Politics and Governance Core Elective Table II

The Concentration in World Politics is focused on aspects of international or transnational relations, actors, processes and institutions and how these connect to various regions across the globe. The Concentration also explores various critiques, theoretical perspectives, and ethical evaluations of world politics. Expertise through completion of the Concentration in World Politics means students will gain knowledge in at least two of the sub-fields of World Politics—first, Global Economy and Development and second, Diplomacy, Conflict, and Peace. As such, the Concentration requires that students take at least one course from a list of courses for each of the two sub-fields. Students will have the option of deepening their expertise in either or both of these sub-fields or by adding additional expertise through taking courses focused on theory and global politics as well as on regional politics/area studies with the remaining four courses. Successful completion will mean that the ‘Concentration in World Politics’ will appear on your transcript.

This concentration will provide proficiency across several major contemporary and critical topics that underpin the discipline of Political Science, including a deepened theoretical understanding of Class Analysis; Critical Race Theory; Critical Sexuality and Queer studies; Critical Disability Studies; Critical Gender and Women’s Studies; Post-colonial Theory; Social Identity Theory; and Critical Indigenous Studies.

It will equip students with a deep knowledge of the process of identity formation, salience, and impact on attitudes and behaviours. It will prepare them with a better understanding and appreciation of the complex histories, memories and formation of the diversities of identity that constitute Canada and the world. Students will develop a better understanding of the categories of class, indigeneity, ethnicity, race, gender, ability/disability, sexual difference, colonialism, and post-colonial identities, which constitute many foundational aspects of modern political institutions, processes and outcomes.

These are animated by among others, engaging politics of recognition, resistance and making claims to state power and self-determination at all levels of governance. Students will be introduced to the major events and social movements that have shaped and defined the modern era; from transatlantic slave trade to colonization, anti-colonial struggles/movements, Indigenous struggles, class struggles, anticapitalist movements, women’s movements, civil rights and anti-racism movements, LGBTQ movements, Dalit movements, movements against Islamophobia and anti-Semitism, and antiglobalization movements.

Students will gain an in-depth knowledge and understanding of the histories and struggles of the various peoples they will serve and advocate for. They will also explore national and international political, institutional and policy responses to these contestations of structural power and its unequal outcomes.

Successful completion will mean that the ‘Concentration in Politics of Identity’ will appear on your transcript.

The Concentration in Canadian Democracy offers students in the Politics and Governance Program the opportunity to select core program electives that will enhance and develop their expertise in democratic processes and institutions in the Canadian context.

The Department of Politics and Public Administration offers students an array of courses that relate to Canadian politics. Completion of a concentration in Canadian Democracy will allow students to focus on questions of how and whether political institutions and processes in Canada fulfill their democratic promise and potential and of the ways in which they need to be improved and built upon in order to enhance citizens’ participation, representation, inclusion, equity, and equality in decision-making spaces across a variety of Canadian contexts.

The concentration focuses on the role of citizens and the importance of active citizenship, and the ways in which an enhanced understanding of Canada’s democratic processes, their strengths and limitations,
can be enhanced with a more informed and engaged public.

Successful completion will mean that the ‘Concentration in Canadian Democracy’ will appear on your transcript. This concentration includes the following courses:

The goal of the Public Policy concentration is to provide students with the choice that will facilitate the study of public policy in a more coherent and in-depth manner. The concentration creates a unique set of offerings that enables students to organize a plan of study that will help them learn a greater range of approaches to public policy, from both theoretical and applied perspectives. For students pursuing graduate or professional studies in Public policy or related fields, the concentration will add value to their applications to graduate school because it signals that the applicant has a strong body of knowledge in public policy.

Successful completion of the concentration will also strengthen the application of students seeking employment in a sector that engages in public policy work.

Successful completion will mean that the ‘Concentration in Public Policy’ will appear on your transcript.