Browse through the database below to explore courses that will fulfill certain degree requirements in the Interdisciplinary Social Science program.
When registering for classes on the Course Timetable website, be sure to carefully read through the "Notes/Additional Fees" section of each course you select.
The Interdisciplinary Social Science Program has an introductory methods course at the 2000 level and is designed around “core” courses offered at 2000, 3000 and 4000 levels. In order for students to complete their required credits, the program offers three optional pathways:
Self, Culture and Society
This pathway offers students the opportunity to learn how we as individuals and social groups create and interact with the diverse cultural forms, social practices and worldviews that make up our society. Themes such as identity, ideology and social movements are explored.
Land, Food and Climate Justice
Three of the most urgent and important issues in the world today concern our relationships with land, the production, quality and distribution of food, and the way a warming planet is adversely affecting the lives of billions of people, animals and habitats. Investigate them through this pathway.
Social Theory and Method
Knowledge is vast and complex. Theory allows us to navigate through it using conceptual tools, specific perspectives and critique, and to structure it to generate new forms of knowledge. Method provides the means of using theory to select, organize and analyze information in systematic and manageable ways. It allows for transparency in how knowledge, information and data are handled to serve theory.
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AP/SOSC 1140 9.00
Self, Culture And Society: Critical Perspectives
This course takes an interdisciplinary approach to understanding "self", "culture", and "society". It looks at contributions from anthropology, economics, political science, psychology and sociology that examine the experience of self, social order, work, gender, race, ...
AP/SOSC 2000 6.00
Interdisciplinary Approaches To Social Inquiry
This course surveys a range of blended approaches to critical social inquiry. Grounded in contemporary research trends developed in such fields as Urban Studies, Development Studies, Health and Society, Work and Labour Studies and African ...
AP/SOSC 2005 6.00
Special Topics In ISS
The content of this special topics course varies from year to year. Please consult the Program’s website for detailed information.
AP/SOSC 2007 6.00
Representing Climate Change
This course examines the representation of climate change in journalism, science, art, education and popular culture. We do so by grappling with two central questions: How is climate change represented for the public? How effective ...
AP/SOSC 2560 6.00
Ideology And Everyday Life
The concept "ideology" plays a central and unique role in how we understand ourselves. We will examine ideas and structures of power in relation to identity, society, democracy, freedom, knowledge, art, popular culture, and our ...
AP/SOSC 2570 6.00
Human Nature And Political Thought
This course investigates conceptions of what it is to be a human being in the context of social, cultural and political relations. Major themes include the relationships between authority and critique, autonomy and democracy and ...
AP/SOSC 2571 6.00
Introduction To Social And Political Thought
Provides a broad introduction to the interdisciplinary study of modern social and political thought. Through critical readings and analyses of primary texts, students become familiar with the rise of the liberal tradition, focusing on critiques, ...
AP/SOSC 3005 6.00
Special Topics In ISS
The content of this special topics course varies from year to year. Please consult the Program’s website for detailed information.
AP/SOSC 3006 6.00
Technology And Social Movements
This course examines the role of technology in social movements since the 1960s. It takes an interdisciplinary approach combining theories from anthropology, science and technology studies, political science, sociology, geography, communication and cultural studies. Some ...
AP/SOSC 3007 6.00
Colonialism And Reconciliation In Settler Societies
This course explores the implications of "reconciliation" between settlers and those peoples colonized by them. To understand "reconciliation" we begin with recognition of the scope and nature of colonialism. Students will delve deeper into theoretical ...
AP/SOSC 3008 3.00
Disability And Race
Disabled and racialized groups share common historical experiences of genocide, forced sterilization, and residential segregation. However, analogies are inadequate in explaining why racial groups, particularly indigenous, have much higher rates of disability and why 85% ...
AP/SOSC 3009 6.00
Body, Power And Society
This course examines the body as a site through which modern forms of power are enacted and contested. Drawing on a range of interdisciplinary approaches and critical social theory, the course explores interconnections between bodies, ...
AP/SOSC 3042 3.00
Business & Social Exclusion In The Global South
This course is for students in the Business and Society program. It investigates the intersection of business practices and systemic bias against marginalized groups - in particular visible minorities and women in the global economy.
AP/SOSC 3512 6.00
Postcolonial Theory
This course investigates the relation between postcolonial theory and social and political thought. It examines theories of empire, decolonization, the nation, race, class, gender, resistance, postcolonial identity and others, highlighting the role of social and ...
AP/SOSC 3513 6.00
Subjectivities Of The Subaltern
Subjectivities of the Subaltern investigates what it means to be named “subaltern” and why this figure is assumed to be devoid of subjectivity. With little recognition, decipherable identity or social agency how do theories of ...
AP/SOSC 3515 6.00
Social And Political Thought: East And West
The course aims to compare and contrast the social and political ideas of East Asian and Western thought in both ancient and contemporary perspectives. It examines classical Chinese thinkers such as Laozi, Zhuangzi, and Confucius ...
AP/SOSC 3552 6.00
Political Economy As A Moral Science
The course develops a conception of "political economy" as a "moral science" through study of the economics of Karl Marx and John Maynard Keynes. It also explores the relation of the conception to German idealist ...
AP/SOSC 4000 6.00
Topics In Social Science Research
This course is one of two capstone options for students pursuing an Honours degree in the Interdisciplinary Social Science Program. Building on the critical skills, theoretical grounding and understanding of interdisciplinary research approaches established in ...
AP/SOSC 4001 6.00
Critical Issues In Tourism Studies
This course examines how tourism has developed socially and spatially in the context of globalization and vast disparities of wealth and power. It takes an interdisciplinary approach combining theories from anthropology, tourism studies, international development, ...
AP/SOSC 4003 6.00
Phenomenology For Social Science
As the critical study of appearances, experiences and interpretations, phenomenology provides both method and theory for social scientific inquiry. Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger and Maurice Merleau-Ponty are pillars of phenomenology who offer complementary strategies for ...
AP/SOSC 4004 6.00
Skepticism And Social Science Inquiry
This course explores the implications of living in a "post-fact world" where objective facts are less influential in shaping social relations. Students will discover that "post-facts" are embedded in many of our social activities and ...
AP/SOSC 4043 6.00
Corporate Governance And Business Law In Comparative Context
Examines intersections between business and the law. Particular attention is paid to the nature of the firm and corporate governance, governance structures in a comparative context, and recent and controversial issues regarding the relationship between ...
AP/SOSC 4044 6.00
Ethics And Economics
This course looks at the relationship between ethics and economics both in the historical development of the "political economy" and in modern "economics". Both symbioses and tensions between economics and ethics will be explored.
AP/SOSC 4045 6.00
Business, Communications & Society
This course is a critical analysis of the relationships among business, information and communications technologies, and communications media. Particular attention is paid to the importance of communications issues to the study of business and society, ...
AP/SOSC 4048 3.00
The Business Of Fair Trade
The seminar course is an optional course in the Environment stream of the Business & Society program. It focuses on various aspects of the practice of fair trade - as a form of regulation, as ...
AP/SOSC 4049 3.00
The Business Of Food & Farming
The seminar course focuses on Food and Farming, including the analysis of different types of agricultural production and their ability to provide the basis for sustainable food systems.
AP/SOSC 4146 3.00
Health & Humanitarianism
Examines the field of health and humanitarianism with attention to the historical, social and political-economic forces that shape it.
AP/SOSC 4370 6.00
State Of The Art In Law & Society
Presents and describes current research in socio-legal studies. Topics may include legal pluralism, legal geography, international human rights, access to justice, law and politics, gender and law, social and cultural dimensions of law, and socio-legal ...
AP/SOSC 4450 3.00
Culture & Politics In The Americas
This course draws on oral history, novels, and some of the most accessible and entertaining social scientific studies to explore some of the central themes of both Latin American and Caribbean history and contemporary life, ...
AP/SOSC 4510 6.00
African Popular Culture
This course investigates the multiple dimensions of African popular culture through looking at forms of cultural productivity: music, film, literature, theatre, cartoon, sport, leisure and aspects of material culture. It also explores ways in which ...
AP/SOSC 4511 6.00
Social And Political Thought Seminar
The purpose of the course is to enable students to integrate and apply what they have learned throughout the program in the context of particular problems and contemporary issues in social and political thought.
AP/SOSC 4600 6.00
International Development Studies Seminar
This course explores contemporary perspectives on development, including current development challenges and potential solutions. Particular attention is given to various debates on globalization, including the differential impacts of globalization on a number of countries and ...