A study of the history of China's relationship with the rest of the world in the modern era. The readings focus on China's role in the global economy, politics, religious movements, transnational diasporas, scientific/technological exchanges, and cultural encounters and conflicts in the ages of empire and globalization.
Same as HISC57H3

This course explores the transnational history of Tamil worlds. In addition to exploring modern Tamil identities, the course will cover themes such as mass migration, ecology, social and economic life, and literary history.

Same as HISC59H3

The course will explore the history and career of a term: The Global South. The global south is not a specific place but expressive of a geopolitical relation. It is often used to describe areas or places that were remade by geopolitical inequality. How and when did this idea emerge? How did it circulate? How are the understandings of the global south kept in play? Our exploration of this term will open up a world of solidarity and circulation of ideas shaped by grass-roots social movements in different parts of the world

Same as HISC73H3

An introduction to Chinese contemporary art focusing on three cities: Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. Increasing globalization and China's persistent self-renovation has brought radical changes to cities, a subject of fascination for contemporary artists. The art works will be analyzed in relation to critical issues such as globalization and urban change.
Same as VPHC74H3

This course offers an in-depth and historicized study of important cultural issues in historical and contemporary Asian, diasporic and borderland societies, including migration, mobility, and circulation. It is conducted in seminar format with emphasis on discussion, critical reading and writing, digital skills, and primary research.

Same as HISD09H3

This course offers a capstone experience of issues which confront Asian and diasporic societies. Themes include gender, environment, human rights, equity, religion, politics, law, migration, labour, nationalism, post-colonialism, and new social movements. It is conducted in seminar format with emphasis on discussion, critical reading, and writing of research papers.

The course offers an in-depth, special study of important topics in the study of Global Asia. Special topics will vary from year to year depending on the expertise of the visiting professor. It is conducted in seminar format with emphasis on discussion, critical reading, and writing of research papers.

An exploration of the global problem of crime and punishment. The course investigates how the global processes of colonialism, industrialization, capitalism and liberalization affected modern criminal justice and thus the state-society relationship and modern citizenry in different cultures across time and space.
Same as HISD06H3

What is violence? How do we study violence and its impact? How do people subjected to violence communicate, cope and live with violence? The course is designed to study South Asian communities through the concept of violence by exploring various texts. By looking at the various cases, structures and concepts in relation to violence in different parts of South Asia the course will analyze and understand how forms of violence transfigure, impact, make and remake individual life, and communities within and beyond South Asia. We will analyze different forms of violence from structural, symbolic to discreet and every-day expressions of violence. The course closely looks at how, on the one hand, violence operates in the everyday life of people and how it creates social suffering, pain, silence, loss of voice, difficulties of communicating the experience of violence, etc. On the other hand, the course will focus on how ordinary people who were subjected to violence cope, live, recover and rebuild their life during and in the aftermath of violence.

This seminar examines the transformation and perpetuation of gender relations in contemporary Chinese societies. It pays specific attention to gender politics at the micro level and structural changes at the macro level through in-depth readings and research.
Same as SOCD20H3

This course examines how popular culture projects its fantasies and fears about the future onto Asia through sexualized and racialized technology. Through the lens of techno-Orientalism this course explores questions of colonialism, imperialism and globalization in relation to cyborgs, digital industry, high-tech labor, and internet/media economics. Topics include the hyper-sexuality of Asian women, racialized and sexualized trauma and disability. This course requires student engagement and participation. Students are required to watch films in class, and creative assignments such as filmmaking and digital projects are encouraged.
Same as WSTD30H3

The Chinese government has played a central role in the development of print, electronic and digital media. Recent changes in the political economy of Chinese media have had strong political and cultural implications. This senior seminar course examines the complex and dynamic interplay of media and politics in contemporary China.

This seminar course examines the First World War in its imperial and colonial context in Africa and Asia. Topics include forgotten fronts in Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific, colonial armies and civilians, imperial economies and resources, the collapse of empires and the remaking of the colonial world.

Same as AFSD53H3 and HISD53H3

This upper-level seminar will explore how water has shaped human experience. It will explore water landscapes, the representation of water in legal and political thought, slave narratives, and water management in urban development from the 16th century. Using case studies from South Asia and North America we will understand how affective, political and social relations to water bodies are made and remade over time.

Same as HISD54H3

This course explores the transnational connections and contexts that shaped ideas in modern Asia such as secularism, modernity, and pan Asianism. Through the intensive study of secondary sources and primary sources in translation, the course will introduce Asian thought during the long nineteenth-century in relation to the social, political, cultural, and technological changes. Using the methods of studying transnational history the course will explore inter-Asian connections in the world of ideas and their relation to the new connectivity afforded by steamships and the printing press. We will also explore how this method can help understand the history of modern Asia as a region of intellectual ferment rather than a passive recipient of European modernity.

Same as HISD55H3

'Coolie' labourers formed an imperial diaspora linking South Asia and China to the Caribbean, Africa, the Indian Ocean, South-east Asia, and North America. The long-lasting results of this history are evident in the cultural and ethnic diversity of today's Caribbean nations and Commonwealth countries such as Great Britain and Canada.
Same as HISD56H3

A study of major cultural trends, political practices, social customs, and economic developments in late imperial China (1400-1911) as well as their relevance to modern and contemporary China. Students will read the most recent literature and write a substantive research paper.
Same as HISD58H3

A seminar course on Chinese legal tradition and its role in shaping social, political, economic, and cultural developments, especially in late imperial and modern China. Topics include the foundations of legal culture, regulations on sexuality, women's property rights, crime fictions, private/state violence, laws of ethnicities, prison reforms and modernization.
Same as HISD59H3

Globalization from the perspective of human geography. The course examines how the economic, social, political, and environmental changes that flow from the increasingly global scale of human activities affect spatial patterns and relationships, the character of regions and places, and the quality of life of those who live in them.

An introduction to the characteristics of modern cities and environmental issues, and their interconnections. Linkages between local and global processes are emphasized. Major topics include urban forms and systems, population change, the complexity of environmental issues such as climate change and water scarcity, planning for sustainable cities.

Students learn fundamental concepts concerning the structure and effective uses of geographical data and practical skills that will help them to find and apply geographical data appropriately in their studies. Hands-on exercises using a variety of software allow students to gain experience in finding, processing, documenting, and visualizing geographic data. Lecture topics introduce students to the opportunities and challenges of using geographical data as empirical evidence across a range of social science topics.

Scarborough is a place of rapidly changing social geographies, and now contains one of the world’s most extraordinary mixes of people. What do these changes mean, how can we understand and interpret them? This course introduces Human Geography as the study of people, place, and community through field trips, interviews, and guest lectures.

Many of today's key debates - for instance, on globalization, the environment, and cities - draw heavily from geographical thinking and what some have called the "spatial turn" in the social sciences. This course introduces the most important methodological and theoretical aspects of contemporary geographical and spatial thought, and serves as a foundation for other upper level courses in Geography.

This course aims to develop critical reading and writing skills of human geography students. Through a variety of analytical, reflexive, and descriptive writing assignments, students will practice how to draft, revise, and edit their writing on spatial concepts. Students will learn how to conduct research for literature reviews, organize materials, and produce scholarly papers. They will also learn to cultivate their writing voice by engaging in a range of writing styles and forms such as blog posts, critical commentaries, travelogues, field notes, and research briefs. The course emphasizes writing clearly, succinctly, and logically.

This course will develop understanding of the geographic nature of urban systems and the internal spatial patterns and activities in cities. Emphasis is placed on the North American experience with some examples from other regions of the world. The course will explore the major issues and problems facing contemporary urban society and the ways they are analysed.
Area of Focus: Urban Geography

The reciprocal relations between spatial structures and social identities. The course examines the role of social divisions such as class, 'race'/ethnicity, gender and sexuality in shaping the social geographies of cities and regions. Particular emphasis is placed on space as an arena for the construction of social relations and divisions.
Area of Focus: Social/Cultural Geography

Introduces students to the geography of Indigenous-Crown-Land relations in Canada. Beginning with pre-European contact and the historic Nation-to-Nation relationship, the course will survey major research inquiries from the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples to Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. Students will learn how ongoing land and treaty violations impact Indigenous peoples, settler society, and the land in Canada.

Area of Focus: Environmental Geography
Same as ESTB02H3

This foundational course explores different conceptions of 'the environment' as they have changed through space and time. It also analyzes the emergence of different variants of environmentalism and their contemporary role in shaping environmental policy and practice.
Area of Focus: Environmental Geography

Examines the geographical distribution of disease and the spatial processes in which diseases are embedded. Themes include spatial theories of health and disease and uneven development and health. Special attention will be given to the geographical dimension of the HIV pandemic.
Area of Focus: Social/Cultural Geography

This course provides a practical introduction to digital mapping and spatial analysis using a geographic information system (GIS). The course is designed to provide hands-on experience using GIS to analyse spatial data, and create maps that effectively communicate data meanings. Students are instructed in GIS methods and approaches that are relevant not only to Geography but also to many other disciplines. In the lectures, we discuss mapping and analysis concepts and how you can apply them using GIS software. In the practice exercises and assignments, you then learn how to do your own data analysis and mapping, gaining hands-on experience with ArcGIS software, the most widely used GIS software.