Courses

(Core Course) A comprehensive survey of representative works in traditional political thought from antiquity to the nineteenth century.

This advanced seminar will examine the emergence, in France, of a new theory of radical democracy born of the ruthless critique of totalitarian domination and of the discovery of a politics of emancipation in the wake of the events of May 1968. Inspired by Rosa Luxemburg's alternative 'Socialism or Barbarism', the anti-totalitarian left articulates a democratic project that remains critical of liberalism while rejecting vanguardism in the name of the political capacity of 'anybody and everybody' (J. Rancière).

Explores the influence of Antonio Gramsci on current political thought. It begins with a careful examination of some of Gramsci's main ideas. Among them, the concepts of hegemony and ethico-political life, his views on the state, and the general theoretical assumptions of this brand of historicism will be given particular attention. In the second half, current debates on the same issues will be explored with the aim of both seeing the limitations of Gramsci and postmodernism, and critically assessing the historical and theoretical assumptions of some current social and political theory.

This course explores the figural Others against which boundaries of political community were constructed during the period of European colonial expansion and consolidation of sovereign state power. Close attention will be paid to the imbrication of these figures with one another and related imagined Others along with attempts to push back against or appropriate these figures for emancipatory projects.

About the meaning of power and violence as fundamental categories of modernity and human existence overall. The course is concerned with violence in many forms and manifestations, including: violence at the foundation of human community, conservative violence, 'divine violence,' redemptive violence, self as violence against self and other, exclusionary violence, the violence of liberal freedom and the commodity, counter-hegemonic violence, the violence of the spectacle, the violence of outsiders and gender violence.

Accelerating Technicity examines the concept of technology in select works of Heidegger, Marcuse, Deleuze, Simondon, Stiegler, Hayles, Virilio and Acclerationism. Using these theorists the course will grapple with Heidegger's two conflicting tendencies in technology: the dominant tendency of instrumental technology (the danger inherent in technology) and second, the tendency toward poeisis (the revealing and saving potential inherent in technology).

Accelerating Technicity examines the concept of technology in select works of Heidegger, Marcuse, Deleuze, Simondon, Stiegler, Hayles, Virilio and Acclerationism. Using these theorists the course will grapple with Heidegger's two conflicting tendencies in technology: the dominant tendency of instrumental technology (the danger inherent in technology) and second, the tendency toward poeisis (the revealing and saving potential inherent in technology).

This course considers Marxism and psychonalaysis through an overview of key thinkers who have brought these two traditions into conversation and an examination of points of contact and divergence with respect to concepts central to each, such as alienation, fetishism, etc.

Explores indigenous development experiences in Canada and throughout the world, in comparative perspective. It draws on theories of development and underdevelopment and examines the sociology, politics and economics of development as well as environmental and cultural implications.

Drawing upon governmentality themes, this course examines the types of knowledge and practice that shape urban poverty as a distinct sphere of governmental action, such as in relation to homelessness, mental health, food insecurity, addictions, and community development.

(Core Course) Close study, for advanced candidates only, of the literature of the field.

This course analyzes theories and concepts of power, supremacy, hegemony and imperialism in different world orders since antiquity. Analytical emphasis is placed on explaining the post-1945 period associated with American hegemony, Soviet Power and subsequent patterns of intensified globalization.

Examines health at the intersection between global and national political terrains. It explores the impact of extensive biomedical development, national competition, and international trade on both the ‘reality’ and delivery of health for populations.

Examines the theories, practices, implicit rationalities, and tensions/contradictions of neoliberalism.

Examines the theories, practices, implicit rationalities, and tensions/contradictions of neoliberalism.

An in-depth introduction to major texts in the history of political economy, in this course we shall analyze texts by such thinkers as Adam Smith, Karl Marx, and J.M. Keynes with particular attention to issues having to do with methodology, the nature of the economic, and the relation of the economic to other areas of social life. Same as Social and Political Thought 6271 3.0

Examines historical structures of political economy at the levels of production, state and world order, with a special focus on structural change. A discussion and comparison of theoretical approaches.

Examines diverse dimensions of transnational crime and corruption in the global political economy. Theoretical reflection and case-study research are applied to explore the illicit global economy and its relationship to 'legitimate' and licit practices. Topics include transnational bribery; money laundering; illicit trade in weapons, drugs, and other goods; human trafficking and human smuggling; and the link to terrorism.

The course focuses on the use of regression models to analyze surveys and other social data. Assuming no prior background, it covers the statistical basics, model building strategies, model assumptions and the interpretation of results.

Examines the critical urban theories and theoretical debates that have informed research questions and political orientations in the field of urban studies since the 1960s. Readings include major texts from feminist, post-structural/colonial and Marxist approaches, and debates over the changing natures of local states, political organizations and justice, generated both in Western and non-Western urban contexts. Students are expected to develop faculties of comparing and critically assessing different theoretical approaches.

An advanced survey of the literature of the field. The course covers comparative politics as a discipline; the range of analytical approaches, methodologies and data employed. Empirical studies of social stratification and political participation, ideology and regimes, government institutions, and processes of political crisis and change in advanced capitalist, communist and third world countries will also be examined.

This course examines the relationship between the development of capitalism and attempts to address the social , focusing in particular on the contradictions, possibilities and limits as capitalist states attempt to deal with social provisioning in the current era. The course first examines theoretical and historical perspectives, including the formation of welfare states and their subsequent crisis and restructuring. The second section focuses on neo-liberalism and how it has altered the nature of social provisioning. The third section examines the period since the 2008 financial crisis, the growing use of debt as a form of social provisioning, and the implications of on-going austerity measures. A theme running throughout the course is how hierarchies of gender, race/ethnicity and class have formed part of the transformations that have taken place and created differential impacts.

This course covers the neglected role of popular movements - from rebellion to revolution - in shaping modern political and economic order in Latin America. A recurring theme is the balance of historical structure and conjunctural agency, of economics and politics, in enabling and inhibiting rebellion and revolution, and in determining lasting modes of political and economic order, as well as moments of transformation and re-organization.

The course examines contemporary debates about social transformations with particular emphasis on the dimensions of knowledge, political economy and agency. Its objective is to assist students in formulating their own critical inquiry about transformative processes.

Provides a comparative inquiry about the nature of transnational communal, religious, and political identities at the age of late capitalism. It puts emphasis on critical approaches to diasporas, their variant constructions of homeland and home, and their marked effects on the politics of the post-Westphalian state and international relations.

This interdisciplinary course introduces students to debates and perspectives on Latin American and Caribbean studies and links theory with practice in the field. Supported by numerous CERLAC Fellows from a range of disciplines, students from different graduate programs and areas of study will collaborate together in teams on applied research projects.

Examines the rise of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - euphemistically called the BRICS - in the context of the shifting international order. The focus is on analyzing the political-economic and diplomatic development of these countries in comparative and global perspective.

This advanced comparative politics seminar addresses specific policies of European integration, including such topics as foreign and security policy, environmental policies, social policies, gender and identity politics, and others.

Advanced study of the relationship between gender and politics, focusing on theoretical and empirical analyses of the political and socio-economic experiences of diverse and disadvantaged groups. Topics include women's engagement in formal and informal politics, gender and sexuality in political theory,¿empirical analyses of intersectional identities in various subfields of political science¿and feminist, intersectional and decolonial interventions in the political science canon. Core course.

This class takes an interdisciplinary approach to understand the political and ethical implications of the ubiquitous deployment of AI and Machine Learning technologies. We will engage in an intersectional and socio-technical perspective to critically assess the unevenly distributed impacts of automated decision making on communities. Some themes included are: bias and discrimination, surveillance, privacy, data feminism and data activism.

A course normally offered on a one or two time only basis by a short term member of the program (usually a visiting professor) examining the current research of the Instructor.

PhD III candidates are required to attend the PhD Dissertation Proposal Workshop. The proposal workshop consists of three three-hour sessions offered on a monthly basis during the Fall term of the academic year (with dates set for late September, October and November) plus two individual meeting with the Graduate Program Director to discuss their dissertation proposal, to set up a supervisory committee and to go over the draft thesis proposal. Students will receive a passing grade by attending the three sessions and a half-hour and one-hour meeting with the Graduate Program Director. The course involves 10.5 hours (nine seminar hours and 1.5 hours of individual meeting with the GPD) for the PhD student; the course involves 36 hours for the GPD (nine seminar hours plus 27 individual student hours

This course engages political inquiry and research design. We will focus on concrete and practical issues of conducting research: picking a topic; generating and asking key research questions; articulating and grappling with strategies of research and specific research methods such as case studies, surveys, interviews, field work, archival research and sampling procedures. We will also consider how to code data and how to work with data sets, combining quantitative and qualitative methods, content and discourse analysis; and finally, spend some time discussing research ethics. The course is designed for PhD students in Political Science who are writing dissertation proposals.