2013-2014
MASTER LIST WITH COURSE OFFERINGS
Updated August 2013
Master List of Recommended Courses
American Studies
USA200H1 Introduction to American Studies
An interdisciplinary introduction to the study of the United States and to the field of American Studies. Drawing from a variety of source materials ranging from political and literary to visual culture and material artifacts, this course examines the politics, history and culture of the U.S. A major emphasis will be learning to analyze primary sources.
Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Humanities or Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)
USA300H1 Theories and Methods in American Studies (formerly USA300Y1)
This course, required for majors and minors but open to all who have met the pre-req, explores a range of approaches to the field of American Studies. The course is organized around the decade of the 1920s, a period of tremendous social, political, and economic change as the U.S. emerged from WWI as a global industrial power and Americans debated competing ideas about the meanings of modernity. The course looks at the 1920s through a series of thematic weeks, drawing from interdisciplinary primary and secondary sources, such as black migration and urban modernities; gender, sexuality, and global beauty culture; immigration policy and racial formation; modernism in the visual arts; Prohibition and gangsters; market empires and global commodity chains. Students will be introduced to some of the many theories and methods that have animated the field of American Studies, including historical methods; formal analysis of visual and literary texts; commodity chain analysis; race, commodity, gender, diaspora and affect.
Prerequisite: HIS271Y1/ENG250Y1/POL203Y1/GGR240H1/GGR254H1
Exclusion: USA300Y1
Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Humanities or Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)
USA310H1/USA311H1/USA312H1/USA313H1 Approaches to American Studies
In depth examination of specific themes relating to American Studies. For this year’s offerings see: http://www.utoronto.ca/csus/Core-Courses.html
Prerequisite: At least two courses from the American Studies list or USA300H1
Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Humanities or Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: None
USA400H1/USA401H1/USA402H1/USA403H1Topics in American Studies
In depth examination of specific themes relating to American Studies. For this year’s offerings see: http://www.utoronto.ca/csus/Core-Courses.html
Prerequisite: At least two courses from the American Studies list
Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Humanities or Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: None
USA494H1 Independent Studies
Independent Studies
Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Humanities or Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: None
USA495Y1 Independent Studies
Independent Studies
Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Humanities or Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: None
Aboriginal Studies
ABS302H1 Aboriginal Representation in the Mass Media and Society
A survey of historical and contemporary representations of Aboriginal people in the mass media. Introduction to basic techniques for evaluating, analyzing, and understanding the construction of ‘Nativeness’ as it is communicated through film, television, and other media. Examination of racial stereotypes and the role of mass communication in perpetuating and challenging stereotypes, cultural appropriation, Aboriginal media production, impact of media portrayal of Aboriginal peoples.
Prerequisite: ABS201Y1
ABS341H1 North American Indigenous Theatre
An introduction to the evolution of Indigenous theatre in North America, examining traditional oratory, ceremony, community responsibility, and social construct and their impact on current Indigenous theatre.
Prerequisite: ABS300Y1/ABS301Y1/331H1/DRM100Y1
Anthropology
ANT365H1 Native America and the State
Culture areas and types existing in precontact and early contact times in North America; problems arising out of contacts between North American Indians and Euroamericans. Prerequisite: ANT204Y1
Exclusion: ANT 365Y1
Art
FAH375H1 American Architecture: A Survey
Vernacular traditions of the colonial period, patterns of settlement and urbanization, the emergence of the architect and development of high styles of architecture throughout representative parts of what is now the United States, from ca. 1650 to ca. 1925.
Prerequisite: FAH270H1/FAH272H1
Cinema Studies
CIN270Y1 American Popular Film Since 1970
Examination of the art of popular film in its social, political, and commercial contexts, through study of selected popular films from 1970 to the present. Various critical approaches, genres, and directors are included.
Exclusion: INI326Y1
CIN211H1 Science Fiction Film
Study of science fiction film in its role as a commercial film genre, social allegory and speculation on technology and the future.
Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Humanities course
Breadth Requirement: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
CIN230H1 The Business of Film
Examines cinema as a commercial enterprise, a technology and a formal system, with an emphasis on devising numerically-based approaches to amplify the study of cinema. This course fulfills the Category 5 Quantitative Reasoning requirement.
Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Humanities or Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)
CIN310Y1 Avant-Garde and Experimental Film
Film experimentation in the context of modern art and poetry (Cubism, Dada-Surrealism) from the 1920s through the 1990s. (Offered in alternate years)
Exclusion: INI322H1
Prerequisite: INI115Y1
CIN374Y1 American Filmmaking in the Studio Era
A study of filmmaking in the US once the studio system was in place; consideration of industrial, economic, ideological, and aesthetic dimensions of the American studio era. Topics include the primacy of classicism, the operations of the studio system (including censorship, labour relations, marketing, and star promotion), and the cultural function of American films. (Offered in alternate years)
Prerequisite: INI115Y1
CIN334H1 The Origins of the Animation Industry, 1900-1950: A Technosocial History
An introduction to early animation, considering its vaudeville roots, its industrialization, and its emerging aesthetics and representational tropes. Examination of the early corpus of animation from 1900-1950 and in-depth study of the artistic, social and cultural mileux from which animation derived. (Offered in alternate years)
Prerequisite: INI115Y1, INI212Y1.1
CIN490Y1/491H1/492H1 Advanced Studies in Cinema
Seminars in special topics designed for advanced specialist and major students in Cinema Studies.
Prerequisite: At least ten full-course equivalents, including INI115Y1, INI212Y1, INI214Y1 or permission of instructor.
Drama
DRM310H1 Contemporary American Drama
American dramas of the last 50 years. Structural, historical, and thematic approaches to self-consciously theatrical works and to the idea of America itself. Authors include Miller, Williams, Albee, Baraka, Kennedy, Hansberry, Shepard, Fornes, Mamet, Kushner, and performance artists such as Karen Finley and Laurie Anderson.
Economics
ECO423H1 Topics in North American Economic History
Themes are incentives, contracts, and the impetus for change. Topics include indigenous people of North America; indentured servitude; slavery; apprenticeships; the evolution of production from artisan shop to the factory; invention and the diffusion of technological innovations; institutions and growth.
Prerequisite: ECO206Y1(70%), ECO227Y1(70%)/(STA257H1[70%], STA261H1[70%]), or permission of the instructor.
Exclusion: ECO307H1
English
ENG250Y1 American Literature
An introductory survey of major works in American literature, this course explores works in a variety of genres, including poetry, fiction, essays, and slave narratives.
ENG254Y1 Indigenous Literatures of North America
An introduction to Indigenous North American writing in English, with significant attention to Aboriginal literatures in Canada. The writings are placed within the context of Indigenous cultural and political continuity, linguistic and territorial diversity, and living oral traditions. The primary focus is on contemporary Indigenous writing.
ENG275Y1 Jewish Literature in English
A survey of Jewish literature in English, focusing on questions of language, history, religion, national identity, and genre, this course may include works of prose, poetry, drama, film, or music from various Jewish literary communities.
Exclusion: ENG256Y1
ENG360H1 Early American Literature
This course explores writing in a variety of genres produced in the American colonies in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, such as narratives, poetry, autobiography, journals, essays, sermons, and court transcripts.
ENG363Y1 Nineteenth-Century American Literature
This course explores American writing in a variety of genres from the end of the Revolution to the beginning of the twentieth century.
Exclusion: ENG358Y1
ENG364Y1 Twentieth-Century American Literature
This course explores twentieth-century American writing in a variety of genres.
Exclusion: ENG359Y1
ENG365H1 Contemporary American Fiction
This course explores six or more works by at least four contemporary American writers of fiction.
Exclusion: ENG361H1
ENG368H1 Asian North American Poetry and Prose
Close study of works by Asian American and Asian Canadian authors, with attention to the historical and political contexts in which such works have been written and read. Topics may include racial, diasporic, and hybrid identity; cultural nationalism and transnationalism; gender and sexuality; the politics of poetic form.
Exclusion: ENG279Y1
ENG434H1/435H1/436Y1/437Y1 Advanced Studies: American and Transnational Literatures
ENG 438H1/439Y1 Advanced Studies: American and Transnational Literatures
Geography
GGR240H1 Historical Geography of North America
An introduction to the historical geography of North America from the pre-Columbian period to the present. Topics include European imperialism, staple economies, colonial settlement, railroads and the West, industrialization and urbanization, sovereignty and security, environmental and agricultural change, and regional identities.
GGR254H1 Geography USA
After a brief historical overview, focuses on contemporary issues in American society: economy, politics, race, regional distinctions and disparities, urban development and the U.S. as world power.
GGR336H1 Urban Historical Geography of North America
Processes of urbanization; development of urban systems; changing internal patterns: central area, residential districts, housing, transportation, reform and planning movements. Emphasis on the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century.
Recommended preparation: GGR124Y1/SOC205Y1
GGR339H1 Urban Geography, Planning and Political Processes
The interdependence of political processes and institutions, public policy and urban geography. The political economy of federalism, urban growth, planning and public services as they shape the urban landscape. The spaces of the city as the negotiated outcomes of variously empowered people and the meanings they ascribe to localities and places. Approaches informed by post-colonial, post-modern, and feminist perspectives. Canadian, U.S. and European comparisons.
Prerequisite: GGR124Y1, GGR246H1/GGR254H1
History
HIS106Y1 Natives, Settlers and Slaves: Colonizing the Americas, 1492-1804
North and South America and the Caribbean from Columbus to the American Revolution: aboriginal cultures, European exploration, conquest and settlement, the enslavement of Africans, the ecological impact of colonization.
Exclusion: HIS103Y1, HIS104Y1, HIS107Y1, HIS109Y1
HIS202H1 Gender, Race and Science
This course examines scientific ideas about human difference from the 18th-century to the present. It explores how scientists and their critics portrayed the nature of race, sex difference, and masculinity/femininity in light of debates over nation, citizenship, colonialism, emancipation, knowledge and equality. The course will also introduce students to the uses of gender and race as analytic categories within the practice of history. While the course draws much of its subject matter from the history of the United States, it also explores selective issues in European and colonial contexts.
HIS271Y1 American History Since 1607
This course is a survey of the economic, social, political, and cultural history of the United States from first contact between Europeans and native peoples to recent times. Some of the issues the course will deal with are: the contested character of democracy and equality; the evolution of race, gender, and class identities; the relationship between business and government; the relationship between church and state.
HIS300H1 Energy Cultures in North American History
This course examines the history of energy in North America from the perspective of political economy, environment and social-cultural history. Particular attention is paid to twentieth-century developments and to the relationship between energy and social power. Examples are drawn from both Canada and the United States.
HIS310H1 Histories of North American Consumer Culture
This course examines the emergence of a modern consumer society in North America from about 1850 to recent times. The aim is to combine political, social, economic and cultural history to chart changing relationships between North Americans, consumer commodities, and identities.
HIS316H1 History of Advertising
By the late twentieth century advertising had become one of the most common (and condemned) forms of social communication in the world. The course will trace the emergence of modern, or so-called mass, advertising from its origins up to the present day. Half of the lectures will deal with the years after 1950. The lectures (supplemented by inclass films/videos) consider advertising as a source of cultural power: the chief focus will be on the meaning and effects of advertising. Much of the story will revolve around the Canadian and American experiences, particularly the birth and expansion of a culture of consumption in North America, though the lectures will draw at times upon British and European material and eventually probe the global dimension of advertising.
Recommended preparation: HIS262Y1/HIS263Y1/HIS271Y1
HIS343Y1 History of Modern Espionage
An introduction to the historical origins and evolution of modern intelligence services. Topics to be studied include: intelligence in wartime; technological change; intelligence failures; covert operations; counter-espionage; the future of spying. The impact of the popular culture, both in fiction and film is also examined.
Recommended preparation: HIS103Y1 or an equivalent introduction to modern international relations
HIS365H1 History of the Great Lakes Region
This course is a survey of some key historical developments in the Great Lakes Region as a “trans-national space,” a region that transcends the “49th parallel” but is simultaneously shaped by it. At one level, the course is a chronological history of the region from early contact between native peoples and Europeans to the 1980s; at another level, it aims to provide a thematic consideration of how a “region” gets made over time. By focusing on the region as a unit of analysis, students are encouraged to question and de-emphasize the national border as an organizing principle of historical knowledge, and to ask what alternative geographies might better capture the complexities of change. To this end, some attention is given to local histories within the region (e.g. of Toronto and other cities) and to whether the region’s history reflects local trends or broader forces in North America and the world.
Topics and themes may include: the movement of people, commodities, and ideas into and inside the region; southern Ontario’s place in continental history; the building of transportation networks; urbanization and industrialization; competition between Great Lakes cities for metropolitan status; the relationship between cities and hinterlands; urban and rural cultures; the making of the border as a real or imagined boundary; the importance of race, class, and gender to the social history of the region; nationalism and regionalism; deindustrialization and urban crisis; and changing ideas of geography and environment (particularly regarding the Lakes themselves).
Prerequisite: HIS263Y1/HIS271Y1
HIS366H1 Aboriginal Peoples of the Great Lakes from 1815 to the Present
Explores the history of Aboriginal peoples (Indigenous and Métis) living in the Great Lakes Region after the Great Lakes were effectively split between British North America (later Canada) to the north and the United States to the south, when a rapidly increasing newcomer population on both sides of the border marginalized Indigenous peoples and settled on their land. Topics include a comparative examination of Indigenous experiences of colonialism, including treaties and land surrenders as well as the development of government policies aimed at removing and/or assimilating Great Lakes peoples. This course will also study resistance by First National and Tribal Councils to those programs over nearly two centuries and assess local strategies used for economic and cultural survival.
HIS369H1 Aboriginal Peoples of the Great Lakes from 1500
Algonkian and Iroquoian history from the eve of European contact to the present in the Great Lakes region of today’s Canada and the United States. Algonkian and Iroquoian societies in the 16th century, change over time, material culture, and inter-cultural relations among natives and between natives and Euroamericans.
Exclusion: HIS369H1
Recommended preparation: HIS106Y1/262Y1/HIS263Y1/HIS271Y1
HIS370H1 The Black Experience in the United States Since the Civil War
A survey of the economic, social, political, and cultural history of black America from Reconstruction until recent times. Among the central issues dealt with are: segregation and disfranchisement; the Great Migration; the rise of the ghetto; the Civil Rights Movement; emergence of an “underclass.” Prerequisite: HIS271Y1
HIS373H1 United States & Great Depression
U.S. experiences during the global economic crisis of the 1930s – set against the broader historical context within which the crisis unfolded. What factors caused the Great Depression? What social, political, and cultural impact did it have on the U.S.? How did the domestic crisis intertwine with the escalating international problems that led to World War II?
HIS374H1 American Consumerism - The Beginnings
“When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping” – according to a recent popular expression. How did shopping, or consumerism, become such an integral part of American society? When did it begin? Why has consumerism become so important to the American identity, culture and economy? Historians have argued that the eighteenth-century witnessed a “Consumer Revolution.” This course will test that assertion for the American experience by first analyzing theories of consumption, then looking back at seventeenth-century England where it all began. We will examine the economic imperatives operating within the Atlantic world in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, ultimately focusing on early America (1700-1800). To start we look at the “First Consumer Revolution” that opened from the time the very first Europeans set foot in North America and traded with the native peoples who already lived there. As the colonial period developed, so too did attitudes towards consumer goods and ideas about fashion and style. We will investigate how these were reflected in the accumulation of goods. The course will conclude by examining how changing patterns of consumption altered various modes of production, leading to the industrial revolution and the beginnings of mass consumption in the nineteenth century.
Prerequisite: HIS271Y1
Recommended preparation: At least 6 courses completed
HIS375H1 Politics and Protest in Postwar North America
This course will explore the background, experience, and legacy of protest movements in North America during the post-1945 era. The course will draw on cutting edge historical literature, and will compare and contrast the American and Canadian contexts. Topics will include the Cold War, the Civil Rights Movement, feminism, nationalism, environmentalism, labour, and the New Left.
HIS376H1 The United States: Now – and Then
An exploration of some of the historical roots of issues that are of particular importance to understanding the United States of the early 21st century: e.g., the war in Iraq and U.S. global leadership (or hegemony); the impact of globalization on the domestic economy; cultural innovation vs. neo-conservatism.
Prerequisite: HIS271Y1
HIS377H1 20th-Century American Foreign Relations
A survey of the history of American foreign relations from 1898 to the present. Themes include imperial expansion and the uses of power; the relationship of business and government in U.S. foreign policy; and the role of culture and ideas in America’s relations with the world.
Prerequisite: HIS271Y1/372Y1/POL208Y1
HIS378H1 America in the 1960s
A survey course covering one of the most tumultuous decades in American history. In 1960 America was still dominated by a broad consensus on fundamental social issues and private values that emerged out of the 1950's. This was true to such an extent that some commentators talked about the "end of ideology" and suggested that American society was on the verge of solving most social problems. There was little indication that by the end of the decade American society would be convulsed by civil strife and Americans would embark on a reevaluation of their values and world view. The course will begin by spending a couple of weeks examining the cold war mentality that emerged as a result of that. Next, it will look in some depth at the "Kennedy Promise" at the beginning of the decade; what this meant, and how the assassination of the president affected American's confidence in their future. Succeeding weeks will examine in some detail the dissolution of this promise by focusing on "American Apartheid" and the Civil Rights Movement, the Great Society, the war in Vietnam and the anti-war movement, the rise of the counterculture, and ghetto revolts. An in-depth look will be taken at the year 1968, with all its implications. Finally, we will examine the early years of the Nixon presidency, the waning of the protest movements, and the emergence of new issues, such as feminism, gay rights and environmentalism. The course will place relatively equal emphasis on politics, foreign policy, society and culture during this period.
Prerequisite: HIS271Y1
HIS389H1 Topics in History
In-depth examination of historical issues. Content in any given year depends on instructor. See Undergraduate Handbook or History website for more details.Prerequisite: Varies from year to year; consult department
HIS393H1 Slavery and the American South
An examination of the role of slavery in the development of the American South from the early colonial period through the Civil War. Topics include: the origins of slavery, the emergence of a plantation economy, the rise of a slaveholding elite, the structure of the slave community, and the origins of the war.
Prerequisite: HIS271Y1
HIS400H1 The American War in Vietnam
This course examines the French and American Wars (1945-75) in Vietnam and its effects on the population of Vietnam and Southeast Asia. It begins with a brief overview of pre-colonial Vietnamese history and moves into a study of the impact and legacies of colonial rule and centres on the impact of the Wars on the cultures, economies, and societies of Southeast Asia.
HIS401H1 History of the Cold War
This course covers international relations from World War II to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Topics include the breakdown of the wartime alliance, Soviet predominance in eastern Europe, the Western response, NATO, atomic weaponry.
Prerequisite: HIS311Y1/HIS344Y1/HIS377Y1
HIS404H1 Topics in North American Environmental History
This seminar interdisciplinary and studies past environmental change in North America. Topics include: theory and historiography; the pre-European environment; contact; resource development; settlement, industrial urban environments; ideas about nature in religion, literature and North American culture; conservation and the modern environmental movement. (Joint undergraduate-graduate)
Exclusion: HIS318Y1
Prerequisite: 8 full courses
HIS408Y1 History of Race Relations in America
Relations between blacks and whites in the United States from the colonial period to recent times with emphasis on slavery. Prerequisite: HIS271Y1
HIS436H1 Culture and the Cold War
The impact of the Cold War on life in the West through a study of selected popular culture themes and modes of production that helped shape the era. Four themes include “Living with the Bomb,” “Living with the National Security State,” “Living with Spies,” and “Women Living with the Cold War.” Exclusion: HIS436Y1
HIS447H1 Sex, Money, and American Empire
This seminar considers two bodies of scholarship: American empire and its relationship to global capital, militarism, and technoscience; and empire, sex, race, and intimacy. In doing so, the seminar questions how imperial formations shaped life within the United States, as much as it altered distant and not so distant territories, peoples, and diasporas.
HIS463H1 Cloth in American History to 1865
Cloth was a major commodity in the early modern world. Positioning early America within a global context and employing a material culture framework, textiles and clothing provide the lens through which to view the social, cultural, economic and industrial development of the United States from pre-European contact until the 1860s.
HIS471H1 United States and Globalization
This course considers the origins and evolution of U.S. experiences with globalization: attention is paid to economic, technological, cultural, and institutional developments during the past century.
Prerequisite: HIS271Y1/HIS377Y1
Recommended preparation: HIS377Y1
HIS473Y1 The United States and Asia in the Cold War Era
In this seminar we will examine the vicissitudes of U.S. relations with East and Southeast Asia during the Cold War era. We will look at strategic, ideological, and cultural factors driving American efforts to shape the development of certain regions in Asia and the consequences of those efforts for the Asian nations in question. We will devote significant attention to the influence of internal factors in Asian history and the motivations of key Asian leaders. Major themes will include the role of cultural and informal diplomacy and the effect of perceptions and misperceptions on both sides of U.S.-Asian interactions.
Prerequisite: HIS344Y1/372Y1/HIS377Y1
Exclusion: HIS 473H1
HIS476H1 Voices from Black America
The history of black Americas seen through the eyes of some of the men and women who experienced it. Attention will be given to slavery but most of the sources will deal with the twentieth century. We will look principally at both fiction and non-fiction novels and view movies. The individuals studied will come from diverse walks of life and may include social activists, writers, musicians, athletes, actors, filmmakers, and politicians. Gender relations will be a central concern and there will be equal attention given to works by men and women.
Prerequisite: HIS271Y1
Exclusion: HIS476Y1
HIS478H1 Hellhound on my Trail: Living the Blues in the Mississippi Delta, 1890-1945
This course examines black life and culture in the cotton South through the medium of recorded blues music. It seeks to restore a voice and a sense of agency to black southerners in the age of Jim Crow. Topics include the plantation economy, agricultural life, mobility, migration, and urban subcultures.
Recommended Preparation: HIS271Y1/USA 300H1
HIS479H1 American Foreign Policy Since World War II
An in-depth study of U.S. behaviour in the global arena since World War II. Particular attention will be paid to the origins and evolution of the Cold War, the Vietnam War, the initiatives of the Nixon-Kissinger years, the end of the Cold War, and the relevance of “globalization.”
Prerequisite: HIS271Y1/HIS377Y1
Exclusion: HIS479Y1
HIS484H1 The Car in North American History
Why do so many people drive? What’s up with those weirdos who don’t drive? How did Toronto make a highway out of a swimming hole in the Don Valley? Why do I care so much if the local donut shop has a drive thru? Didn’t we used to go there to relax? Has the car really made us free? Blending a thematic and chronological approach, this course examines the history of the car in North America from the perspective of technology, business, landscape and popular culture. We examine both the history of the car as a particular commodity and the ways its development affected, and was affected by, larger changes in business, government, family economies, and various social forces. In addition, we examine the way the car has been related to identity formation and the importance of factors like class, race, gender, and age in shaping the meaning and experience of driving. We also analyze polemics about the car to interrogate themes of freedom, mobility, enslavement to the machine, and triumph over nature, asking if the car represents the height or the decline of Western Civilization. A key question is whether the history of the car transcends borders, real and imagined, of nation, region and locality. Course material includes readings, films, images and other material.
Prerequisite: HIS263Y1/HIS271Y1
Exclusion: HIS484Y1
HIS487H1 Animal and Human Rights in the Anglo-American Culture
Based on postcolonial critiques of the Enlightenment and the ways in which some humans were othered as animals, the course examines the relationship between discourses of animal and human rights in Anglo-American culture from the eighteenth century to the present. Arguments over the constitution of subjectivity and consciousness as well as changing notions of cruelty and pain are addressed.
Music
MUS306H1 Popular Music in North America
A selected survey of North American popular music from the 1930s through present. Students will develop a critical framework for listening to and analyzing popular music in historical and social context by focusing on aspects of performance, representation, composition, mass media, aesthetics, and commodification. No prior background in music or ability to read music is required.
Political Science
POL203Y1 U.S. Government and Politics
An introduction to U.S. government and politics within an analytical framework that helps us understand how institutions structure incentives and decisions in the U.S. system. This class examines the political forces that forged contemporary American institutions to understand how these political institutions continue to provide stability while allowing opportunities for political change. We investigate whether these forces make American institutions different and why. Special attention is paid to current events and contemporary policy dilemmas.
Prerequisite: One full POL course/4.0 FCEs in the Faculty of Arts and Science/ express permission of the instructor.
POL326Y1 United States Foreign Policy
The foreign policy of the United States: tradition and context of American decision-making, the process by which it is formulated, application to a number of specific regions and problems in the world.
Prerequisite: POL203Y1/POL208Y1
POL433H1 Topics in United States Government and Politics: Presidential Politics in America
The objective of the seminar is to investigate the ways in which race, ethnicity, and culture have influenced American politics. Areas and issues including the party system, public policy, the evolution of the Constitution, the definition and negotiation of gender roles and identities, the labour movement, and popular culture, are examined.
Exclusion: POL433H
Prerequisite: A course in POL
Recommended preparation: POL242Y1, or a similar course in statistical research methods, or a class in microeconomics or permission of the instructor.
Religion
RLG315H1 Rites of Passage
Analysis of rituals of transition form one social status to another (e.g., childbirth, initiation, weddings) from theoretical, historical and ethnographic perspectives. Particular attention is paid to the multi-religious North American environment, and to the importance of rites of passage in the construction of gendered identities.
Prerequisite: three half-courses in RLG or PHI/PHLThis is a Social Science course
RLG442H1 North American Religions
This course considers the varieties of religious practice in North America from anthropological and historical perspectives. Of particular interest are the ways religions have mutually influenced each other in the context of nineteenth and twentieth century North America.
Victoria College
VIC132H1 The USA in the Cold War
Covers major events from America's emergence as a superpower in 1945 to the end of the Cold War in 1991, including: commitment to Europe through NATO and the Marshall Plan; Civil Rights; Vietnam. Also explores "popular culture" of the time: the suburbs; the baby boom; the 1960s; Watergate, etc.
VIC130H1 Movies, Madness and the Modern Condition
Through films like American Beauty (Sam Mendes, 1990) and Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood, 1992), through literature like Arthur Rimbaud’s A Season in Hell or Raymond Carver’s short stories, this course is going to take a look at human beings in the extremes of experience: revenge, desire and an appetite for self-destruction.
Women and Gender Studies
WGS435H1S: Culture and History of the Nuclear Age
Interdisciplinary and transnational examination of the nuclear age. Considers such epistemologies as the “nuclear family” ideology and the cold war “Atom for Peace” campaign; feminism and the nuclear sciences; gender and sexual critique of the pro-and anti- nuclear discourse; and knowledge concerning the nuclear disasters and its aftermath.
