Courses

AP/HREQ 1010 6.00
Introduction to Human Rights and Equity Studies

This course introduces the field of critical human rights and equity studies. It provides an understanding of traditional liberal human rights discourses, covering such concepts as natural rights, moral rights, socio-political, religious and legal conceptions ...

AP/HREQ 1040 6.00
Power & Society: Critical Issues in Social Justice

(Cross-listed as AP/SOSC 1040 6.00) This course introduces the concept of power from a critical human rights perspective, as expressed in social institutions and ideologies such as patriarchy, consumerism, culture, and through issues of injustice ...

AP/HREQ 1800 6.00
Justice for Children

(Cross-listed as AP/SOSC 1800 6.00) This course introduces issues related to justice for children from a critical human rights perspective. It incorporates social/legal justice as it applies to the rights of children, drawing on critical ...

AP/HREQ 1880 6.00
Social Change in Canada

(Cross-listed as AP/SOSC 1880 6.00) This course explores issues related to social change in Canada from a critical human rights perspective. It surveys major advances in equity in Canadian society and explores instances of profound ...

AP/HREQ 1900 6.00
Sexuality, Gender and Society

(Cross-listed as AP/SOSC 1900 6.00) This course introduces current issues and research related to sexuality, gender, and society from a critical human rights perspective. It examines challenges to traditional institutional conceptions of sexuality, including discourses ...

AP/HREQ 1920 6.00
Gendered Encounters

(Cross-listed as AP/SOSC 1920 6.00 - Male-Female Relationships) This course introduces current issues related to gender relations from a critical human rights perspective. It explores gender and interpersonal relations, and concepts of love, historically and ...

AP/HREQ 1930 6.00
Health and Equity

(Cross-listed as AP/SOSC 1930 6.00) This course introduces current issues related to health and equity from a critical human rights perspective. It examines the interrelationship of health, disease, and socio-economic structures, and includes scholarly research ...

AP/HREQ 2020 6.00
Social Control and the Violation of Human Rights

This course examines how forms of social control can lead to violations of human rights. Topics may include the restriction of dissent; whistleblowing; activism; surveillance and securitization; the impact of patriarchal structures and ideology; and ...

AP/INDG 2030 6.00
Racism and Colonialism

(Cross-listed as AP/INDG 2030 6.00) Colonialism and racial conflict are examined in historical and comparative perspective, including a discussion of links between racism and sexism, and the experiences of Indigenous peoples. Examples are drawn from ...

AP/HREQ 2030 6.00
Theoretical Foundations of Rights and Equity

This course explores the philosophical, religious, and moral foundations of human rights and equity. The course also examines ongoing debates concerning competing rights claims and the shifting paradigms in rights discourses. We also seek to ...

AP/HREQ 2310 6.00
Introduction to Refugee and Migration Studies

This course uses a critical human rights approach to examine the multiple ways in which humans are forcibly displaced and dispossessed. Various factors contributing to the process of creating lives in refuge are explored, including ...

AP/HREQ 2440 6.00
Human Rights in the Age of Surveillance

This course explores the rise of the surveillance society in the 21st century from a critical human rights and equity perspective. Practices such as racial profiling, cyber tracking, international espionage, and government monitoring are examined, ...

AP/HREQ 3005 3.00
Human Rights and Humanitarian Action

This course addresses the origins, commonalities, and differences between international human rights law and humanitarian action. It analyses classical and contemporary approaches to humanitarianism, as well as the challenges faced by international aid organizations, NGOs, ...

AP/HREQ 3010 6.00
Imperialism, Racism and the Global Economy

This course examines imperialism, racism, and economics from a critical human rights perspective. Topics include economic class division, racial discrimination, and refugee migration, as well as the perpetual war economy, including the impact of race, ...

AP/HREQ 3020 3.00
Commemoration and Human Rights

This course explores global commemorative gestures and remembrance practices relating to past human rights atrocities. The role of selective memory in the creation of national histories forged in the aftermath of mass violence are examined ...

AP/HREQ 3100 6.00
Research Methods in Human Rights and Equity Studies

This course introduces research methods pertaining to critical human rights and equity studies. Qualitative and quantitative research designs and methods of collecting and analyzing phenomena pertaining to right and equity are undertaken. The links between ...

AP/HREQ 3120 3.00
Human Rights and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

This course examines the role of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms from a critical human rights perspective. The course situates the Charter in the larger context of an international discourse that includes prominent ...

AP/HREQ 3150 6.00
International Frameworks for Human Rights

This course provides an interdisciplinary and multicultural understanding of international frameworks for the protection of human rights as instrumentalized in contemporary foreign policy. It analyses the historical and philosophical foundation of international human rights, critically ...

AP/HREQ 3240 6.00
Human Rights and the Middle East: War, Forced Migration, Reconciliation and Peace

This course studies issues in the Middle East from a critical human rights perspective, focusing on countries like Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Syria. Legacies of religion, colonialism, and militarism are examined, ...

AP/HREQ 3350 6.00
Muslim Diasporas and the West

This course examines the experience of Muslim immigrants and refugees from the Indian subcontinent, Africa and the Middle East, with particular attention to policies and practices of the receiving country, as well as issues of ethnicity, religion, ...

AP/HREQ 3370 6.00
Migrant Women’s Experiences & Equity

This course examines the experiences of migrant women from a critical human rights perspective, exploring settlement patterns, employment opportunities, credentialing, and education. Patriarchal traditions and realigning gender roles are examined, along with issues of hybridity ...

AP/HREQ 3410 6.00
Human Rights and Urban Space

This course uses a critical human rights perspective to explore how social relations, equity, and access are experienced in urban spaces. Gentrification, access to social services, and homelessness are explored in the context of the ...

AP/HREQ 3450 6.00
Legal Institutions and Social Justice

This course examines the role of institutions of law from a critical human rights perspective. Different legal realms are explored, including Indigenous law, common law, and civil law, as well as different types law, including ...

AP/HREQ 3485 3.00
Migrant Workers and Human Rights

This interdisciplinary course examines precarious forms of labour migration from a critical human rights perspective. Human rights legislation, migrant "illegality," and migrant counterstrategies are explored, along with the impacts of global economic restructuring on migrants ...

AP/HREQ 3561 6.00
Racism, Human Rights, and the Law in Canada

This course examines the history of racist laws and practices in Canada in relation to the rise of progressive human rights acts. Laws pertaining to immigration, assimilation, and security are explored, including the Indian Act, ...

AP/HREQ 3562 6.00
The Impact of Culture on Health and Equity

This course examines health from a cross-cultural and critical human rights perspective. Racial and cultural stratification in health policies and practices are explored, as well as how western biomedicine has influenced health care delivery systems ...

AP/HREQ 3575 6.00
Popular Culture and Human Rights, East and West

Compares popular culture in reference to critical human rights, virtues and duties in the Western world, including movies, television, literature, animated films and sports with media in China and Japan. Explores modern and ancient cultural ...

AP/HREQ 3580 6.00
Ethnicity, Identity, and Equity in Canada

This course uses a critical human rights approach to explore the role of identity and ethnicity in struggles for inclusion. Hierarchies of oppression and exclusion are examined, as well as the ways in which ethnic ...

AP/HREQ 3604 6.00
Racism and Culture

This course uses a critical human rights approach to explore human rights responses to racism as represented in popular culture. Music, literature, film, digital media, and other art forms have both reproduced and resisted racialized ...

AP/HREQ 3605 6.00
Race and Diversity in Education

This course uses a critical human rights approach to identify and explain stereotyping, discrimination, and institutionalized racism in the school system. Linkages of racism to class, gender, language, religious difference, and other forms of diversity ...

AP/HREQ 3610 6.00
Histories of Diasporic Cultures in Canada

This course uses a critical human rights approach to examine the history of migration and diasporic communities in historical and comparative perspective, including patterns of forced displacement, and issues of citizenship, racism, religious, and ethnic ...

AP/HREQ 3624 6.00
Canadian Immigration Policy and Settlement

This course uses a critical human rights approach to explore the role of the Canadian state and the economy through policies and programs in the areas of immigration and settlement. The evolution of the Immigration ...

AP/HREQ 3645 6.00
Women, Racism, and Equity

This course examines the ideology of misogyny and its intersection with racism in institutional contexts such as education, the workplace, the criminal justice and healthcare systems, media, religion, and immigration. Course credit exclusions: AP/MIST 3645 ...

AP/HREQ 3680 6.00
Contemporary Issues of Racism in Canada

This course uses a critical human rights approach to explore contemporary issues of racism in Canada, including #BlackLivesMatter, hate crimes, and systemic barriers for racialized peoples, including LGBTQ2+ minorities. It analyses racial discrimination in Canadian ...

AP/HREQ 3800 6.00
Human Rights, Islamic Thought, and Politics

This course incorporates a critical human rights approach and examines how human rights is defined by different schools of law and its implementation by Islamic governments. It explores the state of human rights in Muslim-majority ...

AP/HREQ 3800 3.00
Human Rights, Islamic Thought, and Politics

Critically examines the relationship between Islam and human rights. Describes the state of human rights in Muslim-majority countries and debates within them and amongst Muslim minorities in liberal democracies over the compatibility of human rights ...

AP/HREQ 3830 6.00
Women's Health and Equity

This course uses a critical human rights approach to examine the social determinants of health and intersectional identities in relation to women's health. Medical practices, Canada's health care system, and gender are examined. The course ...

AP/HREQ 3890 6.00
Social Justice: Theory and Practice

This course uses a critical human rights approach to understand the emergence of social justice theories and processes of equity related to identity, access, social policy, and violence. The course also explores emerging trends in ...

AP/HREQ 3892 3.00
Community Action, Advocacy, and Social Justice

This course uses a critical human rights approach to understand the role of community action and advocacy in enhancing social justice outcomes. Grassroots movements to effect social change and combat discrimination in all its forms ...

AP/HREQ 3961 3.00
International Human Rights and Children

This course uses a critical human rights approach to explore economic, social, and structural powers that allow violence against children. Topics include the Convention on the Rights of the Child and other legislation for children, ...

AP/HREQ 3962 3.00
Trauma, Social Dislocation, and Human Rights

This course uses a critical human rights approach to examine violence, torture, cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment understood as settlement issues and as issues in international human rights. It engages with survivors' experiences in countries ...

AP/HREQ 3963 3.00
Language, Linguistic Rights, and Human Rights

This course uses a critical human rights approach to explore issues involving the social and cultural impact of language. Students gain the conceptual tools to analyze the relationship between linguistic rights and human rights, and ...

AP/HREQ 3964 3.00
Equity and Human Rights in Schooling

This course incorporates a critical human rights and critical pedagogy to examine inequality and equity in education from a human rights perspective. It engages with critical human rights literature linking educational rights to critical human ...

AP/HREQ 3990 6.00
Directed Reading/Supervised Study

This course enables students to do a supervised 6-credit 3000-level directed reading course. Students must be accepted by a faculty supervisor before they can register in the course. The course transaction form for this course ...

AP/HREQ 3990 3.00
Directed Reading/Supervised Study

This course enables students to do a supervised 3-credit 3000-level directed reading course. Students must be accepted by a faculty supervisor before they can register in the course. The course transaction form for this course ...

AP/HREQ 4040 6.00
Jewish Diasporas

This course uses a critical human rights approach to examine Jewish communities in a variety of historical and contemporary settings, including immigration experience, family life, culture and identity. This course covers theoretical and historical topics ...

AP/HREQ 4050 6.00
Slavery, Colonialism, and African Communities in the Americas

This course uses a critical human rights approach to examine slavery and post-slavery among African-descendants in the Americas, while also considering the historical origins of anti-black racism, the Atlantic slave trade, and the impact of ...

AP/HREQ 4052 3.00
Race, Ethnicity, and Social Policy

(Cross-listed as AP/PPAS 4052 3.00) Focuses on training students to analyze and construct public policy analysis on social issues through the lens of race and ethnicity. Through this course, public policy analysis will be utilized ...

AP/HREQ 4081 6.00
Gender, Culture and Society in the Middle East

This course uses a critical human rights approach to examine Middle Eastern cultures and society. Students explore social change in the Middle East, with a specific focus on the politics of religion, gender, and identity, ...

AP/HREQ 4450 6.00
Theories of Rights and Equity: Advanced Perspectives

This course uses a critical human rights approach to examine, at an advanced level, issues in social theory and philosophy with a focus on equity. Students explore the relationship between these foundational theories and contemporary ...

AP/HREQ 4460 6.00
HREQ Work-Focused Placement Course

This work-focused, course-based placement provides HREQ majors with an intensive experiential education opportunity in their fourth year in exchange for academic credit. Participants will apply their skills and knowledge in the area of human rights ...

AP/HREQ 4600 6.00
Research Seminar

(Cross-listed as AP/INDG 4600 6.00) This seminar adopts an advanced approach to research and interpretation, including data collection and analysis within a relevant theoretical framework. Students develop a research question, formulate a thesis, and complete ...

AP/HREQ 4650 3.00
Equity in the Workplace: Labour Rights and Human Rights

This course uses a critical human rights approach to examine initiatives to promote equity in the workplace. The course explores public policy strategies to address intersectional inequalities and assesses efforts to establish equitable labour standards ...

AP/HREQ 4651 3.00
Chinese Rights and Virtues in East Asia

This course uses a critical human rights approach to compare Chinese virtues of benevolence, propriety, righteousness, wisdom, and faithfulness with Western values and ideas in both ancient and contemporary perspectives. It contrasts universal claims of ...

AP/HREQ 4652 6.00
Violence, Enslavement, and Human Rights

This course uses a critical human rights approach to examine how violence is normalized through cultural ideologies and practices, and how human enslavement represents violence and violation. The course relies on a critical interdisciplinary analysis ...

AP/HREQ 4720 6.00
Directed Reading/Special Study

This course provides an opportunity for students to carry out an independent research project under the supervision of a faculty member. The student selects a research issue, formulates related research questions, and sets the project ...

AP/HREQ 4720 3.00
Directed Reading

This course provides an opportunity for students to carry out an independent research project under the supervision of a faculty member. The student selects a research issue, formulates related research questions, and sets the project ...

AP/HREQ 4740 6.00
Ideology and Freedom of Expression

This course uses a critical human rights approach to examine ideology and freedom of expression. The courses explores the role of the state and corporate interests in the creation of dominant ideologies in social media, ...

AP/HREQ 4770 6.00
Democracy, Social Movements and Freedom of Assembly

This course uses a critical human rights approach to examine social movements. It takes a historical and comparative view of dissent, resistance, civil disobedience, and democratic action, and explores how social movements are sustained through ...

AP/HREQ 4772 6.00
Migration and Refugee Protection

This course uses a critical human rights approach to analyze the politics of migration and refugee protection. It develops an interdisciplinary and multicultural understanding of the nature and evolution of national and international refugee regimes, ...

AP/HREQ 4800 6.00
Honours Thesis

This course requires students to plan, develop and execute a research project. This project consists of a literature review, a proposal and a major paper. Note: Student must be accepted by a faculty supervisor before ...

AP/HREQ 4820 6.00
Atrocity, Genocide, and Crimes Against Humanity

This course uses a critical human rights approach to explore examples of historical and contemporary atrocities, genocides, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, with special focus on prominent cases including the Holocaust and the decimations ...