English

This course is designed to reflect upon the relationship between humankind and nature through the study of selected literary works ancient and modern, mostly drawn from the English, French, and American traditions. 

This course examines developments in finance. Possible topics include security trading and market making, venture analysis, financial contracting, investment strategies for local markets and other current issues in finance. 

Since World War I, millions of soldiers, civilians, and suspected terrorists have died as a result of aerial bombing. Conventional and atomic bombings, moreover, have resulted in the destruction of countless military targets and the incineration of vast square kilometres of urban landscapes. What factors have made this possible, accepted, and “legal”? Throughout this course, students will explore the technological and military developments that have made such killing and wanton destruction possible. Moreover, students will examine the ideological, political, and doctrinal thought from Douhet to Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) that has not only attempted to legitimate, but advocate, the targeting of civilians from above. Students will also be asked to investigate why legal proscriptions or conventions against aerial bombing never materialized in the pre-World War II era and examine why many nations have still refused to adhere to any restrictions on aerial warfare. 

This course examines a wide range of quantitative methods for the empirical analysis of microeconomic decisions. Topics include: maximum likelihood estimator; qualitative binary decisions-- binary choice models; other qualitative dependent variable models-- ordered, multivariant, and counting models; decisions with corner solutions-- censored models; Monte Carlos simulation. Pre-requisites: An introductory course in Econometrics. Knowledge of the econometric software gretl is recommended.

The course introduces students to three or more works of pre-20th-century literature and culture to be read in Russian, while improving reading and comprehension skills. It includes a combination of canonical and non-canonical texts by women and men, and explores the cultural and institutional contexts in which texts were produced, published, read, or viewed. Students share impressions through class and online discussions, and informal presentations. Students must have passed 1st year Russian, or equivalent for visiting students.

This course explores the lives of empresses and concubines in Qing China, some of whom wielded tremendous power during their lifetime and have inspired numerous literary and media renditions of their words and deeds in the present. By critically assessing and deploying the concepts of gender, power, and media representation, the course highlights the curious connections between the Qing harem and other cultures, polities, and societies. It establishes connections between Qing empresses and concubines and those elsewhere in the world, contextualizing their lives and activities in global history.

This course engages students in global scale geological and environmental processes and challenges from deep geological time, to the present, and into the future. This is achieved using a variety of spatial, numerical, geochemical, computational, and field data collection methods and analysis.

The course considers the nature of deviance, crime, and criminality in South Africa, from both historical and current viewpoints. The following questions are reviewed: How much crime is there in South Africa? Who are the victims of crime and who are the offenders? Why is crime in South Africa so violent? These discussions draw freely from international, criminological debate, and locate those debates within a developing context. The course explores responses to crime in the South African context by considering what has and is being done by the state and non-state to engage with crime? What is the thinking behind (violent) crime control and prevention programmes and initiatives? How effective have these initiatives been? These discussions focus on crime policies that have been developed as well as community and private sector initiatives to address issues of crime and violence. DP requirements: Completion of all written tests, essays and assignments. Assessment: Coursework counts 50% and one two-hour examination counts 50% of the final mark. Course entry requirements: SOC1001F, SOC1005S, or any 1000-level social science course.

In this course students gain a deeper understanding of equality in moral and political thought. The first part of the course focuses on the idea of moral equality. What grounds all human beings’ equal moral status? What does it even mean to say that all human beings are morally equal? The second part of the course focuses on the idea of political equality. Specifically, it considers what the equal status of all citizens implies about how we should distribute power and make political decisions. Does a commitment to the equality of all citizens commit us to democratic rule? If the political decisions made in Community A significantly affect the members of Community B, should the members of Community B have a (democratic?) say in Community A’s decision? 

This course examines the history of Montreal from its beginnings to the present day. It covers Montreal's economic, social, cultural and political role within the French and British empires, North America, Canada, and Quebec and the city's linguistic and ethnic diversity.