This course is a study of the major political philosophers of the twentieth century. The theorists covered will vary from year to year.
Area of Focus: Political Theory

This course examines the principles of research design and methods of analysis employed by researchers in political science. Students will learn to distinguish between adequate and inadequate use of evidence and between warranted and unwarranted conclusions.
Area of Focus: Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis

This course examines the challenges and contributions of feminist political thought to the core concepts of political theory, such as rights, citizenship, democracy, and social movements. It analyzes the history of feminist political thought, and the varieties of contemporary feminist thought, including: liberal, socialist, radical, intersectional, and postcolonial.
Area of Focus: Political Theory

This course introduces students to the International Relations of Africa. This course applies the big questions in IR theory to a highly understudied region. The first half of the course focuses on security and politics, while the latter half pays heed to poverty, economic development, and multilateral institutions.
Area of Focus: International Relations

This course examines the foreign policy of the United States by analyzing its context and application to a specific region, regions or contemporary problems in the world.
Areas of Focus: International Relations; Public Policy; Comparative Politics

This course explores the possibilities and limits for international cooperation in different areas and an examination of how institutions and the distribution of power shape bargained outcomes.

Area of Focus: International Relations

Traditional International Relations Theory has concentrated on relations between states, either failing to discuss, or missing the complexities of important issues such as terrorism, the role of women, proliferation, globalization of the world economy, and many others. This course serves as an introduction to these issues - and how international relations theory is adapting in order to cover them.
Area of Focus: International Relations

This course provides students with a more advanced examination of issues in development studies, including some of the mainstream theoretical approaches to development studies and a critical examination of development practice in historical perspective. Seminar format.
Area of Focus: Comparative Politics

This course explores the origins of Latin America's cycles of brutal dictatorship and democratic rule. It examines critically the assumption that Latin American countries have made the transition to democratic government.
Area of Focus: Comparative Politics

This course analyses the American federal system and the institutions and processes of government in the United States.
Area of Focus: Comparative Politics

This course focuses on selected policy issues in the United States.
Areas of Focus: Comparative Politics; Public Policy

This course explores the gendered impact of economic Globalization and the various forms of resistance and mobilization that women of the global south have engaged in their efforts to cope with that impact. The course pays particular attention to regional contextual differences (Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Middle East) and to the perspectives of global south women, both academic and activist, on major development issues.
Area of Focus: Comparative Politics

This course examines the origins of, and political dynamics within, states in the contemporary Middle East. The first part of the course analyses states and state formation in historical perspective - examining the legacies of the late Ottoman and, in particular, the colonial period, the rise of monarchical states, the emergence of various forms of "ethnic" and/or "quasi" democracies, the onset of "revolutions from above", and the consolidation of populist authoritarian states. The second part of the course examines the resilience of the predominantly authoritarian state system in the wake of socio-economic and political reform processes.
Area of Focus: Comparative Politics

This course examines various forms of protest politics in the contemporary Middle East. The course begins by introducing important theoretical debates concerning collective action in the region - focusing on such concepts as citizenship, the public sphere, civil society, and social movements. The second part of the course examines case studies of social action - examining the roles played by crucial actors such as labour, the rising Islamist middle classes/bourgeoisie, the region's various ethnic and religious minority groups, and women who are entering into the public sphere in unprecedented numbers. The course concludes by examining various forms of collective and non-collective action in the region from Islamist social movements to everyday forms of resistance.
Area of Focus: Comparative Politics

The course explains why financial markets exist, and their evolution, by looking at the agents, actors and institutions which generate demand for them. We also consider the consequences of increasingly integrated markets, the causes of systemic financial crises, as well as the implications and feasibility of regulation.

Area of Focus: International Relations

This course provides an opportunity for students to propose and carry out intensive research on a Political Science topic of the student’s choosing under the supervision of faculty with expertise in that area. In addition to research on the topic under study, class readings and seminar discussions focus on the practice of social science research, including methods, design, ethics, and communication.

This seminar course investigates the most urgent topics in the field of International Security, including American hegemonic decline, rising Chinese power, Russian military actions in Eastern Europe, great power competition, proxy wars, and international interventions. The readings for this course are drawn from the leading journals in International Relations, which have been published within the past five years. The major assignment for this course is the production of an original research paper on any topic in international security, which would meet the standard of publication in a reputable student journal.

Area of Focus: International Relations

This course challenges students to address global wicked problems that have catastrophic consequences for human life, such as climate change, extreme poverty, war, and famine. Students will select a wicked problem affecting human survival in one target region and will commit to tackling that problem for the entire academic year. This is neither a seminar nor lecture course, but an ideas incubator where students will work together in interdisciplinary teams to develop and stress test ideas for increasing human resilience in the most fragile parts of the world, using both design thinking and strategic analysis. In the first semester, students will engage in extensive library research in their respective fields of study, equal to the volume of a supervised reading course. The second semester focuses more heavily on group collaborations and project deliverables, which will require approximately 4 hours of work per week outside the classroom.  

This course will introduce students to the ideas and methods that guide judges and lawyers in their work. How does the abstract world of the law get translated into predictable, concrete decisions? How do judges decide what is the “correct” decision in a given case? The class will begin with an overview of the legal system before delving into the ideas guiding statute drafting and interpretation, judicial review and administrative discretion, the meaning of “evidence” and “proof,” constitutionalism, and appellate review. Time will also be spent exploring the ways that foreign law can impact and be reconciled with Canadian law in a globalizing world.

Areas of Focus: Public Law, and Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis

This course will offer senior students the opportunity to engage in a mock court exercise based around a contemporary legal issue. Students will be expected to present a legal argument both orally and in writing, using modern templates for legal documents and argued under similar circumstances to those expected of legal practitioners. The class will offer students an opportunity to understand the different stages of a court proceeding and the theories that underpin oral advocacy and procedural justice. Experiential learning will represent a fundamental aspect of the course, and expertise will be sought from outside legal professionals in the community who can provide further insight into the Canadian legal system where available.
Area of Focus: Public Law

Is the Canadian state racist? Is the law a tool of anti-racist resistance or a tool of racial oppression? Is racial categorization in public policy inherently inequitable or strategically necessary? This seminar course explores the complex relationship between racism, the law, and public policy within the context of Canadian institutions. Students will engage with critical race theory, case law, state policy documents, race-based data collection, and Canadian political science scholarship.
Areas of Focus: Public Law and Public Policy

This course examines the challenges of governing business in a global context. Focusing on Canada and Canadian corporations, the course first introduces students to business governance in a national context, exploring how law regulates business and foundational concepts like legal personality and the rights and obligations of corporate entities. The course then examines multinational businesses and the myriad efforts to govern these transnational actors, including through international law and corporate self-regulation. Using real-world examples and case studies of corporate crime, corruption, and wrongdoing, students will uncover the governance gaps that can emerge as corporations operate across borders.
Areas of Focus: International Relations and Public Law

Topics and Area of Focus will vary depending on the instructor.

Topics and area of focus will vary depending on the instructor and may include global perspectives on social and economic rights, judicial and constitutional politics in diverse states and human rights law in Canada.
Area of Focus: Public Law

Some of the most powerful political texts employ literary techniques such as narrative, character, and setting. This class will examine political themes in texts drawn from a range of literary genres (memoire, literary non-fiction, science fiction). Students will learn about the conventions of these genres, and they will also have the opportunity to write an original piece of political writing in one of the genres. This course combines the academic analysis of political writing with the workshop method employed in creative writing courses.

This seminar examines how legal institutions and legal ideologies influence efforts to produce or prevent social change. The course will analyze court-initiated action as well as social actions “from below” (social movements) with comparative case studies.

Areas of Focus: Comparative Politics and Public Law

This course studies the theory of constitutionalism through a detailed study of its major idioms such as the rule of law, the separation of powers, sovereignty, rights, and limited government.
Areas of Focus: Political Theory and Public Law

Immigration is one of the most debated and talked about political issues in the 21st century. Peoples’ movement across continents for a whole host of reasons is not new; however, with the emergence of the nation-state, the drawing of borders, and the attempts to define and shape of membership in a political and national community, migration became a topic for public debate and legal challenge. This course dives into Canada’s immigration system and looks at how it was designed, what values and objectives it tries to meet, and how global challenges affect its approach and attitude toward newcomers. The approach used in this course is that of a legal practitioner, tasked with weighing the personal narratives and aspirations of migrants as they navigate legal challenges and explore the available programs and pathways to complete their migration journey in Canada.
Areas of Focus: Canadian Government and Politics, and Public Law

This course examines the interrelationship between organized interests, social movements and the state in the formulation and implementation of public policy in Canada and selected other countries.
Areas of Focus: Canadian Government and Politics; Public Policy

This seminar course explores selected issues of Canadian politics from a comparative perspective. The topics in this course vary depending on the instructor.

Areas of Focus: Canadian Government and Politics; Comparative Politics