An in-depth examination of topics in visual and media culture, from both historical and contemporary perspectives. Topics vary from year to year, and the content in any given year depends upon the instructor.

An in-depth examination of topics in visual and media culture, from both historical and contemporary perspectives. Topics vary from year to year, and the content in any given year depends upon the instructor.

This internship course provides an opportunity for students to gain practical experience at an institution or business closely related to the arts and to visual studies. This is especially tailored for mature and self-disciplined students in their final year of study, who are ready to apply knowledge acquired in previous courses and are planning a career in the arts and cultural sector. Students registered in any DVS program are eligible to apply. Students work closely with the DVS internship coordinator to establish suitability. Regular updates and a final report and presentation will be required. The final grade for the course will be based on these, along with the assessment of the employer.

This internship course provides an opportunity for students to gain practical experience at an institution or business closely related to the arts and to visual studies. This is especially tailored for mature and self-disciplined students in their final year of study, who are ready to apply knowledge acquired in previous courses and are planning a career in the arts and cultural sector. Students registered in any DVS program are eligible to apply. Students work closely with the DVS internship coordinator to establish suitability. Regular updates and a final report and presentation will be required. The final grade for the course will be based on these, along with the assessment of the employer.

This foundation course introduces the core ideas students will explore throughout their studies in Women and Gender Studies. It immerses students in a highly participatory and provocative encounter with history, social theory, politics, policy, art and culture seen through a gender lens. It provides an interdisciplinary overview of the historical 'waves' of women's movements for equality in a global context and background to the development of Women/Gender Studies as a site of learning and feminist inquiry.

Using key feminist texts, this course advances students thinking, reading and writing in the discipline of Women and Gender Studies. The emphasis is placed on the development and application of interdisciplinary skills in the interpretation, analysis, criticism, and advocacy of ideas encountered in Women and Gender Studies.

This course provides an opportunity to engage in an in-depth examination of specialized and scholarly work within women and gender studies with a focus on the diverse and multidisciplinary expressions of feminist thought from the perspective of postcolonial, transnational, intersectional, diasporic, Black feminist, and Indigenous theories. This course situates the importance of praxis—the relationship between theory and social practice—to women and gender studies. Students will engage throughout with the theories of gender and its connection to race, sexuality, class and ability across historical and contemporary contexts.

This course provides an in-depth introduction to the interdisciplinary field of sexuality studies. Students will focus on how sexual identities and norms are shaped by cultural, historical, and social contexts.

This interdisciplinary course focuses on the visions and methods that feminist scholars use to study women's and gender issues within and across a range of traditional disciplines. The course explores feminist epistemologies and research methods to understand how to carry out feminist research. We will focus on how feminist scholars challenge dominant theories of knowledge and the major methodologies employed in the social sciences and humanities.

This course explores the forms and functions of popular culture and its representation and understanding of the social category of women. It examines specific media forms including, but not limited to, film, song, visual arts, music, video, television, advertising and new media forms. It critically analyzes the impact of these portrayals on women in society while examining the cultural constructions of race, sexuality, class and ability.

This course covers a wide range of issues relating to female participation in public and private sectors of the today's Canadian workforce. It examines the relevance of education, perceptions, sexuality and family issues. Services and infrastructure, as well as collective bargaining are also addressed.

This course engages with feminist theories of embodiment to explore the body’s intersections with gender and technology. Drawing on the interdisciplinary fields of feminist studies, science and technology studies and disability studies, it explores a range of technological and scientific policies and processes that shape and affect bodies in transnational contexts.

This course introduces students to women's position in Canada as political actors and provides gender-based analysis in relation to public policy and law in Canada. Students will study women's historical participation in and exclusion from policy decision-making processes, and evaluate the impact of feminism and women's activism on Canadian public policies. Using intersectional framework, the course will also examine different ways in which public policies can be made more responsive to gender and diversity concerns as well as the role public policy can play in overcoming gender inequalities. We will investigate key historical changes in public policies affecting Canadian women in such areas as family, workplace, education, poverty-welfare, sexuality and reproductive laws, immigration and refugee laws, and global issues. The course concludes with women's achievements in this area.

This course studies how the notion of family is conceptualized and organized transnationally and historically and examines the multiple familiar roles of women in diverse contexts.

This course provides a richly rewarding opportunity for students in their second year to work in the research project of a professor in return for 299Y course credit. Students enrolled have an opportunity to become involved in original research, learn research methods and share in the excitement and discovery of acquiring new knowledge. Participating faculty members post their project descriptions for the following summer and fall-winter sessions in early February and students are invited to apply in early March. See Experiential and International Opportunities for more details.

The course explores historical and contemporary debates regarding the construction of gender in Islam. It examines historic and literary representations, ethnographic narratives, legal and human rights discourses, the politics of veiling, and Islamic feminism. This course situates Muslim women as complex, multidimensional actors engaged in knowledge production and political and feminist struggles, as opposed to the static, victim-centered, Orientalist images that have regained currency in the representation of Muslim women in the post 9/11 era.

Sustainability considers humanity’s relationship to the environment. It reflects on a feminist politic of care and the specific ways people are affected along lines of race, gender, class, sexuality and citizenship. It explores how feminist scholarship seeks to direct policy change and respond to ecological and climatic crises.

This course examines the process of migration to Canada from a gender perspective, noting the interplay between structural impediments and women's own agency. Historical perspectives on migration and government policy, and on ways women have rebuilt lives and shaped communities.

This course engages with feminist theoretical models and approaches to examine the ways in which the “body” has been constructed, enacted, and embodied through aesthetic forms like photography, cinema, music, performance, film and to understand how women, queer, and racialized artists use aesthetics as a response to social and political crises. This course considers what constitutes the relationship between the political and the aesthetic and approaches aesthetics as important sites of ideological and political tension.

A special topic by guest instructor. Topics vary from year to year. Visit the Departmental web site at Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies for further information.

This course examines how Black Feminisms are theorized, produced and practiced, by predominantly Black women scholars, activists and cultural producers located in the diaspora - Canada, the United States and the Caribbean.

This course introduces students to LGBTIQ themed films and visual culture from Africa and the diaspora. It analyzes gender and sexuality from the perspective of black/African filmmakers, visual artists, and theorists.

This course examines how gender and sexuality intersect with factors such as nationhood, race, language, politics, religion, geography, and the arts in Quebec. After six classroom sessions, the class will travel to Montreal for 4-5 days, where they will visit museums, cultural institutions and attend guest lectures at various institutions. This experiential learning opportunity allows students to engage in deeper learning to see the issues and histories they have been studying come to life. Ancillary fees apply for this course.

This course examines the histories of activism for and by women in South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka) from the colonial period to the present. Topics include colonialism, the Partition of 1947, war, religion, development, labour, nationalism, and the family/reproductive rights.

This course explores themes related to Indigenous feminist scholarship and activism in North America. The course centres on how Indigenous women engage in decolonial practices as a response to histories of colonialism and genocide. Themes include status and tribal nations; oral history and narrative; violence and resistance, knowledge construction and pedagogy, community, self-governance and freedom.

This course discusses, historicizes, and theorizes the undeniable connection between the health of our bodies and the health of our planet. This course engages with Indigenous feminisms, Black feminisms, and queer/decolonial/anticolonial thought to build a response to historic and ongoing colonial, gender-based, and environmental violence through grounded justice practices.

This course's central focus is an examination of the way race and gender operate together in structuring social inequality. It offers the analytical tools for exploring the interconnections between race and gender, along with other systems of domination, and incorporates perspectives from women of colour and from women in the global "South."

From forced sterilization and sex-selective abortion, to selfies, prisons, and biosecurity, this course conceptualizes suspicion and technologies of surveillance in transnational perspectives. Informed by a range of interdisciplinary scholarship, namely critical transnational feminist and Black feminist texts, it interrogates how surveillance has long enacted racialized, gendered, and biopolitical injustices.

Working with gender studies' theories, this course draws on social and cultural constructions and practices to offer a complex reading of masculinities. It explores contemporary debates of the ways in which masculinities have been theorized and experienced in practices and identity formation.

This course explores how gender, sexuality and other intersectional identity markers work within and against structures of privilege and oppression in the world of sport. It takes up topics and themes that inform popular culture and influence the construction of social norms.