A few First-Year Seminars give preference during the first round of enrolment to students with membership in the college offering the course - if this is the case, the college name will be listed beside the course title. During the second round of enrolment, first-year students at any college may enroll if space is available.
SII 199H1F: Society and Its Institutions (3): Fall Offerings
| Section | Title | College | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| L0021 | "Reading" Toronto, the First 12,000 Years | University | |
| L0022 | Social Inequalities | University | Timetable |
| L0101 | Dwelling, Housing, and Urban Lives | cancelled | |
| L0102 | Timetable | ||
| L0161 | Computer Networks and Society | Timetable | |
| L0171 | The Partition of British India in Films | cancelled | |
| L0201 | Debating and Understanding Current Environmental Issues | Timetable | |
| L0231 | Cities and Everyday Life | Timetable | |
| L0321 | A Question of Equality: Same-Sex Marriage, Poverty, and Canadian Courts | Timetable | |
| L0331 | Pacifists and Peaceniks: Canadian Peace Movements in Transnational Context | Woodsworth | Timetable |
SII 199H1S: Society and Its Institutions (3): Spring Offerings
Section |
Title | College | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| L0101 | The Process of Archaeological Discovery | Timetable | |
| L0201 | Sustainable and Just Futures: Environmental Politics in an Age of Global Warming | Timetable | |
| L0231 | Environmental Change: Producing New Natures | Timetable | |
| L0232 | Political Spaces | Timetable |
SII 199H1F
Section L0021
University College
Timetable
"Reading" Toronto, the First 12,000 Years
Whether you are new to Toronto or have lived here all your life this course will take you on an exploration of diverse aspects of the city We will use the multiple ways of "reading" Toronto provided by archaeology, fiction with a historical location, oral history and current media. Through these tools we will look specifically at the material and social world of the First Nations peoples of the prehistoric period, aspects of the colonial and industrial periods of urbanization and some social issues of the 21st century. Academic readings will augment the analysis of what each of these four ways of reading can contribute to our understanding of the material, social and cultural life of the city. The course will develop students' academic skills of analysis, research, writing and presenting.
Instructor M. FitzGerald, University College
Breadth category: 3 Society and Its Institutions
SII 199H1F
Section L0022
University College
Timetable
Social Inequalities
There is no known society without social inequalities of wealth, power, prestige and authority. These inequalities have important consequences for people's lives: for their educational and work opportunities, their health and even their physical survival. The proposed course will examine how these important social inequalities are distributed according to social class, gender, race and ethnicity, age group, region and country; will look at the consequences for crime, mental and physical health, and group conflict (even war); and will consider whether (and how) inequalities might be reduced in future. The course will emphasize reading, writing, and classroom discussion of assigned texts.
Instructor: L. Tepperman, University College/Sociology
Breadth category: 3 Society and Its Institutions
SII 199H1F
Section L0101
Cancelled
Dwelling, Housing, and Urban Lives
This course explores diverse aspects of urban housing through ethnographic perspectives, including homelessness, shelters, rental housing, public housing, housing ownership, and housing development in relation to gentrification and zone practices. This course aims to train students to understand a key subsistence of human living through anthropological lens by connecting their own living environment as well as learning about different forms of housing in other cultures.
Instructor: J. Song, Anthropology
Breadth category: 3 Society and Its Institutions
SII 199H1F
Section L0102
Timetable
Environmental Politics
“The environment” has become increasingly visible as a “political” issue for audiences in North America and elsewhere around the globe. This course traces the history of the North American Environmental Movement, from its antecedents in conservationism and its official inception in the early 1970s, to its turn to the "global" in the 1990s. The course explores the rise of "sustainability" as a core concept and focuses on how issues of equity have come to be a central part of contemporary environmental advocacy. By focusing on power, knowledge, and contestation over meanings as well as access to resources, this course combines cultural politics and political economy as a framework for understanding environmental struggles.
Instructor: H. Cunningham, Anthropology
Breadth category: 3 Society and Its Institutions
SII 199H1F
Section L0161
Timetable
Computer Networks and Society
The Internet has become such an inseparable part of our lives today that it is becoming more and more difficult imagining a world without it. It has significantly affected numerous aspects of our lives: from communications, to business, and even entertainment. It has changed many applications that existed before (like phone, and TV), and has become a birthplace for new applications that we could not have envisioned just a few years ago. In this course, we will study the Internet and its impact on our lives and society. We will briefly overview the structure of the Internet, and reasons behind its rapid growth and tremendous success. We will also study several cases where the Internet has played a major role in solving/alleviating real life problems.
Instructor: Y. Ganjali, Computer Science
Breadth category: 3 Society and Its Institutions
SII 199H1F
Section L0201
Timetable
Debating and Understanding Current Environmental Issues
The course examines current environmental issues for which there is no easy answer or consensus position. For instance, to help solve climate change should we generate more electricity from nuclear power- plants, which have no greenhouse gas emissions? Or instead, should we phase out nuclear plants because of possible accidents, costs and radioactive wastes? The seminar examines the scientific and political aspects of such issues and debates the pros and cons of each.
Instructor: K. Ing, Centre for Environment
Breadth category: 3 Society and Its Institutions
SII 199H1F
Section L0231
Timetable
Cities and Everyday Life
Over fifty percent of the world's inhabitants now live in cities. In Canada, eighty percent of Canadians live in cities with populations of 500,000 or more, and the proportion of urban dwellers continues to grow. Understanding the nature of everyday living within cities is therefore increasingly important. This course examines the links between social, political and economic transformation and the continual building and rebuilding of urban landscapes at a variety of scales. A key focus will be on urban lives and livelihoods, and on the way lives differ by class, gender, race, ethnicity, and sexuality. Both theories and methods that help us understand urban life will be explored. The course will include one or more of the following sub-topics: (1) urban health and marginalization, (2) housing and homelessness, (3) urban governance and institutions, (4) social justice movements in the city, (5) processes of economic and geographic restructuring and their impacts on work, employment and well-being, (6) urban cultures, identities and diversity, (7) crime, violence and security, (8) mobility, access and transportation, (9) built environments, public space, and civil society.
Instructor:R. DiFrancesco, Geography
Breadth category: 3 Society and Its Institutions
SII 199H1F
Section L0321
Timetable
A Question of Equality: Same-Sex Marriage, Poverty, and Canadian Courts
What does it mean to say that the government must treat everyone with equal respect? Why is it sometimes acceptable to exclude people from a certain institution or benefit, but sometimes discriminatory? Canadian courts have struggled with these questions in recent years when interpreting the equality rights in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In this seminar, we will look at their answers and critique them, with the help of some articles in legal philosophy. We will consider some of the successful same-sex marriage cases and compare them with cases involving allegations of discrimination based on poverty, which have historically not succeeded. In the process of making this comparison, we will ask a number of questions about discrimination. Does it always involve the same kind of wrong? Whose problem or fault is it? And is it right that these questions are being decided by courts and not by legislatures?
Instructor: S. Moreau, Philosophy
Breadth category: Society and Its Institutions
SII 199H1F
Section L0331
Woodsworth College Course
Timetable
Pacifists and Peaceniks: Canadian Peace Movements in Transnational Context
"Millions of people take to the streets of major cities around the globe to protest the Iraq war." "More than 35 cities and towns across Canada hold rallies to stop the war in Afghanistan." These and other headlines confirm that public pressure for world peace continues to be an important social movement, but the recent protests are only the latest stage in the evolution of an organized rejection of violence and war. This course examines major peace movements since the early twentieth century with a special focus on the Canadian experience. After a review of the religious and philosophical basis of pacifism as well as the historical development of secular peace movements, students will study a number of peace movements, past and present, in terms of such issues as religious and ideological commitment, gender composition and popular culture. The course, taught in an interactive seminar format, will assist students in developing skills in academic research and writing, presentations and class discussions. Where appropriate, films will be integrated with a variety of interdisciplinary readings. Evaluation will be based on in-class tests, presentations, a major research essay, and class participation.
Instructor: T. Socknat, Woodsworth College
Breadth category: 3 Society and Its Institutions
SII 199H1S
Section L0101
Timetable
The Process of Archaeological Discovery
Archaeological discoveries have profoundly changed our view of humanity and history. This course will examine how archaeologists discover the past and what happens when these discoveries are communicated to the public. The class will focus on a series of case studies. Students will first work through the scientific literature to understand the nature of the discovery and the methods used by the archaeologists to identify the importance of the discovery. With this background we will consider what happens to this information when it is spread to the public through the media. We will also examine how conflict can emerge over who should control the archaeological remains. The case studies will come from a wide range of geographic contexts and will include both prehistoric and historic archaeology.
Instructor: M. Chazan, Anthropology
Breadth category: 3 Society and Its Institutions
SII 199H1S
Section L0201
Timetable
Sustainable and Just Futures: Environmental Politics in an Age of Global Warming
We stand on the threshold of unprecedented environmental and social transformations as global warming, the loss of biodiversity and accelerating environmental degradation signal limits to economic growth. This seminar considers our current predicament through the concepts of sustainability and justice. We will place the concept of sustainability in the context of 20th century economic and environmental politics. Environmental costs and benefits are not distributed equally across people, societies and nations: some gain at the cost of others. Thus environmental justice becomes central to environmental debates and the quest for futures that are both sustainable and just.
Instructor: K. Kumar, Centre for Environment
Breadth category: 3 Society and Its Institutions
SII 199H1S
Section L0171
Timetable
Cultural Politics in Modern China
This course will explore the connections between politics and culture in China in a historical context, focusing on the ongoing tension in state-society relations. The tutelary role of the state and the centrality of state-defined orthodoxy serve as a point of departure, with 'ideology' and 'political culture' serving as key foci. One major topic will be the ambiguous role of China's intellectuals as servants of power and as autonomous critics of despotic rule. Among other topics to be considered are the political uses of literature, history, the arts and the media in China as instruments of state control and as vehicles for protest and social mobilization. The first half of the course will deal with the historical context shaping cultural politics and the second half of the course will examine specific aspects of contemporary cultural change.
Instructor: V. Falkenheim, East Asian Studies
Breadth category: 3 Society and Its Institutions
SII 199H1S
Section L0231
Timetable
Environmental Change: Producing New Natures
Why do we have environmental problems? How do we understand these problems, their origins, and what should be done about them? This course aims to provide background and insight on the dizzying array of contemporary environmental problems by examining their complex origins and implications in some detail. Emphasis will be placed on developing problem-driven, interdisciplinary intellectual tools required to understand phenomena that are produced through novel combinations of biophysical processes and human actions. Consistent themes will include: the human processes that tend to propel these transformations; geographies of integrated social and ecological transformation; challenges to existing institutions and social relations; and strategies in environmental governance. Case studies will draw on a wide range of issues, including the emergence of genetically modified organisms; long-term nuclear wastes; persistent synthetic organic compounds; an altered global climate; complex socio-ecological aspects of waste production and management; industrial agriculture; and large scale landscape transformations more generally.
Instructor: S. Wakefield, Geography
Breadth category: 3 Society and Its Institutions
SII 199H1S
Section L0232
Timetable
Political Spaces
Is space political? In what ways? What are the implications of thinking about politics geographically? How do political conflicts both invoke and transform space and place? What kinds of alternative political relationships to space and alternative mappings can we imagine? This course will attempt to answer those questions while exploring a wide range of possible contexts in which political spaces are evident. These may include: conflicts over the intimate spaces of the body, identity, and the home; the racialization and gendering of space; the politics of cities and urbanization; the boundaries of public and private space; struggles over land, property, resources and 'nature'; the political geographies of labour, citizenship and migration; globalization of economic markets and alternative economic political and social cartographies; borders, geopolitics, and the territorial politics of empire; and the geographic projects of colonialism, post-coloniality, modernity, and modernization.
Instructor: R. Silvey, Geography
Breadth category: 3 Society and Its Institutions