University of British Columbia

This course examines the fundamentals of politics in British Columbia, both past and present, with a particular emphasis on the place of Indigenous peoples in the province’s political life. It will include the study of formal political institutions such as the provincial executive and legislature, the provincial electoral and party systems, and the evolution of the political province’s political culture and voter behavior. It will also adopt explore the dominant lines of political discourse and contention in the province, including regional divides, settler colonial relations, economic debates, and pressing for and ideas behind political parties. It will also look at pressing contemporary issues including land tenure, health and the poison drugs crisis, the environment, and issues of inclusivity in BC politics, including both their historical origins, present dynamics, and potential future resolutions. 

This course examines the role of gender in Western political theory and the implications for the practice of politics.

This course examines the structure, diversity and development of trees and other plants, with emphasis on the angiosperms.

This course examines key questions in the study of Canadian public administration, such as: How is the public service structured and why? What is the relationship between elected officials and the machinery of government? How do public servants shape public policy? Can government respond effectively to the needs of citizens? Should government be run more like a business? 

This course examines the structure and function of forest ecosystems. Topics include forests as complex adaptive systems; forests of the world; history of forests and forestry; disturbance ecology; ecological succession; soils; biogeochemical cycling; energetics; population, community, ecosystems and landscape ecology; biological diversity; stability; complexity; resilience; and sustainable forest management as climate changes.

This course examines how frameworks/concepts/tools of social justice are deployed in the context of globalization, and examine to what extent they are effective vehicles for social changes, in what ways, and for whom. Through keywords and themes on coloniality, class, race, gender, and sexuality, it analyzes structural oppressions across borders and generations, while envisioning a less exploitative, more sustainable, and more just world.

This course examines city and representation in Asia. Our period focus is the uneven context of modernization. The course will roughly cover developments beginning in the 1850s through the 1970s (and today). Topics discussed will include geography, landscape, and the inscription and uses of historical memory (The Past City); modernism and the rise of urban culture in the twentieth century (The Modernist City); urban forms in the age of imperialism (The Colonial City); and developmentalism and its critique in the post-war/post-independence periods (The City of the Future). it concludes with an exploration of diasporic formations, including in Vancouver—The Diasporic City.