Fall 2025 Special Topic and Seminar Information

ANTH*4640 - Seminar in Anthropology - Primates, People and Pandemics

This seminar course will look at the interconnection between non-human primates, humans, and disease using a One Health approach. Students will gain insights into using biological and enthoprimatological perspectives to understanding zoonotic and anthroponotic disease transmission between non-human primates and humans. The course will specifically explore infectious agents that cause disease or disorders in humans and primates that may include COVID-19, HIV, SIV, tuberculosis, yellow fever, malaria, and gastro-intestinal diseases. The course also looks at how the human-non-human primate interface impacts, health of human and non-human primates as well as conservation of non-human primates.

SOC*2900 - Current Topics in Sociology - Sport and Society - Seats Available!!

From the Superbowl to skateboarding, from hockey to hacky-sack, sport carries considerable social, cultural, political, and economic weight. Sport is an important part of many people’s everyday lives and a source of personal and collective identity. Sport is also big business and can incite social and political conflict. This course examines key concepts and themes in the sociology of sport, treating sport as a lens through which to understand a wide range of contemporary social issues. Drawing on current and historical case studies, students will investigate and analyze the impact of sport on society. Topics covered may include: sport and nationalism, violence in sport, commercialization and branding, mass participation, fitness regimes, fan cultures, gambling, technology in sport.

SOC*3840 - Seminar in Sociology - Technology and Crime - Seats Available!!

SOC*3840 is a 0.50-credit course that covers topics at the intersection of technology and crime. During the semester, we will learn about how digital technologies and rapid technological advancements complicate our traditional understanding of crime and deviance, victimization, and criminal justice interventions. In particular, we will discuss a range of cybercrimes and other online misbehaviours, including cyberbullying, cyberstalking, digital piracy, and hacking, among many others that demonstrate the diverse risks facing today’s digital citizens. We will draw attention to theoretical explanations of online offending, measuring cybercrimes, and empirical patterns in the literature. We will also consider practical and policy implications, including cybersecurity practices, law enforcement strategies, and the challenges associated with developing laws and policies that govern the prevention, detection, and prosecution of cybercrimes. Throughout the course, we will predominantly situate our learning within the contexts of Canada and the United States.

SOC*3850 - Seminar in Sociology - Water Crisis, Just Futures - Seats Available!!

This seminar-based course is designed to provide students with an opportunity to explore water issues exacerbated through the climate crisis through both Indigenous and Western social science lenses. In this course, we will focus on the complexity of anthropogenic aspects of water issues, drawing on Indigenous worldviews and the role of social sciences in understanding and addressing water issues. We will cover concepts such as knowledge systems, sense of place, water rights, conservation, water governance, ecological democracy, water justice/security, water-food-energy nexus, by drawing on examples within Turtle Island (including areas currently known as Canada) and international examples.

SOC*4130 - Advanced Seminar in Violence and Society

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.

SOC*4320 - Advanced Seminar in Criminal Justice - Deviance and Stigma - Seats Available!!

This course examines the study of deviance, stigma and social control, focusing on theory and contemporary research in the field. Together we will examine the intersection of deviance with race, sexuality, and gender. Consideration will also be given to how society frames and reacts to deviance in regard to youth, health, substance use, crime, homelessness, mental illness, sexual expression & desire, and more. Throughout the class, we will examine the everyday lived realities of those who are defined as deviant, with particular attention to the social, institutional, and criminological implications of deviant identities.