All Courses

(Fall CRN 61473) This course introduces students to the origins and development of sociological thinking and research, beginning with the foundations of the discipline in the 19th century. Students are then introduced to the concepts and methods within sociology. The objective is to explore the extent and limits of our capacity to change the social world by reference to sociological research in both a Canadian and global context. Credit will be granted for only one of SOCI 101 or SOCI 100. Three credits.

(Summer CRN 23028 / Winter CRN 61460) This course builds on the foundations of sociological theory, methods and historic considerations established in SOCI 101. Students will explore a range of topics dealing with various aspects of social inequality, culture, integration, and ideological conflict in both a Canadian and global context. Together with SOCI 101, this course provides the prerequisite for all other sociology courses. Credit will be granted for only one of SOCI 102 or SOCI 100. Three credits.

(Summer CRN 23029 Fall CRN61476) This course provides students with a sociological interpretation of education in Canada. Students will investigate the relationship between education opportunity and conditions of inequality, socialization, social participation in education, and the contextualized within the historical development of Canadian educational institutions. Credit will be granted for only one of SOCI 231 or SOCI 230. Three credits.

(Spring CRN 14586) The course introduces students to social justice theory and research. Students will examine social movements and theories (e.g., postcolonial theory, black feminist thought, and indigenous perspectives) that helped shape conceptions of social justice. Students will examine social justice research in areas such as environmental racism, barriers to health care, education, and employment, and barriers and challenges to achieving social justice. Credit will be granted for only one of SOCI 237 or SOCI 297 (2020-2021). Three credits.

(Summer CRN 23030) This course offers students a theoretical foundation for understanding social processes of deviance and social control. Using various theoretical devices, students will critically examine the social category of deviance and its use in social institutions and daily social practices. Topics could include mental illness, drug and alcohol use, alternative sexualities, social violence and disability. Three credits.

(Winter CRN 61461) An introduction to the field of disability studies, this course examines the ways in which disabled people and disability issues are defined and treated in contemporary society. Social and political conceptions of disability are contrasted with medical and individualistic definitions of disability with the aim of developing a critique of taken-for-granted conceptions of normal bodies, minds, and senses. Communitybased contributions and responses to disability knowledge are emphasized and common ideas and assumptions about disability are situated historically to illustrate changing relations to disability over time, and to the role of disability knowledge in social change. The experience of disability will be stressed. Three credits.

(Summer CRN 23031) Beginning with the understanding that disability is a social phenomenon, this course provides students with the tools to analyze such cultural conceptions as normalcy-abnormalcy, ability-inability, independence-dependence. Students will examine cultural representations of disability that marginalize and oppress disabled people, and explore the ways in which cultural representations of disability differ from experiential accounts. These representations are analyzed from an international perspective, with a focus on how disability has been represented in Canadian social policy, the media, helping professions, and the education system. Three credits.

(Summer CRN 23032 / Fall CRN 61477/Winter CRN 61462) In this course we investigate drug and alcohol addiction as an epidemic social problem from several key perspectives. Social theories are used to explore subcultures of addiction, race and racism, addiction’s impact on women, and how addiction is understood and experienced in Canada. Credit will be granted for only one of SOCI 315 and SOCI 395 (2018/2019). Three credits.

(Summer CRN 23033) This course brings a sociology of emotions to examine various contemporary and historical understandings of fear. Students will be invited to consider the role of fear in divisive politics at the intersections of social class, race and gender, as well as how fear is relevant to climate change, democracy and even, pleasure. Three credits.

(Fall CRN 61474/61475) This course analyzes the marriage and family life from a sociological perspective. It provides an overview of social changes over the past century, such as the falling birth rate, the rise in cohabitation and the legalization of same-sex marriage. Topics include marriage and fertility trends, the rise of intensive parenting and the dual earner family, the normalization of separation and divorce, the social cost of family violence, and how technology is influencing parenting. Cross-listed as WMGS 221. Three credits