This course focuses on how popular movements and legal institutions influence efforts to produce or prevent social change. Taking a comparative approach, it examines the social conditions that mobilize and sustain popular movements, factors that contribute to movement success, and the receptivity of courts to pressure from below.

This course examines the intersection between immigration and crime control. More specifically, it examines immigration detention and deportation, concerns with immigrant risk, security and terrorism, as well as the impact of public policy on immigration and crime.

This course explores how gender impacts criminalization and how gender shapes the way criminal justice is conceptualized and delivered. Possible topics may include masculinity & criminalization; gender & policing; gender & court outcomes; women's prisons, and trans issues in prisons.

This course deals with the social construction of racial and ethnic categories in the Canadian context, as well as with how Canadian institutions have used racial and ethnic categories to generate inequality and exclusion. It also addresses how individuals, social movements and institutions have at times worked to resist, challenge or modify these practices of categorization and exclusion.

An analysis of the intersection between criminal groups and crime and organizations. This course introduces students to various organizational theories and examines how criminal groups and organizations form, crime by organizations, and crime that is "organized".

This course will examine (1) theoretical and empirical issues regarding demographic, economic, and social processes of aging as they affect individuals, families, and societies; (2) the variations in the process and meaning of aging across gender, ethnicity, and class; and (3) public policy issues concerning aging with regard to the process of public policy-making and effectiveness of relevant programs and services.

This course will introduce students to the classic and contemporary view of political processes in small groups, organizations, institutions, communities and societies. Specific topics to be covered may include revolutions, state formation, ethnic nationalism, social capital and civic participation, gender politics, the various varieties, causes and effects of welfare states and social movements. The course will have both a Canadian and international focus.

This course explores a particular area within sociology. Topics vary from year to year and are noted on the timetable once confirmed. The contact hours for this course may vary in terms of contact type (L,S,T,P) from year to year, but will be between 24-36 contact hours in total. See the UTM Timetable.

This course will explore a particular area within criminology, law and society. Topics vary from year to year and are noted on the timetable once confirmed. The contact hours for this course may vary in terms of contact type (L,S,T,P) from year to year, but will be between 24-36 contact hours in total. See the UTM Timetable.

This course will survey new legal developments in the field of criminology and criminal law. It will explore the intersections between criminal law and other forms of regulation in society.

In discussions about Indigenous Peoples and law, the Indian Act is one of the most cited pieces of Canadian legislation. From explaining the history of residential schooling to violence against Indigenous womxn, critical and Indigenous scholars turn to the Indian Act as a key source and problem space. We will center the work of Indigenous feminist scholarship to understand why scholars argue that the act is still both required and a site of contestation, violence, and genocide, and how we are each affected by its governance.

Understanding social transformation is at the heart of sociological inquiry. This course introduces students to the sociological analysis of social change - particularly how societies evolve into complex systems. The course examines how social, political and economic institutions are transformed by social change, as well as how these institutions can themselves promote social change. We also examine how citizens can affect change through social and political participation. In addition to classical foundations, the course covers a range of contemporary themes including inequality and stratification, social movements, globalization, and law and justice.

This course will focus on key changes in the world of work since the 1970s and their implications for different groups. We will engage different sides of debates about such issues as women in the workforce, recent immigrant and migrant workers, unions and mobility. Throughout the course, emphasis will be placed on how class, gender, ethnic and race relations shape work and occupations.

This course takes up scandals as sociological events: What are the causes of scandals? How are scandals 'made'? How are scandals represented? and What are the consequences of scandals? The course will pay attention to how scandals are made public: Leaks, investigations, whistleblowers, and media reporting, and the framing of events as scandals worth of public condemnation. To do so, this course will focus on scandals among professionals, in the private corporate sector and in government, domestically and worldwide, both current and past. By understanding scandals as sociological events, students will learn to trace how scandals may lead to new organizational, professional, social, cultural, and political responses.

The course will introduce students to the core and cutting-edge scholarship in urban sociology. We will discuss theories and empirical studies related to the issue of urban politics, including the issues of food, housing, gentrification, and neighborhood change. Despite the focus on Canadian and American cities, this course also highlights global and transnational perspectives, such as immigrant experiences, “ethnic” restaurants, and forces of globalization that are intricately tied to urban lives. This course aims to open this discussion about how we connect the micro-level of our social interactions, consumption, and daily lives to macro-levels of progress, global economic forces, politics and culture.

This course provides an overview of sociological approaches to social psychology, with an emphasis on how individuals' thoughts, behaviors, and emotions are influenced by both situations and larger social structures. Theoretical perspectives including symbolic interaction, group processes, and social structure and personality will be examined in depth and applied to understanding various topics; these may include self and identities, socialization, attitudes, emotions, deviance, mental health, and collective behavior.

This course explores a particular area within sociology. Topics vary from year to year and are noted on the timetable once confirmed. The contact hours for this course may vary in terms of contact type (L,S,T,P) from year to year, but will be between 24-36 contact hours in total. See the UTM Timetable.

This course will explore a particular area within criminology, law and society. Topics vary from year to year and are noted on the timetable once confirmed. The contact hours for this course may vary in terms of contact type (L,S,T,P) from year to year, but will be between 24-36 contact hours in total. See the UTM Timetable.

In this course students will engage with foundational material on the intersections of gender, sex, and sexuality as they relate to masculinity. This includes foundational work on hegemonic masculinity and multiple masculinities.

This course explores Indigenous people’s confrontations with colonization through an examination of rights-based processes, resistance movements, and community-led resurgence efforts. Topics may include: rights, courts, and legal action; land reoccupation; political organizing; everyday acts of resistance and resurgence such as petitioning, social media, arts-based movements, and community initiatives.

Sociological analysis of food in global, regional and intimate contexts. It links cultural and structural aspects of the food system, historically and in the present. Students will investigate and report on inter-cultural food practices in Canada.

The course is a continuation of SOC222H5 (Measuring the Social World) ) and introduces students to more advanced applications of regression analysis. In addition to producing and interpreting regression models, this course also focuses on diagnostic tools for addressing outliers and multicolinearity, as well as regression with categorical independent variables and dependent variables (including a basic introduction to logistic regression). This course is mainly project based. Students will develop their own research questions and hypotheses and use statistical software to analyze data in order to provide evidence for their hypotheses. All students in the Sociology and Criminology, Law and Society Specialist programs are required to take this course.

This course aims to develop a critical approach to the study of violence. We will examine the linkages between politics and crime, between violence and democracy and the political context of specific forms of violence, such as vigilantism, state, collective and, structural violence.

This course will examine how gender shapes the work of care, and its value in society. It will look at both unpaid and paid care and the relationship between them. It will compare how care is organized and it's value in different countries, and institutions (ranging from hospitals to homes) and consider care provided to children, elderly people and adults with disabilities. Contemporary topics include care from the recipient's perspective, and new efforts to value care work.

This course focuses on the legal construction of international borders, with an emphasis on human rights. The course investigates a range of issues, including but not limited to, the 1951 Refugee Convention and refugee movements, the limits of citizenship rights, and the merging of criminal justice and migration enforcement, including the use of detention as a migration management tool.

Approaches to transnational networks, structures and processes, such as diasporic networks, transnational corporations, and social movements.

Becoming a professional (doctor, accountant, lawyer, engineer, nurse, etc...) remains a coveted goal for many young adults and their parents. But what is a profession, and what do these disparate groups have in common? This course lays the groundwork for understanding how the "professional projects" define professions, limit entry, create internal inequalities and try to maintain their prestige. The role of policy is key to our understanding of the professions, and we will focus on the role of policies in the creation of professions, in the substance of professional work such as ethics, autonomy and commercialism, and on the role of policies in addressing social concerns of inequality and diversity in the professions.

This course will discuss interrelationship between human population and societal issues such as aging, reproductive health, gender, environment, and social policy. It will examine population structure and dynamics in relation to social, economic, political, and cultural elements of change in both developing and developed world. It will also examine historical population policy developments and the diversified national policies in relation to policy formulation, implementation, and effectiveness.

This course introduces the legal profession from a sociological perspective. Focussing on the social structure of the legal profession, the course draws on the sociology of professions and the sociology of law and covers topics such as the creation of the profession, competition from inside and outside, historical and modern challenges to professional boundaries, and structural transformations and shifts. The course will provide examples from global legal professions. It does not teach how to think like a lawyer, nor does it provide the perspective of legal practitioners, but instead it provides social science perspectives for understanding how the legal profession is organized, differentiated, and transformed over space and time.

This course examines Indigenous people's traditional and contemporary legal orders and confrontations and interactions with non-Indigenous legal systems. Topics may include: treaties; land and resource rights and laws; rights; self-government; governance; restorative justice; colonial legal systems; criminalization and criminal law; and/or international law.