Approved for POL Program Requirements (2024–25)
Please note: Only 0.5 FCEs First-Year Seminar Offered by Other Units Approved by Political Science can be used for entry and/or first-year completion requirements for the POL Minor/Major/Specialist programs.
- GGR199H1 – Global Racial Capitalism in the 21st Century
- TRN151Y1 – Global Governance
- TRN160Y1 – Public Policy and the Public Good
- TRN162Y1 – Political Economy and Social Inequality
- TRN172Y1 – Ethics and the Law
- VIC110H1 – Critical Perspectives on Society
- VIC121H1 – Evaluating Healthcare: Problems and Solutions
- VIC167H1 – Ideas and Fine Thoughts
- VIC168H1 – Identity and Equality in the Public Sphere
- VIC181H1 – Events in the Public Sphere: World Affairs
- VIC183H1 – Individuals and the Public Sphere: Shapinng Memory
- VIC184H1 – Individuals and the Public Sphere: History, Historiography and Making Cultural Memory
- VIC185H1 – Events in the Public Sphere: Social Justice
- WDW151H1 – Order and Disorder I: Issues and Perspectives
- WDW152H1 – Order and Disorder II: Problems and Solutions
GGR199H1 – Global Racial Capitalism in the 21st Century
This course uses the tools of political economy, decolonial and anti-colonial theory, and critical approaches to the study of racism to explore how the construction of racial categories continues to be integral to how capitalist systems work. We explore the reasons why capitalism was never meant to work for everyone by examining how and why racial categories have continued to matter since its earliest formation.
TRN151Y1– Global Governance
Terrorism, the proliferation of arms (including weapons of mass destruction), environmental degradation, globalization, technological change, and the rise of non-state actors all pose challenges to statecraft and the management of global order. This seminar course explores the changing dynamics of global politics and the responses to them by states (and others). Topics will include an examination of new forms of international collaboration that have developed in the wake of crises in the years following the Second World War.
TRN160Y1 – Public Policy and the Public Good
What is public policy? Is there such a thing as the public good? This seminar course examines the notion of the “public” through investigating possible answers to a central political question: what is the purpose of government? Drawing on readings in philosophy and political theory, the course considers a variety of approaches to interpreting the nature of the public good and asks how policy makers should respond when competing goods (e.g., freedom and security) clash with each other. The course involves discussion of contemporary issues in public policy.
TRN162Y1 – Political Economy and Social Inequality
What is the relationship between capitalism and democracy? How can studying rational choice theory inform public policy? This course will introduce students to the methods of studying the interplay between economics and political goals. We will focus on specific topics to guide our quantitative analysis, which may include intergenerational poverty, the transfer of wealth, efficiency, and social stratification. Students will learn how to situate a society’s economic institutions within their broader political context, and study how economic outcomes interact with broader policies relating to, for example, health, equality, social mobility, and well-being. We will analyze empirical results while developing critical skills for interpreting economic data and research.
TRN172Y1 – Ethics and the Law
In this course we will investigate issues that lie at the intersection of morality on the one hand and law on the other. Our main goal will be to accurately characterize the relationship between conduct that is morally wrong and actions that should be illegal. In treating the domain of morality as separate from the domain of law we implicitly rely on a distinction between “the public” and “the private.” We will be looking at legal cases that motivate us to think about how to draw a distinction between the two domains in a principled way. The aims of this course are: 1) to help students develop a view about which issues ought to be dealt with by the law and which ones should not, and 2) to acquire a theoretical framework for thinking about the institution of law and how it fits within a democratic society.
VIC110H1 – Critical Perspectives on Society
By means of short texts, film or plays this course explores such themes as the effect of the media on the political, the nature of democracy, the question of justice and the role of violence in the social.
VIC121H1 – Evaluating Healthcare: Problems and Solutions
This course introduces students to the study of healthcare by asking foundational questions about how evidence and knowledge are produced in the context of healthcare problems. Students will explore how different frameworks for clinical practice (e.g. Evidence-based Medicine, Person-Centered Healthcare) conceptualize evidence and how different methodologies impact how healthcare research is conceived, reported, and understood. Students will learn to critically appraise healthcare research studies and assess their evidence value and implications for clinical practice.
VIC167H1 – Ideas and Fine Thoughts
This course examines how political ideas are formed and developed through literature, art, plays, essays and philosophical works in the twentieth century.
VIC168H1 – Identity and Equality in the Public Sphere
This course explores current legal and philosophical debates around equality, discrimination, and the shaping of individual and group identities. It addresses the way values, affiliation, and identities have an impact on the public sphere of law and policy-making – and the ways in which law and policy, in turn, shape our conceptions (and misconceptions) of people’s identities.
VIC181H1 – Events in the Public Sphere: World Affairs
This course will review issues in contemporary world affairs, from the fall of the Berlin Wall to the present day. The course will examine the politics and practice of foreign policy decision making. Issues to be covered include the collapse of the Soviet Union, intervention in humanitarian crises, and the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.
VIC183H1 – Individuals and the Public Sphere
The purpose of this course is to introduce the class to how public memory is shaped and how it functions in social life. We discuss this general idea through historic, “famous” quotes and images, and see how they have been re-quoted and reproduced over time, in some cases for centuries. We also ask what the nature of quotation and reproduction is in general.
VIC184H1 – Individuals and the Public Sphere: History, Historiography and Making Cultural Memory
A seminar course that examines the contribution of an individual or individuals to the public sphere. The course will explore how public service and citizenship are developed in social, philosophical, and cultural contexts. We will examine our evolving role in developing collective, cultural and counter memory. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.
VIC185H1 – Events in the Public Sphere: Social Justice
This course uses events to discuss the nature of society including major revolutions, economic crises, and the impact of significant artistic, cultural and technological developments. Emphasis on our responsibilities towards social justice.
WDW151H1 – Order and Disorder I: Issues and Perspectives
Societies require law and order, but at what point does order become oppression? How do we balance our need for freedom and society’s need for order? This interdisciplinary seminar allows students to explore these and related questions through selected readings introducing theories from sociology, political science, philosophy, and history.
WDW152H1 – Order and Disorder II: Problems and Solutions
Building on the questions and theoretical perspectives discussed in WDW151H1, this interdisciplinary seminar introduces students to some of the methods used by scholars and researchers in sociology, political science, philosophy, and history to develop, test, and debate possible solutions to the problems of social order and disorder.