New Programs
Special Topics courses
Fall 2024 Special Topics courses
For the most current course information, please refer to the Academic Calendar and Banner. Courses are in person on campus, unless otherwise noted.
ASNT 1826 – Introduction to Korean Language (CRN 18652)
Special Topics in Asian Studies
Mondays and Wednesdays, 2:30–3:45 pm
Instructor: TBA
ENGL 2828 – Young Adult Literature (CRN 18860)
Special Author / Special Subject
Tuesdays and Thursdays 2:30 – 3:45 p.m.
Instructor: Dr. Ariel Watson
Explore innovations in contemporary YA fantasy. How do these stories provide opportunities to reimagine race, gender, history, power and revolution? How does literature construct what it means to be a young adult?
GDST 3830 – South East Asia: Contemporary Development (CRN 18631)
Special Topics in Global Development Studies
Mondays and Wednesdays, 2:30–3:45 p.m.
Instructor: Dr. Karen McAllister
In this course, students will be introduced to the diverse countries, cultures and environments of South East Asia through an exploration of contemporary development issues in the region. Topics that will be covered include: the relationship between states, development, and ethnic minorities; agrarian change and environmental conflicts; the growing influence of China in the region; and authoritarianism, social movements and human rights. The class will involve a combination of lectures, films, and student discussions and presentations.
GDST 4843.1/GDST 6805.1 – Conflict, Security, and Development (CRN: 17969/17971)
Wednesdays, 10 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
Instructor: Dr. Kate Ervine
Examine how security as a concept frames the problem of climate change and its impacts, and how competing security frameworks shape national and international policy interventions to mitigate climate change. Asking whose security matters, students will explore the practical, political and ethical challenges of developing equitable and effective climate policy in a globally divided world. This course is ideal for students in the Bachelor of Environmental Studies program, for those pursuing a minor in Global Environmental Politics or a minor in Climate Change Studies, and for majors in Political Science and Global Development Studies.
IRST 3831.1 – Ireland: A Political History, 1700-Present (CRN 18695)
Mondays and Wednesdays, 1–2:15 p.m.
Instructor: Dr. Edward Molloy
The idea of Ireland is a contested terrain on which struggles for the political present are fought. This course will describe the overall contours of this debate by introducing the internally contested ideologies of unionism, republicanism and nationalism.
IRST 3841.1/ENGL 3833.1 – Samuel Beckett and the Idea of Zionism (CRN 18696/18665)
Fridays, 1–3:30 p.m. (note: also open to the public as part of the Arts for Everyone program)
Instructor: Dr. Seán Kennedy
Does liberalism produce fascism? Study modernism, colonialism and liberal Zionism, while reading Samuel Beckett’s third novel, Watt (1953). Written during the fascist occupation of France (between 1941 and 1944), Watt is, among other things, a parody of the Irish Big House novel: an absurd study of liberal colonialism, power, politics and the biopolitics of settler colonial genocide.
POLI 4833.1/ACST 6642.1 – Politics & Community in Atlantic Canada (CRN 18629/18616)
Special Topics in Political Science and Atlantic Canada Studies
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 8:30–9:45 a.m.
Instructor: Dr. Don Naulls
This seminar explores the multiple dimensions of politics, policy and community in Atlantic Canada. It includes an examination of contemporary political institutions, actors and processes as well various forms of political mobilization in civil society. Thus, a wide range of contemporary political, economic, social and cultural issues, institutions, ideas and identities relating to Atlantic Canada are studied and analyzed. Students will prepare and present their own special projects.
RELS 4831 – Law and Religion (CRN 18708)
Special Topics in Religion
Tuesdays, 2:30–5 p.m.
Instructor: Dr. Syed Adnan Hussain
SOCI 3830 / HWSS 3830 – Sociology of Sport (CRN 18740/18863)
Remote asynchronous delivery
Instructor: Dr. Cheryl A. MacDonald
This special topics course in sociology includes history, socialization, diversity and inclusion, media, business and politics.
Winter 2025 Special Topics courses
Special Topics in Asian Studies
Mondays and Wednesdays, 2:30–3:45 pm
Instructor: TBA
Special Topics in French and Intercultural Studies
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2:30–3:45 p.m.
Instructor: Dr. Annick MacAskill
Study French literature and film by artists from the LGBTQ+ community, including Jean-Luc Lagarce and Nina Bouraoui. This course is taught in English with texts and films in English translation and with subtitles.
GDST 4426.2/6642.2 – International Human Rights & Development (CRN 28039/28041)
Special Topics in Global Development Studies
Remote asynchronous | Instructor: TBA
Although most countries have accepted international human rights instruments such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights or the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the full realization of human rights remains problematic across the world. This course will guide students to achieve an understanding of how development policies and practices impede or facilitate the realization of human rights in ways that are gendered, racialized and classed. Through weekly seminars and lectures, students will further gain knowledge about pressing global issues such as healthcare, labour, migration and the environment through a dual rights-based and developmental perspective.
GDST 4844.2/6826.2 – Development Administration (CRN 28139/28140)
Remote synchronous | Thursdays 4–6:30 p.m. | Instructor: TBA
Explore key issues in development management and the roles of different kinds of development professionals. Students will examine the tasks involved in sustainable development processes; how culture affects development management in the South and North; issues of participation, community empowerment, and capacity building; and effective approaches to project management and evaluation. These themes will be explored with an eye toward rethinking conventional development approaches in the context of contemporary issues such as foreign assistance, agriculture, climate change, health, education, housing and migration.
IRST 3832.2 – Understanding Northern Ireland (CRN 28108)
Remote synchronous | Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1–2:15 p.m.
Instructor: Dr. Edward Molloy
Study the Northern Ireland Conflict (1968-1998) through an array of primary and secondary sources including reportage, cinema, television and poetry. For more details, contact irishstudies@smu.ca.
RELS 2826.1 – Monsters (CRN 28122)
RELS 4832.1 – Cults and Popular Culture (CRN 28124)
Tuesdays 2:30–5 p.m.
Instructor: Dr. Mary Hale
Cults, or New Religions, are often viewed as harmful and negative (and, of course, some are!). But they are also fascinating and give us important insight into the various ways people try to make sense of their world. In this seminar course, we look beyond some of the stereotypes to the many different ways cults and popular culture influence one another. Among other things, we will look at cultural artifacts (such as architecture, clothing, fine art), planned communities and agriculture. We will also explore how cults have been formed in response to books and movies and social issues (Church of All Worlds, Jediism, The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster). Students are also welcome and encouraged to explore their own relevant interests. The course uses a broad selection of method and theory, drawing, among others, from religion, media, and cultural studies.
WGSS 3829 – Power and Pop Culture (CRN 28129)
Special Topics in Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1–2:15 p.m.
Instructor: Dr. Yasmin Owis
WGSS 4829/WGST 6838 – The Academic Incubator: Creating Real World Applications for Academic Knowledge (CRN 28132/CRN 28135)
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 11:30 a.m.–12:45 p.m.
Instructor: Dr. Michele Byers
Have you ever wondered how to use the incredible things you’ve learned during your degree out in the “real” world? This class is an incubator in which you will do exactly that! This seminar will provide a playful space for experiments in knowledge-translation (taking academic knowledge out of the university and into the wider world). Most students think about this transition, but rarely get time or guidance to experiment.
This class is open to students from all faculties and fields of study, recognizing that interdisciplinarity is a cornerstone of modern life. You'll have opportunities to creatively share knowledge with people outside your own discipline, and the space to brainstorm ideas, develop plans, and try things out with them. The possibilities are virtually endless, but here are a few:
- Start a business or develop a product
- Generate policy or conduct an experiment
- Community build and engage in direct action and/or advocacy
- Share knowledge/information, or create a new course
- Write a book or create art, craft or literature
- Produce a short film, podcast or script.
- Design an online / social media presence
- Make something accessible that wasn’t before.
WGSS 4830 – Intersectionality: Theories, Methods and Praxis (CRN 28133)
Wednesdays, 4–6:30 p.m.
Instructor: Dr. Benita Bunjun
New Arts programs launched in 2023-2024
Major in Public Humanities and Heritage
The new Public Humanities and Heritage program gives students a foundational understanding of theory and practice in the core areas of public humanities (archaeology, archive and museum studies, public history, tourism, digital humanities and collections management). Students gain valuable critical thinking, research and writing skills, and historical and cultural literacy, alongside hands-on, practical work experience in field placements. Students may choose to major in Public Humanities and Heritage or add it as a second major.
Major in Law and Ethics
Available as a major, this new program offers the opportunity for diverse disciplinary perspectives on the law and on ethics. It will give students the chance to think critically about the law and legal institutions, as well as a wide range of moral and legal issues. Studying law and ethics together makes it possible to raise fundamental questions about the ethics of various social practices, and about how laws can function to make a society more (or sometimes less) just.
Minor in Climate Change Studies
Climate change is one of the defining environmental and social problems of our lifetime. As a student pursuing a Minor in Climate Change Studies, you will engage in an interdisciplinary program of study that will prepare you for an understanding of climate change from diverse perspectives, examining scientific, political, psychological, economic and ethical dimensions of the problem and its solutions. The new minor is housed within the Bachelor of Environmental Studies program, but it’s open to students in all programs across Saint Mary’s.