An examination of significant themes in intellectual history through a reading of major works in philosophy and literature that shed light on the conceptual foundations of contemporary life.
Instructor: Dr. Catherine Frost Term: 3 Course Outline
This course aims to develop students’ ability to use language in written communication, with a focus on academic writing in particular. Students will develop their writing skills through assignments and activities that ask them to produce, analyze, and reflect on written work in a range of genres.
Instructor: Dr. Matthew Grellette Term: 1 Course Outline
This course provides students with some of the conceptual tools needed to recognize, understand, evaluate, formulate, and attack arguments. Students will have the opportunity to develop such skills in their oral and written work.
Instructor: Dr. Matthew Grellette Term: 2 Course Outline
This inquiry course, designed to develop skills basic to the systematic, evidence-based investigation of public issues, focuses on issues relevant to global development.
Instructor: Dr. Beth Marquis and Dr. Mat Savelli Term: 1 Course Outline
This course will explore the relationship between Indigenous peoples and mainstream society in the 20th century with regard to governmental policy, land claims, economic development, and self-determination.
Instructor: Prof. Katherine Minich Term: 2 Course Outline
This course aims to provide a thorough understanding of the principles and major applications of differential and integral calculus of functions of one variable, as well as an introduction to multivariate calculus and differential equations.
Instructor: Dr. Deirdre Haskell Term: 3 Course Outline
Development of political, moral and religious thought in the writings of such major figures as Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Adam Smith, Burke, Marx, Mill, Weber, von Hayek, Nietzsche, Freud and Arendt.
Instructor: Dr. David L. Clark Term: 3 Course Outline
This course explores many of the great concepts of physics in a quantitative way. Beginning with Newtonian mechanics, it moves into Einstein’s relativity, wave phenomena, atomic physics, quantum mechanics and cosmology. Selected laboratory projects will be carried out.
Instructor: Dr. Alan Chen Term: 3 Course Outline
An introduction to the core principles of economics with the objective of helping students to apply economic reasoning to issues that are central to modern societies, such as: the role of government in a market-oriented setting; equity and efficiency; growth and the environment; and fiscal and monetary stability.
Instructor: Dr. Bill Scarth Term: 1 Course Outline
Inferential statistics, with an emphasis on applications. Topics include data description, graphical methods, probability, confidence intervals, hypothesis testing, one-way ANOVA, analysis of categorical data, regression and correlation. Use of a statistics software package.
Instructor: Dr. Román Viveros-Aguilera Term: 2 Course Outline
The Culture of Technology. Technological practices and approaches are studied as cultural activities in the contexts of beliefs, philosophies, values and social structures both past and present.
Instructor: Dr. Beth Marquis Term: 1 Course Outline
The Social Control of Technology. The dominant mechanisms of the social control of technology will be studied. Includes an examination of assessment methods and the role of ethics.
Instructor: Dr. David Goutor Term: 2 Course Outline
This course explores the current explosion of publicly available data and the manipulation of this data as both a positive and a negative societal development. Our focus of inquiry will be on the use of spatial data and cartography as a tool to inform society through the visualization of complex data.
Instructor: Dr. Brian Baetz Term: 1 Course Outline
Theatre skills are life skills. Class exercises, creative work, and online discussions will allow students to explore the practice and ethics of Applied Drama and to learn how theatre can be used as a tool for social development and change.
Instructor: Prof. Hartley Jafine Term: 1 Course Outline
Using an inquiry methodology, students will explore the practical applications of an interdisciplinary degree through interaction with, and mentorship from, graduates of the Arts & Science Program. Emphasis will be on problem-based learning, with the professional experiences of alumni informing the explorationof complex and multifaceted issues.
Instructor: Dr. Mat Savelli Term: 2 Course Outline
This course encourages students to ask questions and explore topics focused on the City of Hamilton, Ontario. Through the exploration of Hamilton from a number of disciplinary perspectives, including cultural, economic, and geological, students will have an opportunity to gain insight into the city that McMaster University calls home. This course will include excursions during class time and may require small fees for travel.
Instructor: Dr. John Maclachlan Term: 1 Course Outline
This course allows students to explore in depth an issue related to teaching and learning in higher education under the supervision of faculty/staff affiliated with the MacPherson Institute. Students may propose research questions of their own or contribute to the development of existing initiatives within the Institute.
Instructor: Dr. Beth Marquis Term: 3
Using an inquiry methodology, students will explore issues pertaining to global justice through an interdisciplinary lens.
Instructor: Dr. Nadine Ijaz Term: 2 Course Outline
This course is designed to provide an overview of key issues in Indian Buddhism. Each week we will explore themes such as the lifestory of the Buddha, the Mah?y?na, meditation, and death—to name but a few—by first seeing how these have been portrayed by modern scholars (our textbook). We will then see what primary texts—Indian Buddhism as told by Indian Buddhists—have to say. Students will acquire not only an understanding of some of the most central concepts in Indian Buddhism, but also a good knowledge of how Indian Buddhism has been studied and romanticized in the West.
Instructor: Dr. Shayne Clarke Term: 1 Course Outline
Readings of East Asian texts in translation will centre around themes such as culture vs. nature, virtue vs. power, social responsibility vs. personal cultivation, bookish learning vs. meditation.
Instructor: Dr. James Benn Term: 2 Course Outline
Inspired by the trees on McMaster’s campus, this course examines trees and their significance through a number of different lenses and from a variety of discipline perspectives: biology; colonial and economic histories; visual, material, and performing arts practices; psychology; indigenous and environmental studies; poetry and prose.
Instructor: Dr. Alison McQueen Term: 1
This course consists of study under the supervision of a McMaster faculty member.
Instructor: Dr. Gary Warner Term: 3
Students will have the opportunity in this course to use an inquiry-based approach to focus on social, cultural, political, and economic issues that influence and are influenced by education.
Instructor: Dr. Henry Giroux Term: 1 Course Outline
The course exposes students to creative writing that is grounded in research. It also invites students to explore ways in which research findings might be disseminated through creative expression.
Instructor: Prof. Anton Piatigorsky Term: 2 Course Outline
This course consists of four sections dealing with theoretical and analytical perspectives, political economy of the media, news media, and entertainment media and their cultural effects.
Instructor: Dr. Beth Marquis Term: 2 Course Outline
This course exposes students to the rapidly developing international field known as medical humanities. It explores the interconnections between health, medicine, the arts, and the humanities, with a particular focus on issues of medical ethics and narrative in medicine.
Instructor: Dr. Sara Mendelson Term: 2 Course Outline