Graduate Courses

Term 2 | 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM | Tuesday

Counts as core Canadian requirement

This is the graduate core course in Canadian politics. Its mandate is to familiarize students with both contemporary and enduring themes, methods and controversies in the study of Canadian politics and government. The course will consider institutions and processes as well as Canadian society, political culture and behaviour. For graduate students this serves as the ‘core course’, thus it is intentionally broad in focus. Topics discussed will include; federalism and the constitution, parliamentary government, political parties, elections, regionalism and nationalism, interest groups and social movements, bureaucracy, courts, rights and Canadian political thought.

The course will help students to identify possible research and thesis topics as well as prepare PhD students for comprehensive examinations in Canadian politics. Course readings are chosen to reflect the diversity of topics and approaches. Students will be graded on the basis of participation, seminar presentations, videotaped lectures, reading summaries and a term paper.

Term 1 | 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM | Monday

Counts as Canadian field requirement

Recent political developments in established democracies, from Brexit to the (re)-election of Donald Trump, have renewed attention to the politics of identity. In this course, we will examine the psychological underpinnings of group identity, and the circumstances under which group identity becomes politicized, affecting political behaviour. We will begin by covering key theories around the study of group identity and group-based political cohesion. We will then examine how different social identities influence political behaviour, including identities based in partisanship, nationality, race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality, and place. Throughout the course, we will also critically analyze measures and methods used to capture identity in politics.

Term 2 | 12:00 PM - 3:00 PM | Mon

Counts as Canadian field requirement

This graduate seminar explores how behavioural science can improve public policy, with a comparative focus on Canadian challenges. We investigate how cognitive biases, social norms, and decision-making environments shape outcomes in key areas such as the economy, immigration, elections, and climate change. Emphasizing rigorous evaluation, especially randomized experiments, the course equips students to critically assess behavioural approaches and apply them in real-world contexts. Through engagement with contemporary literature and hands-on research design, students will build the skills and mindset needed for high-impact policy work and academic research.

Term 1 | 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM | Wednesday

Counts as Comparative course requirement

In the last few decades, North and South American as well as European countries have been reckoning with their past histories of slavery and genocide. Formal apologies have been made for the treatment of Indigenous peoples, Africans and others who were murdered, killed by disease, enslaved, and pushed off their land in the name of capitalism and empire. Colonialism and slavery were the beginnings of social and political processes that still have global impact. These are the foundations upon which nation-states were formed and are a critical component to understanding the politics of race and immigration policy today.

The study of the politics of race often focuses on the national level, particularly in the United States. This class will take a historical and transnational approach to understanding the origins of structural discrimination in North America, Latin America, and Europe, examining the connections to settler colonialism, enslavement, immigration and racial capitalism. Course materials and a focus on current events will allow students to examine current issues related to the conflation of immigration and race, including the impact on indigenous peoples, civil rights movements, reconciliation, and reparations. We will draw on works from political theory and critical race theory to provide background on the politics that have led to the current politics of race and immigration.

Term 2 | 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM | Tuesday

This course can count as a US Core requirement

This seminar offers a broad introduction to the major questions and research literature on US politics, with special attention to Trump-era governmental dysfunction and threats to democratic processes . Although it is required for Ph.D. students who will major or minor in U.S. politics, it primarily serves MA students, Ph.D. students who are specializing in other areas, and fourth-year undergraduates. An additional objective is to promote work on US-related topics among students specializing in comparative politics, international politics, or political theory.
The course surveys a wide range of areas: the Constitution, political development, Congress, the Presidency, courts, bureaucracy, political parties, interest groups, the media, elections and voting, public opinion, public policy, and the US in comparative perspective. We will give considerable attention to changes in the functioning of the US political system over recent decades—including issues of polarization, populism, racial tension, post-truth politics, and authoritarianism. In particular, we will address the severe and ongoing Trump-era attacks on democratic processes, the US political system's vulnerability to such attacks, and the politics of reform designed to defend and stabilize democratic processes.

Students may write their major paper (see below) either on a strictly US-focused topic or on a US-related topic in comparative politics, international politics, or political theory.

Term 1 | 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM | Monday

Counts as Comparative field requirement

This graduate seminar focuses on the policies that structure migration and migrants’ lives. We consider two sets of policies. The first concerns the rules, procedures, and barriers to entry into a state’s territory, spanning a host of legal statuses, including permanent admission, temporary visas and asylum. The politics of entry always entails policies of exclusion. Why do many advanced capitalist countries favor the free movement of goods, services, and capital, but balk at the free movement of people? Who is excluded, and why? What determines entry policy?

A second set of policies encompasses programs and laws related to integration. Integration involves membership, and thus we consider the laws and procedures to access citizenship. Citizenship generally ensures the fullest set of rights, the greatest security of residence, and clearest path to political voice. Beyond citizenship, integration policies can also include initiatives like refugee settlement programs or policies of multiculturalism. Comparatively, across both entry and integration policies, scholars debate whether countries are converging toward a common policy stance, and what drives convergence, or whether instead we find variation. How do ideas, institutions and interests drive entry and integration policy? This class is open to students outside of political science, and will draw on a range of interdisciplinary scholarship.

Term 1 | 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM | Thursday

Counts as Political Theory field requirement

In this seminar, we explore the theme of ‘identity’ in political theory. We begin in the first week with the meaning of identity itself by key contemporary political theorists before turning to look at how it plays out in key thinkers in the history of political thought. For the remainder of the term we examine various aspects of ‘identity’, including feminism, multiculturalism, indigeneity, queer politics, post colonialism, and disability. We also consider the theme of intersectionality. At the completion of this course, students should have a good understanding of key thinkers who have contributed to theorizing ‘identity’ and key debates in contemporary political thought.

Term 2 | 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM | Thursday

Counts as Political Theory field requirement

Critical Theory examines ways in which prevailing conceptions of social and political life perpetuate relations of domination, oppression, and injustice. Following Marx, Critical Theorists of the early Frankfurt School focused on question of class division, political economy, and ideology. More recently, Critical Theory has expanded its purview to address injustices rooted in prevailing conceptions and practices of gender, sexuality, racialization and racism, nationalism, and other topics.

This course will focus on the politics of “race,” racism, and racialization. The construction, perpetuation, and transformation of “racial” (or racialized) identities has long been a central feature of modern politics. Critical theorists of “race” maintain that the significance of “race” is not to be found in our biology, or our DNA, but in the social and political processes through which “race” and racialized social identities and inequalities are constructed, perpetuated and contested. The field of critical “race” theory (or critical “race” studies) is highly interdisciplinary, but we will explore critical approaches to the politics of “race” chiefly through works contemporary political theory.

Term 1 | 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM | Thursday

Counts as Political Theory field requirement

The Political Thought of Hannah Arendt. Description coming soon.

Term 1 | 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM | Thursday

Counts as Canadian field requirement

This course is intended to provide a foundation in climate policy for non-experts from any discipline (including political science of course!). With participation of students from diverse disciplines, there will be ample opportunities to learn from each other. Concepts will include basics of climate science, approaches to policy analysis, domestic policymaking in the context of international climate negotiations, policy instruments for climate change mitigation (including consumer and industrial carbon taxes, emissions trading, subsidies, offsets) and adaptation policy.  Case studies will include building decarbonization, vehicle emissions, oil and gas production emissions, and protecting low-income renters in extreme heat. Students will complete applied policy analysis projects on topics of their choice (subject to instructor approval).

Term 2 | 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM | Monday

Counts as Political Theory requirement

In politically turbulent times, democratic institutions once thought stable are under attack. Similarly, many rights long believed to be universal, unalienable, and necessary for democratic politics are questioned.

In this course, we explore and rethink some of the very foundations of democracy by asking: Who constitutes a demos in a democracy? Who is authorized to speak in the name of a democratic people? Who should have a hand in making the laws and policies that can affect others? How should citizens relate to one another, to their representatives, and to outsiders? What are the necessary conditions for democratic inclusion and what normative consequences do non-participation and exclusion have? What constitutional mechanisms can give ordinary citizens an effective role in democratic decision-making?

In asking such questions, this course aims to bring into conversation different ways of critically interrogating the very foundations as well as the future possibilities of democratic practices. In doing so, we interrogate the concept of democracy from a variety of normative, institutional, and theoretical perspectives. We will pay attention to some of the on-going as well as new debates in democratic theory and politics: debates over the promise and limits of political deliberation and representation; debates over the relationship between democracy and capitalism; debates over citizenship and who counts as a “people”; and debates over democratic responsibility.

Term 1 | 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM | Tuesday

Counts as an IR core requirement

Term 2 | 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM | Wednesday

Counts as an IR requirement

This course provides a survey of some key issues in the international relations of the Asia-Pacific. The course is designed to provide an introduction to relevant theories, adequate historical background to operate in the region, as well as an understanding of current policy issues, such as the balance of power in the region, trade and economic integration, strategies of key states, alliance relationships, venues for regional cooperation, territorial disputes, and power competition between China and the United States.

Term 1 | 2:00 AM - 5:00 PM | Mon

Counts as International Relations field requirement

This seminar reflects on the politics of global sustainability and justice, striving for critical thought that integrates both rigorous analysis and ethical reflection. The focus is on the consequences of political discourses, institutions, and power struggles for global ecological change, taking an interdisciplinary approach that does not assume a background in international relations. How, in what ways, and to what extent is global environmental politics making a difference for advancing global sustainability and justice? How and why is this changing over time? What does this suggest for the future? To answer these questions, the seminar analyzes topics such as the causes and consequences of unsustainable development, the ecological shadows of consumption, the power of environmentalism as a social movement, the social justice consequences of climate change, the contradictions of technology, the effectiveness of international agreements, the rising importance of city-level governance, the eco-business of multinational corporations, and the value of certification and eco-consumerism. The seminar further strives to assess the merits of various pathways toward environmental sustainability and social justice.

Term 2 | 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM | Wednesday

Counts as a Methods field requirement

This course is an introduction to qualitative research methods in contemporary Political Science. The course is structured as a survey of qualitative methods in research design, data creation, and data analysis. We will read about and discuss one method or topic per week with readings that focus on both methodological training and development and on applied examples of each method. We will briefly cover research ethics and decolonization, causal inference with qualitative data, setting up fieldwork, conducting interviews, political ethnography, process tracing, case studies, coding qualitative data, multi-method approaches, and writing qualitative analysis.

Each week will introduce students to a topic and students can expect to spend considerable time outside of class collecting data and implementing two of the surveyed methods over the course of the term. The assignments are structured to give students hands-on experience with research logistics and to push students to develop their skills in one qualitative data creation method and one qualitative data analysis method. Through the assignments, students will draft a Research Ethics application, write a research design, collect data, and analyze their data in a final paper.

The goals of the course are to 1) train students in at least one qualitative methods that they plan to use in their research with hands-on assignments; 2) give students the tools they need to learn new qualitative methods later in their careers; and 3) introduce students to the research logistics of Ethics applications, fieldwork, and relevant software. The logic of causal inference will also be present throughout the course as we ask how we know what we know, why we select the methods we use, how we justify our methodological choices to others, and how we evaluate evidence.

Term 1 | 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM | Friday

Counts as Methods field requirement

This course introduces basic statistical methods used in the study of political science, and the social sciences at large. Statistics are an efficient and accepted way of communicating ideas; they are a means of bridging the gap between implication and inference. Contemporary political science research in all subfields utilizes statistical techniques and, consequently, a basic understanding of these methods is crucial if one is to be a sophisticated consumer of political science literature and to become a producer of such research.

The lectures, homework, and exams are designed to instruct you in the understanding and proper use of social science methods and promote your critical analysis of statistical findings. Students will learn to describe data, understand the impact of randomness in statistical research, conduct statistical tests, and most importantly learn to evaluate the implications of quantitative results. Students will learn to compute most of the techniques discussed in class both “by hand” and “by computer”. We will also devote portions of the course to the use of statistical software and commonly used archival sources of political science data.

Term 2 | 2:00-5:00 PM | Friday

Counts as Methods field requirement

This course covers the basic principles of using statistics for causal inference in the social sciences. We focus on fundamental concepts in  causal inference then on least squares regression as a tool that we can use to estimate causal effects.

This course takes as its departure point, a view of statistics as one part of a social science that engages in severe testing of theories and claims (Mayo 2018). That is to say: using evidence that is capable of showing claims to be wrong and using evidence that has itself been probed/audited for possible errors. In short, this involves knowing and understanding the assumptions that underlie evidence, knowing when those assumptions are testable, knowing how to test for whether these assumptions are violated (and the implications of that), knowing how to argue for the plausibility of those assumptions, knowing how to relax these assumptions, knowing how to show robustness to making a variety of different assumptions.

The course is broken into four parts. First, we introduce core concepts of severity and causal inference, particularly they Neyman causal model (potential outcomes) framework. Second, we cover a variety of foundational approaches to solving the fundamental problem of causal inference. Third, we learn the basic linear algebra behind least squares and its interpretation as a way of estimating the conditional expectation function. Finally, we bring these two concepts together to derive the key assumptions required to draw both statistical and causal inferences using regression, and what to do when these assumptions are violated. This course assumes completion of POLI 572A (or similar course in basic mathematical statistics). While we will use some basic linear algebra, the course does not assume prior knowledge of this topic and the course will focus on practical applications of linear regression models.

In a broader sense, this course starts by giving you a grounding in the theory that undergirds statistical analysis and the assumptions that are required to use mathematical statistics to make inferences about the world. Then, in the last third of the course, we turn to applying these models to the real world and address how (1) we evaluate or judge whether the models of the assumption hold and (2) what we do when the assumptions are not reasonable.