debates about how to make public policy. These debates emphasize that policymaking is an inherently political act, marked by power and conflicts of values and interests.

Instructor: Wayne Cox
Term: Winter 2022

Description: An examination of different topics and issues in global political economy, such as the role of international financial institutions, the politics of global trade, or the global distribution of wealth. The focus of this course will vary from year to year.

Instructor: J. Andrew Grant
Term: Winter 2022

Description: The first objective of this course is to explore and engage the academic literature relating to the conceptual, methodological, and theoretical debates within International Relations (IR). The second objective is to apply our analyses to historical and contemporary topics in the wider study of IR.

Instructor: Patricia Ackah-Baidoo(S), TBD (W)
Term: Summer 2021 (remote), Winter 2022

Description: This course examines the historical and contemporary representation of women in mining. In doing so, it explores the tripartite relationship between the state, transnational mining companies, and women engaged in mining globally. The geographical focus will be on Africa, Latin America, and Asia.
While significant strides have been made to include women in positions of political and economic power, women remain significantly underrepresented in various spheres of society. In recent years, the lack of representation of women in mining has gained widespread attention, bringing together key political and economic actors to confront the issue. Among the topics the course explores is the link between the "masculine" nature of mining and women, sustainability, gender mainstreaming, and women's representation in both large-scale and small-scale mining. By the end of the course, students will have a broadened understanding of some of the key topics in this burgeoning research field.

*Not offered in 2021-22

Description: The Specialized Program in International Law and Politics is specifically designed for upper-year undergraduate students (ideally in their third or fourth year), and offers foundational knowledge about the relationships between international politics and international law. It explores specific aspects of international law, including international criminal law and the law of armed conflict, examines the phenomenon of genocide and other forms of mass violence in historical and contemporary contexts, and situates the central statutes, customs, and institutions of international law within the broader context of global governance.

This unique team-taught program is divided into three modules and offers three three-hour classes each week: 

Module 1 - International Law and Politics (weeks 1 to 4)
Module 2 - Genocide, Crimes against Humanity and War Crimes (weeks 5-8)
Module 3 - The Law and Politics of Armed Conflict (weeks 9-12).

In Week 7, students take part in an exclusive seven-day journey (included in your fees) through key sites of interest in the field of international criminal law located in Continental Europe. See the BISC website for more details.

Instructor: Dani Delaney
Term: Fall 2022

Description: In April of 2016 a group of young indigenous activists came to a small spit of land in the middle of the Cannon Ball River nicknamed ‘Turtle Island,’ so named in honor of Indigenous creation stories, where traditional healers and elders had been holding ceremonies and prayer-protest against the impending construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. This meeting was the start of the Sacred Stone and Oceti Sakowin protest camps. Was this a flashpoint protest lead by indigenous activists, or was this the start of a new indigenous social movement? Was this an indigenous protest, an environmental protest, or something else entirely? At what point does political protest become a social movement? When do conflicting, collective political claims levied by polities against each other and third parties move from politics ‘as normal’, to contentious politics, to revolution?

This course grapples with these types of questions through a comparative lens. This course is focused on providing the theoretical tools to analyze social movements and related political phenomena. We will spend some time surveying the social movements and contentious politics literature to build a theoretical base and shared language for describing the political phenomena as well as exploring current methodologies for collecting and analyzing evidence/data. The majority of our time, however, will be spent examining how such forms of contentious politics—and how we understand them as different types of political phenomena—have arisen and developed in different political regimes, regions and eras.

This is an advance political science seminar, students are invited to think creatively and critically about not just the current theories around social movements and contentious politics, but how these theories apply to modern cases of contentious politics. Students will be expected to write a seminar paper analyzing a specific moment of contentious politics.

Instructor: Eleanor MacDonald
Term: Winter 2023

Description: This course explores questions of justice, freedom, and power that arise in the context of labour and the workplace.

The workplace is a political space where questions of justice and fairness are negotiatd in contexts of unequal power. Workplaces are also situated withein broader economic, social, and political systems that shape relevant needs, norms, and policies in ways that may limit or enable individual freedom. In this seminar, we will read classic and contemporary work in political theory to improve our conceptual understanding of work and to develop normative judgments. Key questions to be explored include: Why do we work? Who should count as a worker? How does work limit or enable freedom? What working arrangements are just? How could work be made more compatible with freedom, justice, and human flourishing?

*Not offered in 2022-23

Description: Advances in biological knowledge bring us closer to a world where we may have the ability to directly manipulate our genetic make-up. With this ability comes new questions concerning the demands of distributive justice. This course examines key developments in biology (especially human genetics), and demonstrates why and how theories of justice may require revision in light of these changes. Issues addressed include eugenics, the therapy/enhancement distinction, aging, enhancement in sport, future generations, and reproductive freedom. The course is designed to explore the different challenges society faces as a consequence of the genetic revolution and to help equip students with the critical and analytical skills needed to think rationally and cogently about the regulation of new biomedical technologies. 

*Not offered in 2022-23

Description: What are the effects of colonialism on gender and sexuality in what we now call Canada?  How has LGBTQ politics changed over time?  What is the future of LGBTQ politics in Canada?  This course explores these questions and others.  In the first part of the course, we will examine how states have produced, policed, and attempted to erase various gender and sexual identities and practices.  The second part of the course traces the development of modern LGBTQ movements, which emerged in response to such state actions.  In the final part of the course, we will consider important developments in LGBTQ politics since the legalization of same-sex marriage.  We will learn from a range of sources, such as short and long texts, videos, and films.  The course will focus especially on LGBTQ politics in Canada and the United States, but we will also speak about other contexts where applicable.

Instructor: Tari Adjadi
Term: Fall 2022

Description: 

This course exposes students to important theoretical and political debates that impact the experiences of people(s) of African descent in Canada. It seeks to combine approaches from Cultural Studies, Policy Studies and Political Science to address three core questions: 1) What, if anything, is Black Canada? 2) What are the core policy issues affecting people of African descent in Canada? & 3) What factors influence the relationships between political institutions at a municipal, provincial, and federal level and African Canadian communities?

 This course is split into three sections: Theory, Policy, and Expression. Students will first address core theoretical concepts related to Black Canada that include discussions of the African diaspora, Pan-Africanism, and intersectionality. Students will then engage in a review of core policy challenges that affect African-Canadians which may include: criminal justice, health, education and urban planning. Finally, students will assess proposals from political parties and other institutions that seek to address these policy challenges, collaborating to build their own visions for policy interventions in these areas.

*Not offered in 2022-23

Description: Issues in global politics, international relations, international diplomacy, or foreign policy will be examined in this course. The focus of this course will vary from year to year; this year the course will focus on race and ethnicity in US foreign policy. 

Instructor: Christopher Abbott
Term: Fall 2022

Description: This seminar introduces the dominant theories and debates within the subfield of comparative political economy and comparative capitalism. The seminar focuses on various approaches to analyzing national ‘models’ of capitalism, from both a historical and cross-national perspective. Throughout the course, special attention will be paid to the role that institutions, interests and ideas play in creating, sustaining and transforming models of capitalism. The first part of the seminar focuses on the evolution of capitalism in advanced democracies since World War II, paying close attention to questions of change and continuity over time. The second part focuses on the differences between national models of capitalism in the 21^stcentury, and the dominant approaches used to study these differences. The final part focuses on the peculiar place of Canadian capitalism within comparative political economy scholarship. 

Instructor: Elizabeth Baisley
Term: Winter 2023

Description: “Knowledge of Canada or the United States is the best way to gain insight into the other North American country.”  Was Seymour Martin Lipset right?  Should we understand Canada through comparisons with other countries, or on its own terms?  In the first part of the course, we will consider broad arguments for and against comparison and review relevant aspects of research methods and design.  In the second part of the course, we will use these tools to evaluate and critique a range of comparisons, most of which involve Canada and the United States.  These comparisons will cover issues ranging from political parties, healthcare systems, and environmental policies to citizenship and immigration, race, indigenous politics, gender, and sexuality.  Throughout the course, students will develop skills in evaluating research, designing a research project, and grant writing.

*Not offered in 2022-23

Description: Content varies from year to year.

Instructor: Rachel Laforest
Term: Winter 2023

Description: An introduction to the political history of Quebec: the development of ideologies (including nationalism), constitutional developments, and the building of the Quebec state during the Quiet Revolution. Some contemporary issues in Quebec politics, and the relationship between Quebec and the rest of Canada.

Instructor: Elizabeth McCallion
Term: Winter 2023

Description: An examination of the evolution and operation of the Canadian federal system. Topics include the concept and meaning of federalism, the implications of provincial/federal interdependence, and the politics of constitutional reform. 

*Not offered in 2022-23

Description: POLS 419 will be a critical examination of the media’s role and responsibilities in Western democracies, focusing primarily on mass media in Canada and the United States. The main purpose of the course will be for students to understand whose stories get told by media, who tells these stories, and how these stories are told.  

Students will first learn key media concepts and theories, such as agenda-setting, gatekeeping, priming, framing, and political rhetoric, which will serve as the basis for their understanding of the course. Students will then apply these concepts to various social issues specifically the murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls genocide, the Black Lives Matter movement, and global climate strikes. In doing so, students will gain an appreciation for the way in which political messages and meaning about these issues are constructed and reproduced. Students will also apply their knowledge of media theories to political parties and politicians, examining how these actors use media tools of persuasion to form campaign messages and platforms, and ultimately how this shapes public discourse and opinion.  

Instructors: Elizabeth Goodyear-Grant
Term: Fall 2022

Description: An examination of the importance of elections to the maintenance of democratic systems. Six themes are discussed: the history and theory of democratic participation; the legal framework; campaign organization; why people vote the way they do; the manifestation of social cleavages during campaigns; and the future of electoral participation. Canadian examples are placed in a comparative context.

Instructor: Dax D'Orazio
Term: Winter 2023

Description: This course provides an extensive survey of the concept of public opinion in the field of politics. It will begin with some historical and theoretical perspectives on the concept of public opinion and then move into empirical methods and questions related to measuring it. The final few thematic weeks of the course will include analysis of phenomena such as propaganda, misinformation and disinformation, and hate speech. Particular emphasis will be placed on students being able to apply course content to contemporary political issues and problems. 

Instructor: Lilian Estafanous
Term: Winter 2023

Description: The analysis of diaspora politics is part of the broader field of diaspora studies. What precisely constitutes a diaspora? How is the term diaspora distinguished from other social formations and phenomena such as migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers? Why and how are diasporas being created and shattered? What is the relationship between territory, memory, and belonging? How do different diasporas organize and mobilize? What factors facilitate or constrain the success of their political mobilization?All of these questions and many more constitute part of the subject matter of Diasporas in the World Politics. The term "diaspora" was applied to the Jewish, Greek, and Armenian dispersions, which are often called the "classical diasporas." In recent decades, however, the meaning has been expanded to refer to populations that have left their countries of origin –either forcibly or voluntarily –and come to form a group defined primarily in relation to its original "homeland." The course is intended as an introduction to a wide range of transnational diasporas. Special attention will be given to religious, minority, victim, conflict-generated diasporas, their relationship with their homeland and their host states, and their mobilization patterns. The course is comparative and interdisciplinary, drawing from the social sciences, humanities, and history. It offers a systematic overview of the topical issues of diaspora politics and transnationalism both from the theoretical and the empirical perspective, allowing students to learn about a range of diasporic communities and key debates in the field.  

*Not offered in 2022-23

Description: This year the seminar topic is populism in Europe.  We shall discuss theories of the origins of populism, left and right populism, and populist parties and movements in a selection of European Union countries. 

Instructor: Asbjorn Melkevik
Term: Winter 2023

Description: An exploration of the emergence and functioning of the modern welfare state in comparative perspective. 

*Not offered in 2022-23

Description: Focuses on recent debates about the sources of malaise in the American system, with a special emphasis on understanding the dynamics of mass public opinion and the factors influencing public disaffection from political institutions. 

Instructor: Paul Nesbitt-Larking
Term: Winter 2023

Description: This course explores the political implications of multiculturalism from a variety of perspectives, including theory, policy, and historical meaning. Issues include: history and policy of multiculturalism in the Canadian, US and global contexts; the construction of ‘race’ and anti‐racism; and the role of multiculturalism in citizenship inclusion and exclusion. 

*Not offered in 2022-23

Description: This course introduces students to some of the important questions about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. What is the history of the conflict? How did distinct national identities emerge? What issues are at stake for the actors involved? How do domestic factors shape Palestinian-Israeli relations? Why have peacemaking efforts been unsuccessful? The purpose of the course is to explain the political phenomenon of conflict in the Middle East. The course will seek to understand why political actors act the way they do, using theoretical lenses and analytical concepts that have been developed in the fields of nationalism, ethnic conflict, and conflict resolution more generally.

*Not offered in 2022-23

Description: This course puts race front and center in the narrative of American politics. Few U.S. public policies are completely race-neutral because individuals who bore—and continue to bear— the brunt of negative externalities in healthcare, environment, law enforcement, gun regulation, education, social welfare policies etc. tend to be BIPOC. Through historical documents, news media, and academic research, students examine the extent to which race has shaped American political institutions, public opinion, and behaviour. Topics include subjugation of Blacks, Latinos, and Asian Americans during the 19th and 20th centuries; the civil rights movement; contemporary manifestations of racial discrimination and their impact on who gets elected to positions of power and whose prerogatives become law.

Instructor: Quinn Albaugh
Term: Winter 2023

Description: This course explores the political implications of multiculturalism from a variety of perspectives, including theory, policy, and historical meaning. Issues include: history and policy of multiculturalism in the Canadian, US and global contexts; the construction of ‘race’ and anti‐racism; and the role of multiculturalism in citizenship inclusion and exclusion.

Instructor: Paul Gardner
Term: Winter 2023

Description: The United States Supreme Court: The Supreme Court has played a pivotal role in defining the terms of constitutional government in the United States. In this course, we will approach the work of the Supreme Court from both legal and political perspectives, in order to better understand the nature and function of judicial power in the U.S. We aim to understand how the Supreme Court makes decisions, and the places in which law and politics meet. The centerpiece of the course will be the Supreme Court simulation. Each student will be assigned to play a role on the court, and that means using legal argumentation in much the same way that the justices do. Meanwhile, we will try to be aware of the extent to which politics seeps into Supreme Court decision making. Though the course will, necessarily, make reference to decisions of the court, it is not primarily a course in constitutional law.

Instructor: Zsuzsa Csergő
Term: Fall 2022

Description: An exploration of the causes of ethnic conflict, but focuses in particular on the strategies which states use to manage or resolve such conflicts. The review of state strategies is comprehensive in nature: using case studies, it includes approaches which are morally unacceptable as well as approaches which many consider morally desirable. 

POLS 441: Gender and Globalization

Instructor: Bernardo Sainz Martinez
Term: Winter 2023

Description: Advanced research course focusing on problems relating to the consolidation of democracy in contemporary Latin America. Topics may include political parties and elections, economic policy, mass media, social movements, and political violence. Case studies are drawn largely from continental South America.

*Not offered in 2022-23

Description: General issues and selected specific topics reflecting an interdisciplinary approach combining international political economy, feminist theory and comparative politics. Case studies from both industrialized and developing nations.

Instructor: Poulomi Chakrabarti
Term: Fall 2022

Description:  Ethnic diversity is consistently associated with poor public goods provision across countries. The negative relationship between social divisions and development has, in fact, been described as the “most powerful hypotheses in political economy”. But what exactly about diversity hinders social goods? This course will explore the dominant themes in the study of ethnicity and development. We begin with a theoretical understanding of the core concepts – What is development? What is the relationship between identity and ethnicity? What are the social-psychological foundations of identity? We distinguish between public goods and common-pool resources and explore the distinct channels through which diversity shapes cooperation between groups in the maintenance of common resources at the community level as well as how identity can be instrumental in shaping the policy preferences of the political elite and hence state provision of public goods. In the process, we will explore the role of shared culture and social norms, differential preferences of ethnic groups, the effect of group-differentiated rights, the effects of status inequality, and finally the historical role of ethnicity in the state-building process and its long-term effects on development. The themes discussed in the course reflect some of the most cutting-edge areas of contemporary research in the field of comparative politics and development.

Instructor: Akif Hasni
Term: Winter 2023

Description: This class investigates the political economy of development and seeks to unravel the politics and power shaping its policy and practice today. Dominant understandings of development present development as a concrete and attainable goal and offer standard prescriptions on how to reach it. These depictions of development as technical, linear and top-down are too simplistic, however, and do not adequately explore the deeper relations and interests underlying development practice. A more comprehensive understanding of development goes beyond this image, highlighting how the relations and processes of development are the result of multiple interactions and struggles, which unravel in different times and spaces. It acknowledges that there are bound to be winners and losers in the global political economy and attempts to understand these power (im)balances, and who benefits from them, in the context of development. To understand these politics at the heart of development, we adopt a historical framework that situates development in global capitalism and draw on various multidisciplinary debates, critical approaches and case studies. We begin by surveying orthodox views of development and key sides of the debate, and understanding how the field of development has historically evolved, highlighting major phases and shifts in its thinking and practice. We then focus on some of the dominant issues and actors making up the field of development today. We unpack many of the relations and contradictions of modern development discourse (i.e. North/South, development/underdevelopment, modern/traditional…etc.) and more closely explore common tropes and development goals (i.e. sustainable development, green growth and resilience). Through these various topics, we address timely topics and fundamental questions in development, including what development means, how it is measured, the politics of global aid and the role of the state and businesses in development, and touch on key themes, like global social justice, gender, colonialism/imperialism and power. 

*Not offered in 2022-23

Description: An analysis of texts that take the nature of humans as the basis for political argument. Emphasis is on the search for foundations for political claims and the nature of 20th-century relativism, cultural and moral.

*Not offered in 2022-23

Description: This course examines the ethical and societal public health predicaments that arise with pandemics and epidemics.  Public health is the science of keeping people healthy and preventing injury, illness, and premature death.  When mitigating the health risks of a population a plurality of ethical and societal concerns typically arise, such as the tension between respecting individual rights and promoting public health, managing the risks of vaccine development, the rationing of scarce medical resources, and determining how much caution or empirical evidence is sufficient to guide policy decisions which may impose different types of benefits and burdens. Though the concepts of “epidemic” and “pandemic” are often contested in both the scientific community and in the media, an epidemic generally refers to an unexpected increase in the number of cases of disease in the population of an area, and a pandemic refers to the global spread of a disease.  The course will examine the successes, limits and challenges of protecting human populations from different types of risks, primarily the risks from infectious diseases (like malaria, HIV/AIDS, Ebola and COVID-19) but also the risks from other so-called “epidemics”, such as obesity, drug use and gun violence.  Students will be introduced to some basic concepts in epidemiology, the history of infectious diseases, and address a number of policy concerns ranging from vaccine development and privacy rights, to the ethics of quarantines and balancing respect for liberty with protecting public health.  The course will help facilitate an understanding of the different empirical concerns and normative predicaments which arise with navigating complex public health policies.   

Instructor: Stephen Larin
Term: Winter 2023

Description: Migration is at the centre of contemporary politics around the world, and we urgently need to develop well-reasoned, principled answers to the ethical questions posed by refugee crises, selective bans and deportations, migrant detention camps, temporary foreign workers, majority-group nationalism, and a host of other pressing concerns. The purpose of this course is to provide students with a broad and strong foundation for doing so. The course is divided into three themes: (1) an introduction to the key concepts and debates in the ethics of migration; (2) migration; and (3) settlement.  The first is self-explanatory. The second theme, which makes up most of the course, deals with ethical issues associated with the act of migration such as border control, asylum seeking, and deportation. Theme three addresses issues associated with settlement after migration, including non-citizen rights and migrant integration.

Instructor: Elizabeth Moorhouse-Stein
Term: Winter 2023

Description: What are ‘identities’? How are they ‘made’ and ‘unmade’? What difference do they make for democratic theory and practice? This course will explore these questions by analyzing different theoretical approaches to the study of identities, including class, gender, sexuality, race and ethnicity. Using a variety of contemporary case studies, from the #BlackLivesMatter movement, to the rise of ‘white identity politics’ in the United States and Europe, Hindu nationalism in India, and the politics of Indigeneity in Africa and Latin America, students will come away from the course with a deep understanding of how, why and to what effect identities are formed, mobilized and politicized in different institutional settings around the world. 

Instructor: Canan Sahin
Term: Fall 2022

Description: Over the recent decade, displacement of people at a massive scale internally and across borders due to wars, ecological destruction and political persecution has been at the centre of politics. The policy responses to address the so-called ‘refugee crisis’ have been shaped at multiple levels, i.e., local, national, regional and global. From increased securitization of borders to expansion of refugee camps, from construction of border protection walls to over-exploitation of refugee labour, from the rise of anti-refugee nationalist far-right responses to the emergence to ‘refugees welcome’ movements at transnational scale, we have seen distinctive and interwoven political consequences of forced migration in North America, Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. This seminar course will be informed by a critical comparative political economy framework to understand the governance of migration and evolution of new border and racialized labour and refugee regimes in the afore-mentioned regions.

This seminar will first introduce the theoretical literature on the recent history of forced migration, with a political economy approach being in the center. Through a brief survey of the theories that explain the driving factors and consequences of forced migration, students will be familiarized with the emerging concepts in the field of comparative politics and international relations. Later, the course will focus on cases in different regions to implement the conceptual and theoretical tools developed in the first stage.

Instructor: Stephen Larin
Term: Fall 2022

Description: War is the use of organized, purposive violence between two or more groups. We often imagine these groups to be states, but intra-state conflicts have been more common since the Second World War, and so-called ‘extra-state’ conflicts between states and non-state actors in foreign territories have been among the most important since the early 2000s. Regardless of its form, however, war raises urgent ethical questions because it may lead to death, tremendous suffering, and other terrible consequences. The purpose of this course is to provide students with a broad and strong foundation in the core ethical debates over war and violent humanitarian intervention.

The most prominent general approaches to the ethics of war are ‘realism’, the view that war is and should not be subject to moral consideration, ‘pacifism’, the view that war is unethical, and ‘just war’, the view that war can be ethical if it is initiated for the right reasons, conducted within specific constraints, and concluded in a principled way. This latter approach dominates most ethical discussions of war, and the course is structured around its three themes: jus ad bellum (‘just resort to war’), jus in bello (‘just conduct in war’), and jus post bellum (‘justice after war’). This is not an endorsement of the long, heterogeneous, and contradictory just war ‘tradition’, but instead recognition that it is the standard that all serious ethical discussions of war work either within or against. A wide variety of topics are covered, including state authority in war, revolution, terrorism, autonomous weapons, and the allocation of responsibility after war is over.

Instructor: Danielle Delaney
Term: Winter 2023

Description: Once described as the ‘art of not being governed,’ anarchist politics holds open the possibility of politics without rule, governance without a state, organization without a political order. Political science often treats anarchist politics as a problem to be solved: the end (or collapse) of the sovereign through corruption, war—civil or otherwise, or collapsing civil institutions means the end of politics itself. But is it possible to have politics without the social hierarchy of the ruler and the ruled? Rather than the end of politics and the indication of a failure of governance, can anarchic politics be a possibility?

This course considers the contemporary possibility of anarchist politics, attempting to illuminate the politics that might come from resistance to rule. Anarchist politics come in a multitude of forms—organized resistance to state authority and expressions of power to mutual aid societies and cooperative politics all fall within the umbrella of anarchist politics. Resistance and revolution have taken a central focus within popular conception of anarchist politics, but this class explores the broad history of anarchist political theory.

This is an advanced political science seminar; students will be asked to think both critically and experimentally about both anarchist political theory and practice. We will explore both through close engagement with anarchist political pamphlets, key texts in late modern and contemporary political theory—including Proudhon, Kropotkin, Bakunin, Sterner, Gen-Dor, and Rancière, amongst others—and current expressions of anarchist politics. In this manner we will trace anarchist political theory’s development as a constellation of resistant theories and techniques, as well as their place in contemporary politics.

Instructor: Stephanie Martel
Term: Fall 2022

Description: This IR seminar introduces students to major issues shaping the study and conduct of international politics in Southeast Asia, East Asia, and the Asia‐Pacific. Seminar topics examine the involvement of major powers in the region, regional  institutions and regimes, norms and identities, transnational crime, non‐state actors, and natural disasters. 

Instructor: Akif Hasni
Term: Fall 2022

Description: An exploration of problems of order and change in the international system with particular attention to the theory and practice of co‐operation, ranging from classic concepts of international organization to current debates about international regimes. 

Instructor: David Haglund
Term: Fall 2022

Description: The course will focus on both traditional and contemporary aspects of global national security. Traditional topics will include bilateral and multilateral defence arrangements; collective and cooperative security; and the role of UN peacekeeping. Contemporary topics will focus on the political economy of defence and militarization, the emerging digital surveillance and counter surveillance regime, the threat of COVID-19 and future pandemics on national security, the rise of China and the changing landscape of global polarity, as well as the role of civil society in (re-)shaping strategy and defence mechanisms.

Instructor: Stephanie Martel
Term: Winter 2023

Description: Many of the issues we hear and read about in the news today are fundamentally global in scope. Climate change, inequality, economic crises, terrorism, pandemics, democratic decline, and myriad other issues operate and require action at the international level. But what is the ‘international’? Who acts there? How is it structured? On what basis is an action taken? These are the type of fundamental questions to be addressed by anyone who seeks to understand and engage with issues, actors, and dynamics in international relations. In this course, we will explore how the discipline of International Relations (IR) has answered these questions in various ways and look outside the discipline for inspiration in building our own understandings.

As a course on IR theory, our primary aim is to surface the underlying and often taken for granted or ‘common sense’ logics and images of international relations. In other words, we seek not only to understand what different scholars, schools of thought, and practitioners say or think about international relations but, more importantly, why they do so in particular ways and not others, and how, where, and when their understandings arose. In doing so, we will ask questions of our own thinking on these subjects and how we perceive politics at the global level. 

Instructor: Ian Garner
Term: Winter 2023

Description: An examination of the determinants of Russian Foreign Policy, and the extent to which they have changed over the last half-century. The course will cover both historical and contemporary issues in Russian foreign relations.

*Not offered in 2022-23

Description: An exploration of the causes of war, sampling the literature on war causality and using a case study approach. A number of contemporary cases in contemporary interstate and intrastate war will be examined to illustrate why war and the use of force continue to be a favoured method of advancing political interests.

Instructor: J. Andrew Grant
Term: Fall 2022

Description: An examination of the political dimensions of violent conflict in Africa, including the causes of inter‐state and intra‐state conflict, and responses such as peacebuilding and global governance initiatives. 

Instructor: Wayne Cox
Term: Fall 2022

Description: Theoretical approaches and issues within the field, while paying particular attention to hegemony and leadership, the economic dimension of post war and post cold war security, trade, money, debt, underdevelopment, regionalism, and international organization. 

Instructor: Wayne Cox
Term: Winter 2023

Description: This course offers an analysis of Middle Eastern politics from the perspective of the field of international relations. Themes covered in this course include, the historical evolution of various identities in the region, the history and role of outside actors in the Middle East, contemporary Middle Eastern state and social relations, and the role that Middle Eastern states play in contemporary world politics.

Instructor: Thomas Hughes
Term: Fall 2021 (remote)

Description: This course focuses on Canadian foreign policy as it intersects with Canadian defence and security, and explores Canada’s efforts to navigate the post-Cold War international security environment. Tracing key drivers within Canadian security and defence, and their manifestation in Canadian foreign policy, the course provides the opportunity to discuss the way in which Canadian foreign policy is shaped, and how new and emerging challenges are being addressed. The course will discuss overarching themes that consistently influence Canada’s foreign and security policy, including the Canada-US security relationship, Canada’s “Peacekeeping” identity, and engagement with multinational organisations such as NATO, as well as more focused topics and cases, including Canada and the Arctic, the interaction of Canadian foreign policy and domestic terrorism, and the introduction of its GBA+ approach to security and foreign policy. 

Instructor: David Haglund
Term: Fall 2022

Description:

POLS 470 is a generic “topics” course in international politics, whose theme varies from year to year.  In autumn term 2022, we are going to be looking at selected American presidents, with a view to determining how they might be “rated” when it comes to their impact upon Canadian interests.  I have been toying with this idea for many years, but have not previously structured a course around the theme of “Canada’s presidents.”  My initial interest in the topic dates back to my sabbatical year of 1989-90, when I was in France researching a project on Franco-German military cooperation.  I recall reading a fascinating book that had just been published in French translation by German political journalist Ernst Weisenfeld, the title of which was Quelle Allemagne pour la France? (What Germany would the French desire if they could make their wishes a reality?).

A more recent stimulus for the design of this specific course was the Trump presidency, serving as it did to remind all of us that sometimes America’s presidents can, for better or worse, be more relevant to Canadian interests than this country’s own prime ministers.   This view was expressed in a colourful manner in a Globe and Mail op-ed written by Scott Reid, during the run-up to the Canadian federal election of October 2019.  The author, who had been communications director for former Liberal PM Paul Martin, stated that the most obviously important issue facing the Canadian electorate could be summed up in three words, “Donald. Freaking. Trump.”  Admittedly, the Trump interlude was a peculiar – possibly even unique – one in a number of ways; nevertheless, the point remains that American presidents can sometimes exercise a high degree of influence upon Canadian interests.

Our objective in this course will be to try to determine who those presidents have been, and why they were thought to be of such importance (again, for better or worse) to Canadian interests.  Our work this semester will find us delving into matters of both an historical-empirical and a theoretical nature. 

Instructor: Stephen Larin
Term: Winter 2023

Description: POLS 471 will be taught as “Politics of Artificial Intelligence”. ‘Artificial intelligence’ (AI) is intelligent action performed by a machine. Autonomous robots and other forms of artificial general intelligence are a common theme in popular science fiction such as Star Wars, Terminator, and WALL-E, but some types of AI are no longer fictitious. Over the past decade, advances in machine learning driven by improved algorithms, ‘big data’, and steady, exponential increases in computational capacity have led to significant improvements in pattern recognition and other forms of narrow, task-specific artificial intelligence that are already changing the world. The purpose of this course is to provide students with a broad, in-depth introduction to the political implications of this major technological shift.

The course is divided into three themes: (1) “Fundamentals”; (2) “Present and near-term”; and (3) “Long-term or never”. The first theme comprises Weeks 2–4 and provides an overview of the fundamental technical, social scientific, and normative issues associated with the politics of artificial intelligence. Theme 2, the core of the course (Weeks 5–11), deals with the political significance of present or near-term applications of artificial intelligence including computational propaganda, decision-making, and autonomous weapons, as well as AI regulation and governance. The final week of the course addresses long-term, speculative possibilities that may never happen: AI-governed societies and ‘superintelligence’. 

Instructor: Badriyya Yusuf
Term: Winter 2023

Description: This course introduces students to different streams of policy studies, specifically interrogating systems of social control in several states. Streams include more mainstream and positivist policy studies, as well as interpretivist and critical policy studies. Students will learn key theoretical underpinnings and familiarize with tools of policy analysis in order to conduct their own analysis of topics of their choice. Areas of social control for seminar discussion include: policing, welfare, social work, education, health care, and prisons.

Instructor: Fikir Haile
Term: Winter 2023

Description: An examination of how contemporary theories of justice fare from the standpoint of gender (specifically inequalities in gender relations) and what a just, non‐gendered society might look like. 

Instructor: J. Andrew Grant
Term: Fall 2022

Description: An examination of the major theoretical debates and issues in contemporary globalization, including the historical roots of globalization, and the impact of globalization on culture, economics, trade, global governance, and global social movements. 

Instructor: Elizabeth McCallion
Term: Fall 2022

*Not offered in 2022-23

Description: Despite widespread assumptions about the courts’ capacity to settle disputes that implicate rights, political and legal conflicts continue to persist in liberal democratic polities. This seminar brings together perspectives from political science, socio-legal, and constitutional studies to examine debates about how political institutions respond to rights-based conflicts. It focuses on the challenges confronting decolonization, race, poverty, and nonbinary gender identities to consider contrasting visions of rights, institutions’ receptiveness to rights claims, and conditions for justice. 

POLS 492: The Politics of Pandemics and Epidemics