Undergraduate Courses

Thursday, 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Instructor: Brian Rathbun / Darius Ornston

What is a "successful society"? What makes a society “successful?” How do we identify, measure, and assess “success?” What data do we need and what data should we collect? And what data are we able to collect and compare? The answers to these questions are surprisingly complex and differ across the social sciences, political theory, philosophy, and law. This course invites students to engage with theories and ideals about societies while doing a deep dive into cross-national and sub-national data, exploring the trade-offs of different societal outcomes. Students will grapple with questions about health, crime, security, creativity, inequality, belonging, solidarity, and institutions.

Tutorials: 

• Thursday, 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm
• Friday, 11:00 am - 12:00 pm
• Friday, 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
• Friday, 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm

Tuesday, 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM

Instructors: Aaron Gluck-Thaler / Sverrir Steinnson

This course interrogates how the digital turn – social media, algorithms, monitoring, digital disruption in business models, security, militaries, and more - is shifting social, political, and economic life. Drawing together expertise in both public policy and digital technologies, the course combines the study of technical capacities and future trajectories of digital change with analyses of political institutions, labour markets, social relations, political segmentation, and changing areas of public and private concern. The course will grapple with the implications of digital and algorithmic disruptions for ethics, leadership, our everyday institutions and public policy making.

Tutorials

• Tuesday, 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
• Tuesday, 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
• Wednesday, 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
• Wednesday, 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm

Thursday, 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM

Instructor: Will Riddell

This course explores the rise of capitalism – understood not simply as an economic system but as a political and cultural one as well. It aims to acquaint students with the more important socio-economic changes of the past 600 years with an eye towards informing the way they think about problems of the present time: globalization, growing disparities of wealth, and the exploitation of natural resources. It seeks to foster a critical approach to the way in which the world is organized. A dual mission stands at its centre: it utilizes a focus on capitalism as a tool of scholarly understanding of the way the world has evolved, and it assists students in developing a critique of capitalism as a system.

Monday, 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM 

Instructor: Dylan Clark

This course provides an introduction to Contemporary Asian Studies, focusing on the rapid social, political, economic, and cultural changes taking place in the dynamic regions of East Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia.

Wednesday, 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

Instructor: Labiba Naeem

An interdisciplinary introduction to South Asian Studies emphasizing inquiry and critical analysis, drawing attention to the specificities of individual nations as well as the factors (historical, political, economic and cultural) that define South Asia as a region. Some attention will be paid to the South Asian Diaspora.

Tuesday, 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM - Thursday, 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM 

Instructor: Themistoklis Aravossitas

This course is designed for absolute beginners in the Modern Greek language. The overall goal is to facilitate understanding and use of familiar everyday expressions and phrases aimed at the satisfaction of basic communicative needs. Students will familiarize themselves with the Modern Greek alphabet, pronunciation and grammatical rules. No previous knowledge of Modern Greek required.

Tuesday, 08:00 AM -10:00 AM

Instructor: Joe Wong

Innovation has always been a key driver of economic growth, population health, and societal success. Transformative change has historically been linked to major innovations such as urban sanitation, pasteurization, the printing press and the industrial revolution. Currently, the opportunity to enhance life chances worldwide relies on innovating for the poor, social innovation, and the ability to harness scientific and technological knowledge. What precisely is innovation? When does innovation happen? Who benefits from innovation? How can innovation be fostered, and how do innovations spread? Relying on major global transformations and country-specific case studies (for example, South Korea, Taiwan, Israel and India), this course examines the drivers of innovation, the political, social, economic, and scientific and technological factors that are critical to promoting innovation and addressing current global challenges, and the consequences of innovation. Restricted to first-year students admitted to Munk One. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

Wednesday, 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Instructor: Shardul Tiwari

Energy is at the crux of a range of pressing global issues, including climate change and the existential threat it poses across the world. This class uses energy – sometimes as a focal point, sometimes as an entry point – to examine a range of issues including inequality, emergent technologies and policy making in a global context. Restricted to first-year students admitted to Munk One. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

Friday 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM 

This course is aimed at students interested in Hungarian but have no prior knowledge of the language. The course emphasizes essential vocabulary, basic comprehension, speaking, reading and writing skills with a balance between communicative activities and grammar practices. Communicative activities will include group and partner work to encourage interactive learning.

Tuesday, 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM

Instructor: Doug Jones

This course examines the history, culture, and politics of the U.S. through an engagement with primarily original source materials including speeches, manifestos, songs, essays, paintings, films and more. In doing so, it will ask the central questions: What is America? and Who counts as American? This course concentrates on a series of moments in which different groups of Americans—such as women, African Americans, indigenous people, immigrants, and workers — debated, struggled over, and changed the boundaries of who and what counts as American. We will draw from, analyze, and contextualize a variety of primary source materials that make up defining moments in the contours of longstanding debates about citizenship, nationhood, and empire. Required for majors and minors, but open to all who meet pre-requisites.

Friday, 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM 

Instructor: Maya Harakawa

This introductory course will survey the interrelated history of Blackness and artistic production in the United States, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Canada. Starting in the eighteenth century with the advent of the transatlantic slave trade and covering up to Black Lives Matter movement, the course proceeds chronologically and considers the Black Art within its larger social context. By discussing the aesthetic qualities of artworks and the careers of Black artists alongside of the history of anti-Black racism in North America, we will explore both how the visual has been used as a tool of domination and how art can challenge or subvert racist ideologies. At the end of the course, students will be familiar with the primary figures, debates, and works of art that constitute the field. They will also be comfortable discussing the history anti-Black racism and its current manifestations. Topics include: the visual culture of slavery and abolition, hemispheric and transatlantic modernisms, the racial politics of “outsider” and “folk” art, the Black Arts Movement, and art and mass incarceration.

Tuesday, 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Instructor: Yiching Wu

This course addresses Asia empirically in contemporary global formations and as an idea in the global imagination. It introduces students to concepts and theories central to scholarship on Asia and its transnational formations. It provides foundational theoretical and conceptual material to understand global issues as they play out in the politics, economies, cultures and contemporary social worlds of contemporary Asian sites. Interdisciplinary analytical and research concepts are introduced to provide area studies grounding. This course provides preparation to delve into deeper research on Asia connected to broad questions about the natures of democracy, authoritarianism, market formation, social justice, and the media of cultural expression. It informs students aiming to take more advanced courses on Asia and globalization and provides one part of the foundation for the Contemporary Asian Studies major and minor. CAS201H1 introduces the theoretical and conceptual frameworks that are explored through further grounded empirical case studies in upper year CAS courses.

Tuesday, 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM - Thursday, 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM 

Instructor: Robert Austin

An analysis of the development of European political regimes from 1789 until the 2004 and 2007 enlargements of the European Union to include the countries of the former Soviet bloc. This course identifies the decisive forces and factors affecting the operation of constitutions and institutions within the countries which came to form the European Union: nationalism, multi-nationalism, internationalism and supranationalism.

Tuesday, 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM - Thursday, 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM 

Instructor: Themistoklis Aravossitas

A course designed for students with some command of the language: vocabulary building; study of grammar and syntax; compositional skills leading to the study of a prose literary work.

Monday, 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM

Instructor: Geoff Dancy

This course introduces students to the theories, concepts, histories, and actors that are fundamental to the field of peace, conflict, and justice. Students will discuss meanings, causes, obstacles, and sustainability of peace and justice through the discussion of historical and contemporary cases from around the world. Stemming from the interdisciplinary aspect of the field, students will learn a wide range of theoretical, empirical, and policy-oriented perspectives on thematic topics such as protection and violation of human rights, social and economic inequalities, and causes of violence and oppression. This course is intended for first year PCJ students and it serves as a gateway for all other courses offered in the PCJ program. This course is a requirement for PCJ majors and specialists.

Monday, 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM

Instructor: TBA

An introduction to microeconomics, for application in public policy analysis. Designed specifically for students with training in calculus and linear algebra, and who are pursuing a certificate in public policy, the course will explore preference and choice, classical demand theory and the utility maximization problem as well as expenditure minimization problem, welfare evaluation of economic changes, regression analysis and ordinary least squares.

*This course is a part of the Certificate in Public Policy and Engineering and offered to Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering students enrolled in an engineering program only. 

Wednesday 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM

Review of descriptive grammar; studies in syntax; vocabulary building; intensive oral practice; composition; reading and translation.

Wednesday, 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Instructor: Moussa Blimpo

This course will explore and understand the daily lives, struggles, and resilience of people living in poverty. By delving into the tough decisions and trade-offs the poor face—often matters of life and death—we aim to shed light on how better policies and approaches can be designed to address global poverty effectively. While external solutions to poverty often dominate the conversation, we will uncover the remarkable, innovative strategies that people in poverty develop to navigate their circumstances. Surviving on meager resources requires extraordinary decision-making and adaptability. Understanding these decisions and trade-offs is a crucial starting point in the fight against poverty. Throughout the course, we will explore questions such as: How do the poor organize their social and economic lives? Why are larger families more common among the poor? How do they prepare for emergencies and old age with limited resources? By the end of the course, students will gain deep insights into the lives of the poor, understanding how seemingly irrational choices often make perfect sense in their context. While our analysis will entail an economic perspective, we will embrace a broad, interdisciplinary approach to foster rich discussions. No prior knowledge of economics is required.

Notes: 

This course is not restricted to students in the Peace, Conflict and Justice Program and is open to all Faculty of Arts and Science students in 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th year.

Tuesday, 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM

Instructor: TBA

This course analyzes the impact of colonialism in South, East, and Southeast Asia and the various ways in which pre-colonial traditions intersect with and reshape colonial and postcolonial process across the various regions of Asia. The course will examine the conjunctures of economy, politics, religion, education, ethnicity, gender, and caste, as these have played out over time in the making and re-making of Asia as both idea and place. Attention will be paid to postcolonial and indigenous theories, questions of ‘the colonial’ from the perspective of Asian Studies, and debates about the meaning of postcolonialism for the study of Asia now and in the future.

Wednesday, 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM

Instructor: Dylan Clark

In focusing on youth in Asia, this course brings together two disputed cultural formations of substantial contemporary importance. Both youth and Asia are increasingly invoked on the global stage in support of a wide range of interests. Examining practices of young people and the idea of youth in the context of Asia requires critical attention to the promises and fears that attach to the rise of Asian economies, international demographic transitions, the growth of a global middle-class, increasing consumption disparities, changing immigration patterns, expanding technological skills, global/local environmental concerns, and young people’s shifting political priorities and loyalties. The course may feature a significant amount of social theory, with authors such as Michel Foucault, Roland Barthes, Louis Althusser, and Stuart Hall.

Thursday, 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM

Instructor: TBA

As late as the 1980s, large parts of India and China were impoverished as the world was just beginning to look toward the “Asian Tigers” like Singapore or Taiwan for glimpses of possible transformations in global capitalism. By the turn of the 21st century, geo-economic balance seemed to have shifted definitively toward Asia as a whole as some kind of equilibrium of the earth that had been disrupted by European empires from the 16th to the 19th centuries. In 2025, the discourse on technology, economy, and politics almost completely presumes that 21st century is an Asian century. How did the world get here? What is the role of colonialism, technology, and the cultures of Asian communities in all of this? And where do debates on international trade, whether framed as the “Washington” or “Beijing” consensus leave us in an age of populist nationalisms and artificial intelligence? And most importantly, even if it is an “Asian Century,” will it save the planet from an almost certain destruction from humans’ carbon overload? In addressing these questions, this interdisciplinary course welcomes undergraduate students to a reading and writing intensive exploration of the technology, politics, and culture of Asian development in 20th century and the 21st.

Friday, 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM

Instructors: TBA

This course focuses on electoral systems and voting behavior in Europe. During the first part of the course, we will examine the theoretical and conceptual foundations of the study of electoral systems and voting behavior. In particular, we will examine the relationship between the two. Building on this, we will look at specific countries, including UK general elections (most recently in 2024), French parliamentary and presidential elections (most recently in 2024, with presidential elections expected in 2027), and elections to the German Bundestag (most recently in February 2025). We will also examine a European peculiarity: elections to the European Parliament. The most recent European elections took place in June 2024.

Tuesday, 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM - Thursday, 4:00 - 6:00 PM 

Instructor: Themistoklis Aravossitas

This course builds on the Intermediate level background knowledge to prepare students as independent users of the Modern Greek language. In order to attain conversational fluency and communicate effectively and accurately with native Greek language speakers, students will practice on reading and interpreting magazine and newspaper articles on various topics as well as applying more complex grammatical and syntax rules to write essays on assigned subjects.

Wednesday, 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM 

Instructor: Phil Triadafilos

The course introduces students to the study of public policy, the policy process and our policy institutions in Canada. The course examines how issues emerge, how important ideas are framed, priorities are established, and agendas are set and managed. It explores how institutions – formal and informal rules which enable and constrain actors – shape policy-making in Canada.

Tuesday, 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Instructor: TBA

Knowledge of how governmental and non-governmental institutions work is essential to the study and development of public policy. This course will examine the formation, consequences and dynamics of institutions – from legislatures and courts to militaries and interest groups – in both democratic and authoritarian societies. We will also consider how institutions inform the relationship between individuals and the state, and how these social structures are instruments of policy implementation.

*This course is a part of the Certificate in Public Policy and Engineering and offered to Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering students enrolled in an engineering program only. 

Monday, 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM

Instructor: Jason Lau

This seminar critically examines the intersection of AI, platform governance, and algorithmic decision-making in the digital landscapes of the U.S. and Asia. The course explores how AI-driven systems, transpacific digital infrastructures, and platform logics mediate cultural and political exchanges. Special attention is given to the geopolitics of AI, data governance, and algorithmic power, with case studies on cross-border AI development, digital identity politics, and state-platform relations. Drawing from American Studies, Science and Technology Studies (STS), and digital ethnography, students will engage with theoretical debates and conduct critical analyses of digital technologies.

Thursday, 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM 

Instructor: Francis Cody

This seminar challenges students to hone their growing mastery in Contemporary Asian Studies by engaging with advanced theory about the peoples and places of the continent. Readings address colonial history and emphasize the contemporary period throughout Asia. As the culmination of a student’s studies in CAS, the course requires students to grapple with post-colonial conditions in Asia.

Wednesday, 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM 

Instructor: Lynette Ong

This course traces the domestic roots of China’s global expansion. The end of “bide your time, hide your strength” era signals a more confident China and an expansionist stance. Intense domestic competition and excess supply have pushed state-owned and private enterprises alike to seek cheaper manufacturing base and consumer markets overseas. However, increased presence of Chinese capital and people have been met with open arms, but also cynicism, and even resistance. This course will examine the rise of Global China, traces the domestic roots of its rise, the implications for its relations with host countries as well as state-society relations in host countries from Asia to elsewhere.

Monday, 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM

Instructor: Rie Kijima

This course guides each student through their own individual research project, embedded in an interactive group learning process, to offer an applied introduction to research methods for peace, conflict and justice studies. Students work through the research in the field of peace, conflict and justice studies, such as: identifying a research question, learning how to write a critical literature review, developing a rigorous research design, and applying quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods to answering research inquires. The final deliverable is a draft of a research proposal or an empirical research-based paper. This course is a requirement for PCJ Specialists and open to PCJ Majors with approval from the Director.

Monday, 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM

Instructor: Sol Goldberg / Ron Levi

This course will examine antisemitism and responses to it. Our substantive focus will be on claims of antisemitism, challenges to them, and the evidence that is marshalled in these situations across an array of social fields and institutions — with an emphasis on issues of measurement, law, and policy. In considering concerns and claims regarding antisemitism,  proposed solutions to either addressing it or mitigating its effects, and debates over approaches to anti-antisemitism, we will engage with a range of materials including social science research, legal texts, analyses, official and non-governmental documents, and journalistic accounts. Through these readings, students will acquire an understanding of issues in the definition, experience, measurement strategies, legal debates, and responses to antisemitism today. While oriented to contemporary antisemitism in legal and policy domains, we will pay some attention to historical events and longstanding legacies as elements of current political, legal, measurement, and social disputes, especially those generated by high-profile events. 

Wednesday, 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM

Instructor: Jonathan Ostry

Neoliberal thinking has dominated economic policy advice for decades. Such thinking is premised on the notion that policy makers should “go for growth” because a rising tide lifts all boats. Politicians increasingly reject such advice as being at best politically naïve and at worst responsible for outcomes that have not been inclusive (some boats rise much higher than others with the tide—higher inequality). Policy makers need to make choices about both the level of economic growth and the inclusiveness of such growth, taking account of interactions between the two variables, including the extent to which high inequality undercuts the sustainability of healthy economic growth. This course will familiarize students with a range of empirical evidence on the growth experience of both advanced and developing countries; about the nexus between economic reforms and growth; and about the drivers of rising inequality, including policy drivers. It will also cover the political economy of reform, including how to design pro-growth policies that do not contribute to an electoral backlash.