Course Offerings

The following courses can be taken to meet the course requirements of the program, with the permission of the course instructor.

Courses to be offered in 2012-2013 will be posted soon.

Courses offered in 2011-2012            

MER  9000/9001 - Colloquium Series in Migration and Ethnic Relations

Colloquium Series 2011-2012            
Credited or Non-credited requirement (as determined by home department).
D. Bélanger, Full Year, Thursdays 4:00 - 5:30pm.
Associated faculty, students, and guest speakers present their research. There will be at least ten colloquia per year, with some of the talks involving attendance at specific occasions in series organized by other groups. Besides the colloquia in which research is presented, there will be other scheduled meetings in which students will discuss professional issues, opportunities for collaboration, and other topics.

Hispanic Studies 9785 - Seminar on Transatlantic Studies

R. Montano, Full Year, Fridays, 3:00-5:00pm   

This course examines from a multidisciplinary perspective the different cultural relations between Europe (mainly Spain and Portugal) with Latin America. It is a year long seminar and it is divided in four modules: Migration and Ethnic Relations, Transatlantic Studies, Memory and Literature, and Linguistics.  Every week an invited guest gives a presentation related to one of the module topics.  

History 9825 - Directed Readings in the Jewish Immigrant Experience in North America, 1880-1945
M. Halpern, Please contact the instructor.

Between 1880 and 1920, over two million Eastern European Jews left their homelands to begin new lives in the United States and Canada. This course will examine these Jewish immigrants, and their adult children and grandchildren, by exploring their family, spiritual, social, and work lives between 1880 and 1945, and emphasizing both their struggles and achievements. In so doing, the course will highlight a variety of themes related to ethnicity, religion, gender, and class, including cultural identity, pluralism, and assimilation; generational and class conflict; and social reform.

 

Courses offered in Fall 2011    

Anthropology 9213A - Displacement and Diasporas

R. Farah, Fall Term, Thursdays, 1:00-4:00pm

This course looks at different cases of displacement and its diverse impact on communities, including refugees, the internally displaced and diasporic people - categories and definitions that are critically examined. The course also looks at the relationship between humanitarian aid organizations and refugees; life in camps as spaces delineated for those displaced; and, the process of becoming refugees.

Geography 9518A: Advanced Cultural Geography
J. Hopkins, Fall Term, Tuesdays, 12:30-2:30pm

This course examines the production and interpretation of cultures, the major cultural markers of identity, and the politics of space, place and landscape.

Political Science 9756A - The Politics of Race
C. Dick, Fall Term, Tuesdays, 11:30am- 1:30pm
Limited availability. Please contact the instructor.

This course will focus on the politics of race in the North American context with a view to assessing how, when and with what impact social, economic and political life have been informed by and continue to be informed by the politics of race. The course is predicated on examining the ways in which the white experience is institutionalized in political, economic, legal and cultural structures so as to understand how benefits and burdens flow to citizens based on their racial, ethnic and Indigenous status. The course will begin by introducing students to critical race theory and readings on race, whiteness and colonialism. In the second part of the course, attention will shift to the political realm and the significance of race to elections, candidate evaluation and representation. The final part of the course will focus on key policy areas, including criminal justice, child custody and immigration and welfare state policies, to critically assess whether and where the institutionalization of whiteness in law and public policy has been challenged successfully and what role race continues to play in these policy realms.

Political Science 9723A - Genocide
J. Quinn, Fall Term, Wednesdays, 1:30-3:30pm.

An examination of the theoretical and methodological issues related to the topic of genocide and a consideration of empirical cases of genocide and genocidal acts, such as “ethnic cleansing.” The course begins by looking at the definition of genocide provided by the 1948 UN Genocide Convention and the legal-political context in which that convention was held. We will examine recent debates and alternative theoretical models by referring to specific cases, beginning with those of the Armenians and the Jews in the first half of the Twentieth century, and then move to discuss more recent cases of genocides and genocidal acts, including those in Cambodia, Rwanda, and Bosnia, among others.

Sociology 9147A - Social Inequality
S. Clark, Fall Term, Wednesdays, 9:30am-12:30pm

An analysis of the major forms of social inequality, with special concern for the problems of class, gender, and race/ethnicity in contemporary societies. Central theoretical issues and debates will be reviewed and evaluated, and examples of research bearing on these major issues and debates will also be considered.

Sociology 9166A - Race, Class and Colonialism
A. Allahar, Fall Term, Tuesdays, 9:30am-12:30pm
A look at race and class inequality and the development of capitalism in the Third World.  Topics will include slavery and indentureship; colonisation and decolonisation; race, class, politics and nationalism.

Courses offered in Winter 2012    

Geography 9109B – Geography of Migration
B. Dodson, Winter Term, Wednesdays, 9:30am-12:30pm
Trends, patterns and processes of migration, drawing from diverse theoretical perspectives to examine migration flows in a number of international contexts. Particular attention is paid to the development impacts of migration as well as to emerging transnational migrant practices.

History 9412B - Jewish Politics: Zionism, Socialism, Assimilationism
H. Lupovitch, Winter Term, Mondays, 9:30-11:30am

This course will explore the political aims and strategies of Jews during the last two centuries.  The central theme of the course will be the Jewish search for agency and the critiques of alleged passivity.  After briefly surveying the political outlook of Jews in the pre-modern world, the efforts by nineteenth century Jews to gain citizenship, notably a fervent embrace of liberalism, socialism, and various forms of assimilation will be discussed. Then the rise of Zionism and other forms of Jewish nationalism, Jewish forms of socialism, and hybrid political movements that combined elements of nationalism, socialism, and assimilationism will be explored.  The thrust of the course will be the maturing of these various nineteenth century political movements during the twentieth century in the various centers of World Jewry during the twentieth: Inter-war Poland, The Soviet Union, the United States, and the State of Israel.

Political Science 9751B - Transitional Justice
J. Quinn, Winter Term, Wednesdays, 1:30-3:30pm.
The twentieth century gave rise to some of the bloodiest massacres in history. It also saw the development and implementation of instruments to deal with these crimes. Yet there is still substantial debate and even disagreement about the efficacy and appropriateness of the kinds of mechanisms that have come into being, and about the particular results that each has been able to achieve. As a result, new and different instruments are today being developed. This course aims to critically examine a number of these mechanisms and instruments. These may be grouped into three broad categories, around which the course is structured: retributive justice; restorative justice; and restitutive justice. The course will focus on the conceptual framework surrounding the various instruments and approaches, as well as both historical and contemporary uses of each. And through the use of selected case studies, a variety of examples of each will be considered.

Political Science 9758B - Social Diversity, Gender and The Law
C. Dick, Winter Term, Mondays, 11:30-1:30
Limited availability. Please contact the instructor.
From religious minorities and Aboriginal peoples to feminists and gays and lesbians, Canadian social groups contend that group-differentiated rights and group-sensitive legal and constitutional interpretations are a necessary condition of equality. While the Canadian state has responded with group-specific provisions in the Charter and Constitution, as well an official policy of multiculturalism, social groups continue to press for legal concessions and the expansion of their rights. This course will examine the relationship between Canadian social groups and the law to assess how social groups employ the legal system in pursuit of equality and how they challenge laws that fail to attend to social group differences. Additionally, this course will examine how the differences that cut across social groups complicate the legal accommodation of ‘group’ differences. By assessing the legal claims of a number of social groups, this course will examine legal responses to questions of social diversity, the limits of law in addressing group-based inequalities and the effects that legal responses to social diversity can have on the most vulnerable members of social groups (often women).
In order to count as a MER course, the final assignment/paper must be on a migration-relevant topic.

Sociology 9373B - Migration
T. Abada, Winter Term, Thursdays, 9:30am-12:30pm
Determinants and consequences of internal and international migration are studied. Theory and methods, as well as demographic and socio-economic issues related to both types of migration, are discussed.

Courses offered in the past

Anthropology 9204 - Ethnographic Approaches to "the City"
This seminar explores core issues in the ethnography of urban space and culture. Topics may include migration, peri-urban developments, culture, power and the meaningful construction of space, consumption and urban life, and identity, agency and community in complex, poly-cultural urban settings, and the processes of urbanization cross-culturally, among others.

Anthropology 9210 -  Assessing Development
This course will focus on the connection between development and patterns of migration, both internal, especially rural-urban migration, and international. Specific issues that will be covered include: livelihoods and mobility; remittances; the trend toward urbanization; inner city poverty and shanty towns; migration and the informal sector; development induced migration.

Anthropology 9214 - Memory/History and Reconstructions of Identities

The course is critical of assumptions that marginalize popular memory and looks at various expressions that invoke the past in the present. The course will focus on the political dimension of memory and the struggle for and against power.

Geography 9318 – Advanced Seminar in Human Geography

This course examines current theoretical debate and research practice in human geography. Through preparatory reading and class discussion, students are exposed to the work of key geographical thinkers in order to deepen their understanding of core geographical concepts and theories. These are then applied to analysis of particular themes and locations. Depending on the fields in which students are conducting their research, the specific thematic focus will vary from year to year.

Geography 9115 - Urban Social Cultural Geography

This course examines the production and interpretation of cultures, the major cultural markers of identity, and the politics of space, place and landscape.  Final lists of seminar topics and readings for discussion will be developed in consultation with students.   

Hispanic Studies 9705 - Languages in Contact

This course examines the field of contact linguistics, in particular as it relates to Spanish and the languages that come into contact with it. Topics will include language maintenance, structural convergence, code switching, mixed languages and pidgins and creoles. We will cover contact with Arabic in the Iberian Peninsula, contact with English, and contact with the indigenous languages such as Quechua and Guaraní. Finally, we will examine creole languages based on Spanish and Portuguese, such as Papiamentu (Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao) and Palenquero (Colombia).

History 4891: Eastern European Jewish History

This seminar will explore the history of Jews in the territories of the three former empires – Habsburg, Russian, and Ottoman– from the 1600s to the present. We will discuss a variety of primary and secondary sources in the field. Thematically, we will focus on the historical forces that transformed Jewish life in Eastern Europe starting from the late 1600s. We will explore new religious movements within Judaism as well as secularization and assimilation, urbanization and migration, and changes in gender images and roles. We will pay particular attention to the relations/encounters between Jews and non-Jews.

History 9411 - The Jews of Eastern Europe

In this course, the History of the Jews of Eastern Europe will be studied. Specific topics will include: the triangular relationship between Jews, their magnate benefactors, and royal or imperial authorities; the role of Jews in the development and modernization of commerce and urban life; the relationship between Jews and their non-Jewish neighbors; 1881 as a turning point for the Jews of Poland and Russia; the influence Absolutism, Enlightenment, Liberalism, Nationalism, and Antisemitism; the literary revival and modernization of the Hebrew and Yiddish languages; the emergence of mass Jewish political movements such as Zionism and Bundism as a  response to Antisemitism; the impact of World War One and the collapse of multi-national empires; the new possibilities and challenges of the Interwar; and the destruction of East European Jewry during the Holocaust. 

History 9551 – Slavery Experienced : Enslaved African Lives in Latin America
Slavery Experienced addresses the issue of sub-Saharan African enslavement and the burgeoning of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade during the modern era, by focusing upon the experiences of enslavement in the Iberian colonial world, but also with a brief survey of enslavement in West and West Central Africa. This course will examine some of the themes that have emerged as critical to our understanding of African enslavement, especially from the perspective of the enslaved, across what has been called the Black Atlantic; but with special attention to Africa and the Spanish and Luso colonial societies in America.

History 9706 – Slavery and Abolition in the Atlantic World
Through extensive reading in the literature and historiography of slavery and abolition in the Atlantic World, and through the preparation of a research paper in this field, this course explores the rise of modern slavery, the structures and impact of the Atlantic Slave Trade, the experience of enslavement, the relationship between bound labour and plantation agriculture, the emergence of abolitionist/antislavery activism and the process of Emancipation.

History 9831 - Killing Fields: A Global History of Mass Violence

This half-course explores the origins, development, variations, and consequences of mass violence in modern history and examines forms of collective destructiveness against non-combatants due to political, social, religious, and cultural causes. The seminar draws on theoretical insights from a variety of disciplines (such as anthropology, history, sociology, and psychology) to develop a coherent analytical framework for understanding mass violence. It applies those insights to a number of case studies of genocidal violence, including colonial mass violence, the Armenian genocide, the Holocaust, and genocides in Cambodia and Rwanda. We will examine the sources and dynamics of mass violence, study victims and perpetrators, analyze the history of prevention and intervention, and explore the multiple functions of historical memory to post-conflict justice.

Psychology 9436 - Social Development in a Cultural Context

In this course, we will discuss contemporary issues in the cross-cultural study of social, emotional, and personality development. The course will emphasize an examination of the "meanings" of basic social-personality constructs and the appropriateness of developmental research methods in different cultures. Topics to be discussed in this course include models of cultural influences on development, research paradigms and strategies, cultural influences on parent-child relationships, peer relationships, moral development, aggression, inhibition and social withdrawal, and social problem solving. The role of the cultural context in the development of socialization beliefs and values and family systems will also be discussed. Given the particular interests of the students in this course, topics may be deleted, added, or expanded.

Psychology 9722 - Psychology of Prejudice

This seminar will survey theory and research on prejudice and discrimination. Among the topics to be covered are stereotypes and stereotyping, unconscious aspects of prejudice, symbolic and modern racism, hate on the web, and combating prejudice. Emphasis will be placed on discussing the major issues within each topic and on critically evaluating the empirical work on which current analyses are based.

Psychology 9723 - Psychological Perspectives on Immigration 

This seminar will survey theory and research in psychology and related disciplines that aids in understanding the processes associated with immigrants and immigration. Among the topics to be covered will be determinants of attitudes toward immigrants and immigration policies, acculturation attitudes, and factors affecting the psychological well-being of immigrants. This will be a seminar course in which we discuss the major conceptual and theoretical issues within each topic area and evaluate the available empirical work.

Psychology 9730 - Social Psychology of Justice

This course will cover social psychological research and theory on justice and fairness. Topics to be covered include equity theory, relative deprivation, belief in a just world, distributive and procedural justice, determinants of assertive action, eyewitness testimony, dehumanization, and genocide.

Sociology 9150 - Race and Minority Relations

An evaluation of relations among ethnic, racial and religious groups focusing on inter-group hostility and conflict and the role of these groups in the larger community. Prejudice and discrimination are analyzed for their social psychological, political and economic causes and effects. Social and political movements to resolve intergroup conflicts are examined.

Sociology 9307 - Determinants of Social Change
An introduction to the changing nature of population and an examination of the theoretical, historical, and sociological perspectives of population changes (mortality, fertility, and migration). Major objectives: in-depth understandings of demography components in historical perspectives and the changing relationships between them. In order to count as a MER course, the final assignment/paper must be on a migration-relevant topic.  

Sociology 9308 - Population and Social Structure
An advanced survey course with particular attention to the sociological aspects of human population. Nuptiality, family and household demography, urbanization and development. Population policy, with special reference to immigration and family planning.

Sociology 9376 - Population: Policies and Programs
Population policies and programs in societies at different stages of development will be examined in both historical and contemporary perspectives. Both implicit and explicit programs with consequences for population growth, size, and distribution will be discussed.

Sociology 9377 - Transnationalism and Ethnic Identities

This course will examine the nature and forms of contemporary ethnic identities, the local and transnational factors that shape them, and how they relate to ethnic nationalist, multicultural and “cosmopolitan” ideologies generated by nations, states and global agencies. Readings will cover diverse national cases, while giving particular attention to Canadian issues.