This course aims to foster in students a greater awareness and appreciation of how translation plays a vital role in our relationship to and with the environment. Through translation practice and by examining how the environment is translated in a selection of Chinese and English language texts and concepts in multiple mediums including cinema, television and the visual arts, the course will demonstrate that our perception of environmental issues is intimately connected to the translation of concepts, ideas and movements and how they have been transplanted into and out of English and Chinese.

This course focuses on understanding and applying concepts of cultural translation and “otherness” from the perspectives of anthropology and translation studies. By taking this course, students will learn that translators are mediators between cultures beyond language translations. The wider concept of translation requires understanding culture and otherness, and almost any intercultural communication involves translation. Students will be able to locate themselves in the wider context as translators/interpreters, understand cultural production and social systems, and pay close attention to how cultural translation intersects with other categories of social difference. Students will connect the assigned academic readings to “real-life” examples in the news, media, and their own lives, thereby forming new understandings of cultural translation.

Religious translations facilitated some of the most vibrant cultural exchanges throughout history. Catholic missionaries and Chinese scholars translated not only the Bible but also Euclid's Elements. Many Protestant missionaries later became the earliest Sinologists and translated foundational Confucian texts including The Analects. The translation of Buddhist scriptures influenced Daoist discourses, Chinese philosophy, neo-Confucianism, everyday practices and way of life. The course will open with an introduction to these fascinating histories and explore the complex relationship between religion and translation in various contexts, with an emphasis on both institutional religions, such as Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Confucianism, and Daoism, and also on what are known as Chinese popular or folk religions.

This course aims to introduce students to the history of translation from both Western and Chinese perspectives. Students will learn the evolution of thoughts about translation through studying extracts of articles by Chinese and Western thinkers as well as examples of translation to understand the various approaches and methodologies in their cultural, social, and historical contexts. The course provides opportunities for students to deepen their knowledge of translation studies and prepare them for higher level content of the discipline.

This course is a special seminar on a subject determined by the instructor’s research interest or expertise in translation that fall outside of the English and Chinese Translation Major/Minor program’s current course offerings. Special topics can include selected issues and problems in the theory and practice of translation. This course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.

What are the greatest critical theories that helped shape our modern world? How are these ideas translated across geopolitical and cultural contexts? How did they help people envision a different way to live, think, and love? This course examines how some of the greatest thoughts and ideas that shaped our modern world get translated. We will look at key thinkers, their texts, the social, cultural, and political contexts of their times and that of their translators. We will discuss the role of translation in facilitating cross-cultural exchanges and societal changes.

This course will introduce students to the processes of negotiation and adaptation associated with the translation and interpretation of languages behind the cultural phenomena of everyday life. Students will explore examples from across cultural domains (film, TV, and literature) and develop understanding the concept of “cultural translation” as a gesture of interpretation of the objects of human expression that suffuse the practice of everyday life in the social sphere. Students will also have ample experience in audience-focused English and Chinese translation.

This course examines theoretical developments in the field of Translation Studies from the late 1980s to the present day. First, it considers the linguistic approach to translation that held sway for much of the first half and more of the 20th century. Attention then shifts to how culture impacts not just the translated product, but also the process by which translators operate (the so-called ‘cultural turn’). Focus is on close readings of formative theoretical texts (for example, those by Bassnett, Lefevere, Pym, Venuti and others). Students will critically engage with significant translation theories since the late 1980s, analyse translations to identify how these theories function, and consider how they influence their own translation practice.

This course aims to introduce students to critical engagements with intersemiotic translation (i.e., the practices of interpretation between different sign systems) through adaptation in the English-Chinese transcultural context. Students will interpret a broad range of transcultural intermedia productions across literary works, films, comics, pop songs, manga, etc., through the lenses of ideas such as rewriting, intertextuality, multimodality, cultural appropriation, etc. The course emphasizes the ideological implications and power dynamics in intersemiotic translation between works of Anglophone and Sinophone cultures.

This course aims to introduce students to the essential knowledge and skills needed in translating texts related to the arts. Students will learn to identify the linguistic, cultural, and ideological features of texts for exhibitions, festivals, and other curated arts activities, and use appropriate strategies in translating the texts of this genre. The course provides ample opportunities for students to practice translating real-world texts from a wide range of museum exhibitions, literary festivals, film festivals, and other arts events between English and Chinese.

Guided by translation theories and techniques, students learn the lexicon, structure, and style used in business discourse and gain hands-on experience in translating real-life documents regarding business for large Chinese communities within Canada.

This course covers the English/Chinese translation of documents used in government, public administration, and publicly-funded organizations. It introduces the terminologies and special strategies used to translate official documents. Examples of relevant documents will be translated as part of the course work.

This course connects to the subfields of ecocriticism and eco translatology to explore transcultural translations of the ‘wild’. Focusing especially on modern/contemporary fiction from the Sinosphere and linking such texts to other World Literatures, the aim is to analyze how the ‘wild’ is represented and translated interlingually and intersemiotically. The analysis of these literary translations of the ‘wild’ is important to understanding the impact and influence literature has on human appreciation and respect for the natural world.

The scientific method and its application to natural systems. The physical and biological processes which drive ecosystem functions. Anthropogenic changes in ecosystem functions at local and global scales. Emphasis on the degradation of the atmosphere, soil, water and biological resources caused by human activity. Renewable and non-renewable resource sustainability. Laboratories will include hands-on field and lab related practical experience.

This general interest course explores the composition, structure and origin of the Earth and the tectonic, chemical and biological processes that have evolved over the last 4.5 billion years. It explains how planet "works" as a complex system. It provides a fundamental basis for understanding many of the environmental challenges faced by human societies especially natural hazards, water shortages, and climate change, and the importance of natural resources to our economy.

This course consists of a survey of the planet's water resources and the major issues facing the use of water. Topics include: Earth, the watery planet; water, the last great resource; Canada's waters; Ontario's waters; water and man; water contamination; and protecting our waters. Case studies such as the Walkerton tragedy will be studied. No prior knowledge of environmental science is required.

A survey of the science, history and applications of wind. Topics include storms including hurricanes, tornadoes and mid-latitude cyclones, global circulation, local circulations, measurement of winds, impact of winds on land surfaces, wind power, winds and pollution, historical and literary winds, and contemporary wind research. No prior knowledge of environmental science is required.

Because of pollution, our surroundings are becoming increasingly hazardous to our health. The past century has seen intense industrialization characterized by the widespread production and use of chemicals and the intentional and unintentional disposal of a wide range of waste materials. This course explores the relationship between the incidence of disease in human populations and the environmental pollution. Emphasis will be placed on understanding where and what pollutants are produced, how they are taken up by humans and their long term effects on health; the role of naturally-occurring carcinogens will also be examined. The course will include a view of risk assessment and toxicology using case studies. No prior knowledge of environmental or medical science is required.

This course illustrates the environmental effects of urban expansion, changing methods of agriculture, industrialization, recreation, resource extraction, energy needs and the devastation of war. Drawing on information from a wide spectrum of topics - such as waste disposal, tourism, the arctic, tropical forests and fisheries - it demonstrates what we know about how pollutants are produced, the pathways they take through the global environment and how we can measure them. The course will conclude with an examination of the state of health of Canada's environments highlighting areas where environmental contamination is the subject of public discussion and concern. No prior knowledge of environmental science is required.

The physical and chemical processes responsible for the development of regolith at the surface of the earth and the mechanics of entrainment, transport and deposition of mass by rivers, wind, glaciers, water waves, gravitational stresses, etc., which control the evolution of surface morphology.
Field excursions and laboratory exercises will allow students to apply theory to natural systems and to understand the dynamics of one man-modified geomorphic system.

This is an overview of the physical and dynamic nature of meteorology, climatology and related aspects of oceanography. Major topics include: atmospheric composition, nature of atmospheric radiation, atmospheric moisture and cloud development, atmospheric motion including air masses, front formation and upper air circulation, weather forecasting, ocean circulation, climate classification, climate change theory and global warming.

The water and energy balances; fluxes through natural systems. Process at the drainage basin scale: precipitation, evaporation, evapotranspiration and streamflow generation. The measurement of water fluxes, forecasting of rainfall and streamflow events. Human activity and change in hydrologic processes.

A study of the processes of pedogenesis and the development of diverse soil profiles, their field relationships and their response to changing environmental conditions.
An examination of the fundamental soil properties of importance in soil management. An introduction to the techniques of soil examination in the field, soil analysis in the laboratory and the basic principles of soil classification.

Planet Earth is at least 4,400 million years old and a geological record exists for at least the last 3,900 million years in the form of igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks. The changing dynamics of convection deep within the Earth's mantle and associated super-continent assembly and breakup along with meteorite impacts, are now recognized as the major controls on development of the planet's atmosphere, oceans, biology, climate and geo-chemical cycles. This course reviews this long history and the methods and techniques used by geologists to identify ancient environments.

Examines the origins and systems of production of the major plants and animals on which we depend for food. Interactions between those species and systems and the local ecology will be examined, looking at issues of over harvesting, genetic erosion, soil erosion, pesticide use, and impacts of genetically modified strains.

Competition for water resources between countries is common; population and economic growth are exacerbating this. The socio-political, environmental and economic aspects of transboundary water transfers are explored; the success of relevant international treaties and conventions, and the potential for integrated management of transboundary waters are assessed. Examples from Asia, Africa and the Middle East are presented.

This course is an investigation of the geological background and possible solutions to major hazards in the environment.
Environmental hazards to be studied include: landslides, erosion, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, asteroid impacts, flooding, glaciation, future climate change, subsidence, and the disposal of toxic wastes. This may be of interest to a wide range of students in the life, social, and physical sciences; an opportunity for the non-specialist to understand headline-making geological events of topical interest. No prior knowledge of the Earth Sciences is required.

A comprehensive introduction to crystalline structure, crystal chemistry, bonding in rock forming minerals, and optical properties of minerals. The course includes laboratory exercises on the identification of minerals in hand specimen, and identification of minerals using polarizing microscopes.

Sedimentary basins hold the bulk of Earth’s rock record and are fundamental in the study of past environments, tectonic evolution, climates, and biosphere. This course will explore different basin types and the nature of their infills. The course will also emphasize the economic resources within sedimentary basins and paleoenvironmental significance.

This course instructs students on the application of geophysical techniques (including gravity and magnetic surveys, electromagnetics, resistivity and seismology) to important environmental issues, such as monitoring climate change and natural hazards, clean energy assessments, and how to build sustainable cities. This lecture-based course teaches students the societal importance of environmental geophysics as well as how to effectively communicate uncertainty when interpreting data.