Online

This course introduces students to Anthropology and its sub-disciplines through a discussion of some of the big questions and issues that anthropologists investigate in contemporary and past societies.

These include issues of religion and worldview, race and racism, power and inequality, and social justice from archaeological, biological, and sociocultural perspectives. Through this course you will develop an understanding of how anthropological approaches can be used to better understand humanity, past and present.

Online

A consideration of the role played by infectious disease in human evolution. The social and biological outcomes of major epidemics and pandemics, past and present, will be explored.

Online

An introduction to the method and theory of microeconomics, and their application to the analysis of contemporary economic problems.

Online

The application of economic principles to team and individual professional sports.

Theory of sports leagues, demand for sports, the market for athletes, broadcasting rights, competition policy issues, the public finance aspects of stadium financing.

Virtual

Economic theory rests upon the assumptions that all economic actors (consumers, firms, governments) are fully rational and narrowly self-interested.

Behavioural economics examines the consequences and realism of these assumptions by designing laboratory and field experiments and conducting empirical analyses that test economic theory and its core assumptions and by incorporating psychologically plausible assumptions and motivations into economic theory.

This course provides a survey of some of the central and current topics in behavioural economics.

Virtual

Mathematically oriented approaches to the analysis of the behaviour of individual consumers, workers and firms.

Online

The goal of this course is to prepare McMaster students for studying or working abroad, by examining the social and historical contexts, traditions, practices, customs, and risks that may differ from those with which they are familiar.

It is the intention of this course to provide a breadth of background that is useful to students in whatever type of international setting they may be studying (e.g., traditional university courses, work with NGOs, voluntary placements, research sites) and be used to develop resources specific to their own.

Virtual

An introduction to the key themes and questions concerning health and health care from within social sciences perspectives.

Blended

An examination of sociopolitical and historical relations between Indigenous peoples and Canada in a post-1951 time period.

We will study how colonialism, assimilation and resistance movements are situated in an era of reconciliation.

Virtual

This course explores theories of conflict/cooperation, cases of international action/inaction, and the formal and informal rules written by global political actors.

We will also ask questions about why states resemble or differ from one another.

Virtual

This course examines the use of the criminal justice system, other coercive policies and the use of actual force by governments in Canada and other democratic states and the impact it has on citizens.

Virtual

An examination of the relationship between economics and politics on a global scale.

Students develop an appreciation of theoretical approaches to the global political economy through investigation of several historical eras and key structures such as trade, production, finance, development, environment, gender, labour, knowledge, race, health, security and governance.

Virtual

An examination of theoretical perspectives on the causes of war and conditions for peace between and within political communities.

Virtual

A review of the process of democratization and the forces that drive it and an assessment of the place of human rights in emerging democracies.

Online

This course investigates, through three mediums of popular culture (film, television, music), what popular culture has to offer as a type of social science.

What does popular culture have to show us about gender, authority, sexuality, image, family, institutions, social arrangements, hope, beauty, money, success, protest and many other topics as well?

Online

An exploration of social psychological approaches and research to mental health.

Topic areas may range from the social and cultural factors that affect definitions of normal/abnormal to those that affect who experiences mental health issues and/or receives treatment.

Online

This course explores theoretical and clinical perspectives on couple and family counselling, cognitive behavioural therapy, interpersonal psychotherapy, narrative therapy, trauma-informed therapy, and dialectical behaviour therapy.

Virtual

An introduction to more grammar, syntax, and vocabulary of the language of the Hebrew Bible.

The knowledge acquired should enable the student to read the simple prose and poetry of the Hebrew Bible.

Virtual

This course will continue the study of Sanskrit grammar.

Virtual

This course examines ghosts, demons, and spirits in a range of cultural, contemporary, and historical settings.

Special attention is paid to historical and contemporary moral panics, as well as how ghosts, demons, and spirits influence human health and well-being.

Online

An examination of myth, history, doctrine, monastic culture, and ritual practices in East Asian Buddhism.

Online

An examination of Canadian social policy and the law in intimate relationships and families, work, immigration, health, and the criminal justice system.

Online

An introduction to the study of “race” and ethnicity.

The course examines theoretical, empirical, and policy issues related to racism, discrimination, identity, multiculturalism, and social integration.

Online

An introduction to the sociology of gender, including empirical and theoretical dimensions. The course will emphasize social construction, social institutions, and cultural dimensions.

Virtual

This course introduces the basic principles of statistics used in sociological research. The focus will be on selecting, applying, and interpreting statistics for data analyses.

Online

How the production, reception, and consumption of art and popular culture are shaped by and reinforce race, class, and gender inequalities.

“The medium is the message.”

If this famous quote is true, what messages are television, movies and music giving us about the types of work most of us do?

This course will explore how workers are portrayed in the dominant media and how these portrayals both reflect and shape our identities and popular culture.