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. Travis Kroeker 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. James L. Sikkema 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. James L. Sikkema 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. Megumi Harada 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. Stephen R.G. Jones 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
Literary works drawn from a variety of genres, cultures and historical periods will be examined with a focus on how great writers have treated enduring ethical concerns. It aims to show how literature is an indispensable means of thinking about human life and society.
Instructor: Dr. Jean Wilson Term: 3 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
Using an inquiry methodology, students will explore issues pertaining to global justice through an interdisciplinary lens.
Instructor: Dr. Nadine Ijaz Term: 2 Course Outline
A study of the origins and early development of Indian Buddhism, largely through readings in Buddhist scripture (pre-Mahayana and Mahayana) in translation.
Instructor: Dr. Shayne Clarke Term: 1
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
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. Jean Wilson Term: 3
This course consists of study under the supervision of a McMaster faculty member. Proposal deadline is March 1.
This course explores the politics of health through the body, from public health to colonialism to transnational global health. The rights to health care originated at the national level, in political systems. We consider global health in historical perspective and what happens when pharmaceuticals and RCTs travel, with examples from North Africa, the Philippines, India, Doctors Without Borders, and the Middle East.
Instructor: Dr. Ellen Amster Term: 2 Course Outline
This course consists of original research under the supervision of a McMaster faculty member. Proposal deadline is March 1.
Instructor: Dr. Jean Wilson Term: 1
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: 2 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 provides a critical analysis of the relationship between public policy making and environmental issues. Students will engage in critical discussion of a range of literature that has direct bearing on explaining how environmental issues, scientific evidence, and the policy process converge. The course also includes a current policy case study designed to help students gain further insight into how course themes and concepts unfold in reality.
Instructor: Dr. Lynda Lukasik Term: 1 Course Outline
An experiential independent study course, which offers students the opportunity to explore an issue of local interest either individually or in teams. The issue to be explored will be selected in consultation with the course instructors. Each student or student team will present a report at the end of the course.
Instructor: Dr. Jean Wilson and Prof. Hartley Jafine Term: 1
This course brings together Arts & Science students and exchange students to critically assess the experience of movement away from familiar terrain and reflect on how they can integrate that experiential learning into their lives as an ongoing practice of reflective intentional living.
This course allows students to explore the ways in which images and other visual texts intersect with issues of social concern. Drawing from a range of disciplinary perspectives, it considers histories, theories, and practices of the visual, and provides students with an opportunity to conduct selfdirected, creative inquiry into visual culture.
Instructor: Dr. Kristin Patterson Term: 2 Course Outline