Code and section: SOC*4130*01

Term: Fall 2025

Instructor: Myrna Dawson

Details

 

 

 

 

College of Social and Applied Human Sciences

Department of Sociology & Anthropology

ADVANCED SEMINAR IN VIOLENCE & SOCIETY

SOC*4130

Professor: M. Dawson

Email: mdawson@uoguelph.ca

---

COURSE OUTLINE

Course Description

This advanced seminar offers an in-depth study of the nature of violence in our society. Violence impacts all of us, daily and over the long term, with some groups or populations affected more than other groups or populations, depending on the combination of our social identities. Various, and select, forms of violence are the focus of intermittent or ongoing public discussions and debates accompanied by calls for interventions by states, governments, and other actors. But do these discussions and debates focus on the most destructive forms of violence or the most destructive individuals and groups in society? This course will ask you to consider the forms of violence that we often do not see, or see as clearly. We will examine forms of violence which are often not discussed as violence at all in mainstream society. We will interrogate how we can conceptualize and measure the ‘destructive’ impacts of violence and/or identify those who are most affected if some violence is less visible and/or not named as violence at all? Using a variety of case studies, we will examine these less visible forms of violence, and their impacts historically and in the contemporary period.

This is an in-person course; however, the mode of delivery is blended using a mix of in-class and virtual lectures, documentaries, activities, discussions and student presentations.

 

Required readings: All readings will be available through Ares Course Reserve or Courselink.

 

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, students will be able to:

• Use a variety of theoretical perspectives to move beyond an understanding of violence as a purely individual phenomenon to patterns of behaviours perpetuated and maintained by dominant social structures and social processes;
• Analyze the benefits and challenges to varying definitions and measurements of violence;
• Analyze how a combination of intersecting oppressions and inequalities can make violence either more or less visible and determine responses (or lack of responses) to that violence;
• Critically assess evidence-based research and illustrative case studies to understand how dominant institutions and actors in society work can work to sustain some forms of violence and why;
• Develop critical reading and writing skills that will demonstrate the ability to understand and apply course concepts and related materials to everyday life from the local to global.

 

Evaluation components: This course has various evaluation components, including ongoing participation in class discussions, presentations, reading critiques, mid-term test, and a final assignment.