Degree electives course list

French Language and Culture II

Theme

Global Cultures

Course Code

FREN72020 (Section 1)

Delivery

Online - Synchronous

Status

This course will close when full. Check the Student Portal for availability.

Description

This high beginner course builds on the Introduction to the French Language and Culture. The course is designed to further enhance beginner level language skills in listening, speaking, reading and writing. Students will also explore numerous facets of French Canadian culture. This course will be taught mostly in French with English used to facilitate learning in French.

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German Language and Culture IV

Theme

Global Cultures

Course Code

GERM74010 (Section 1)

Delivery

Online - Synchronous

Status

This course will close when full. Check the Student Portal for availability.

Description

This advanced course explores the integrated facets of German language and culture. Students will attain a more thorough knowledge of the German language to communicate in all situations within German-speaking countries, converse with native speakers and follow debates on a wide range of issues as well as express themselves with more complex and linguistically accurate structures. The course will be taught in both German and English to facilitate learning German. This advanced-level course is intended for students with the necessary prerequisites.

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Introduction to the Spanish Language and Culture

Theme

Global Cultures

Course Code

SPAN71010 (Section 1)

Delivery

Online - Synchronous

Status

This course will close when full. Check the Student Portal for availability.

Description

This beginner course introduces students to Spanish and the cultural variety in the Spanish speaking world. Students will develop listening, speaking, reading and writing. This course will be taught in Spanish and English to facilitate learning in Spanish.

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Environmental Science

Theme

Sciences

Course Code

SCIE72000 (Section 1)

Delivery

Online - Synchronous

Status

This course will close when full. Check the Student Portal for availability.

Description

This course will argue for the interconnectedness of the world’s systems, linking Earth's large-scale processes to specific environmental phenomenon. Topics include our use and allocation of energy and mineral resources; urban environmental management, human population growth and its effects on food accessibility, desertification and loss of biodiversity. We will also analyze new and emerging environmental toxins and how they are impacting our ability to ensure clean water and soils for future generations. Research will be focused on understanding specific method for understanding scientific and policy literature, problem solving with an eye on all potential stakeholders.

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French Language IV

Theme

Global Cultures

Course Code

FREN74020 (Section 1)

Delivery

Online - Synchronous

Status

This course will close when full. Check the Student Portal for availability.

Description

This high intermediate course builds on French Language III. Students will refine French language skills in listening, speaking, reading and writing with a focus on academic and professional communication. This course will be taught in French.

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Introduction to Chinese Language and Culture

Theme

Global Cultures

Course Code

CHIN71000 (Section 1)

Delivery

Online - Synchronous

Status

This course will close when full. Check the Student Portal for availability.

Description

This beginner course introduces students to Chinese language and culture. Students will develop reading, listening, speaking, writing and culture awareness. Students will also learn the fundamentals of Chinese character writing. This course will be taught in both Chinese and English to facilitate learning of Chinese.

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First Nations Experience

Theme

Global Cultures

Course Code

INDS71000 (Section 1)

Delivery

Online - Synchronous

Status

This course will close when full. Check the Student Portal for availability.

Description

This course will explore Canada's First Nations people's relationships with land, resources, cultures, and each other, as well as historical and contemporary relationships between Aboriginal people and settler governments in Canada. The course will provide a study of Indigenous cultures, colonialism, cultural and political re-emergence, and the importance of the wampum belt. The Truth and Reconciliation Report, UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People, the Royal Commission on Aboriginal people, and the Ipperwash Inquiry will serve as core learning tools. Supporting the maintenance and revitalization of traditional Indigenous values, languages, cultural identity and spirituality will be highlighted.

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​Postmodern Identity in Popular Culture: Avatars, Humans, and Vampires

Theme

Humanities

Course Code

ENGL71040 (Section 1)

Delivery

Online - Synchronous

Status

This course will close when full. Check the Student Portal for availability.

Description

The stories we tell and the stories we make popular say much about who we think we are — what makes us human, what makes us individuals, and what gives us value. Postmodern narratives demonstrate an interesting shift in the ideas about what it means to be human. Students in this course will learn to describe postmodernism, understand a variety of psychological and sociological theories about identity, and recognize changes to how humans value themselves and their qualities. Within this postmodern historical context, students will analyze how human identity is constructed and presented in narratives. The narratives chosen will provide a survey of different media, from short stories to graphic novels to film and television. In each medium, fictional identities such as gaming avatars, ghosts, vampires, and werewolves will provide clues to the puzzle of what it means to be human.

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Chinese Language and Culture III

Theme

Social and Cultural Understanding

Course Code

CHIN73000 (Section 1)

Delivery

Online - Synchronous

Status

This course will close when full. Check the Student Portal for availability.

Description

This intermediate course builds on Chinese Language and Culture II. Students will continue to develop their listening, speaking, reading and writing skills with a focus on academic and professional communication within the Chinese language and workplace cultural context. This course will be taught in both Chinese and English, with students gaining more fluency in Chinese.

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Critical and Creative Thinking Skills

Theme

Humanities

Course Code

PHIL72700 (Section 1)

Delivery

Online - Asynchronous

Status

This course will close when full. Check the Student Portal for availability.

Description

This course examines the essential elements of both critical and creative thinking, with their application to the solution of problems. It describes the nature of evidence, sound arguments and valid conclusions, faulty reasoning, convergent and divergent thinking, and the creative process. Critical and creative thinking are then applied to problem solving, and both the discussion of ideas and the presentation of information to an audience.

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The Use of Laughter: Comedy and Satire

Theme

Humanities

Course Code

ENGL72050 (Section 1)

Delivery

Online - Asynchronous

Status

This course will close when full. Check the Student Portal for availability.

Description

At a time when genetic research continues to narrow the gap between us and our closest animal relatives, laughter is emerging as the one uniquely human trait we all possess. Why do we laugh, and what is it that engages our sense of humour? This course will explore comedy and satire as two related, powerful artistic forms, but also as ways of being in the world. Taking off from some key theoretical perspectives on laughter (Hobbes, Freud, Bergson, Bakhtin, etc.), we will focus on comedy and culture; satire and ideology; comedy, satire and gender; comedy and subversion; comedy and the forbidden; comedy and love. The basic premise of the course is that the comic form is many things — a literary genre, a cultural expression, a therapeutic/healing art, a means of liberation (and oppression), and a way of conceiving the world around us. The course will cover works ranging from ancient Greek comedy to contemporary film and fiction, as well as readings from psychologists, philosophers, anthropologists and neurologists. Students who complete this course will have a good working knowledge of the history of comedy and satire, their characteristic features as genres, and their social and psychological functions. Reading selections may vary from year to year.

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Physics of the Cosmos

Theme

Science and Technology

Course Code

SCIE72010 (Section 1)

Delivery

Online - Asynchronous

Status

This course will close when full. Check the Student Portal for availability.

Description

Students will acquire a qualitative understanding of the laws governing the evolution of the cosmos, from individual objects to the large-scale structure of the Universe, as well as the method of scientific inquiry which leads to this knowledge. The course begins with an exploration of the life of stars, starting from their birth at the onset of nuclear fusion which drives stellar evolution, going through their life via the equilibrium of stellar material until their death, with a study of stellar remnants such as white dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes. The second part of the course concerns celestial mechanics and the interactions of stars and planets via gravity, with an exploration of orbital motion and space travel. In the final part of the course, students will be introduced to cosmology concepts, the large-scale structure, and evolution of the Universe as a whole.

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Science, Technology, and Society

Theme

Social Science

Course Code

SOC71045 (Section 2)

Delivery

Online - Asynchronous

Status

This course will close when full. Check the Student Portal for availability.

Description

This theme-based course aims to provide an understanding of the historical, social, economic and political context within which scientific and technological advancement takes place. Innovation is a social product, often an expression of current ideas or a response to a social need. Conversely, technological and scientific innovation can transform the structure of society, its value system, and institutions. Through a series of lectures and student-centered activities, this course will assess the impact, benefits, consequences and implications of the inter-relationship between science, technology and society.

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