Course descriptions are not final and may be changed at or before the first class. For enrolment instructions, students should consult the Course Planning guide and see to see Timetable Builder the scheduled day and times.
First Term – May-June
HPS202H1 – Technology in the Modern World
Course instructor: Miron Clay-Gilmore
Delivery Method: In-person
This course examines the reciprocal relationship between technology and society since 1800 from the perspectives of race, class, and gender. From the role of European imperial expansion in 19th-century industrialization and mechanization to the development of nuclear technology, smartphones, and digital computers in the 20th century, we consider cultural responses to new technologies, and the ways in which technology operates as an historical force in the history of the modern world.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief, and Behaviour (2)
HPS300H1 - "Science and Literature": Art, Wonder, and Science Communication
Course instructor: Nayani Jenson
Delivery Method: In-person
This course is an introduction to the interdisciplinary study of science and literature—What is the difference between the role of Science and Art? What does it mean to study texts written when these distinctions did not exist as they do now? What can the close study of scientific writing tell us about how science works? From Medieval Bestiaries to Darwin to Romantic Poets and contemporary theater, this course will involve the close study of scientific texts alongside literary works about science to consider the history of changing disciplinary boundaries and the mutual influences between these approaches. This is a 300-level course appropriate for students across arts and sciences. The course will encourage creative thinking beyond disciplinary boundaries and will place particular emphasis on engaging with primary materials, close reading, and critical analysis of texts.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
HPS302H1 - Topics in Philosophy of Science: Introduction to Scientific Realism
Course instructor: Markus Alliksaar
Delivery Method: In-person
This course is an introduction to a major school in the philosophy of science, scientific realism. We will explore the problems scientific realism hopes to solve, as well as the problems other philosophers of science have identified with scientific realism. In addition, we will contrast scientific realism with other schools of thought in the philosophy of science, such as constructive empiricism and relativism.
Distribution Requirement Status: Humanities
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
Second Term – July-August
HPS200H1 – Science and Values
Course instructor: Alexandra Calzavara
Delivery Method: In-person
An introduction to issues at the interface of science and society. Including the reciprocal influence of science and social norms, the relation of science and religion, dissemination of scientific knowledge, science and policy. Issues may include: Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Weapons; Genetic Engineering; The Human Genome Project; Climate Change.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief, and Behaviour (2)
HPS301H1 - Topics in the History of Science: Managing Madness: A Critical History of Mental Health Care
Course instructor: Matthew McLaughlin
Delivery Method: Lectures – In-person
This course examines the history of madness and mental health care in Canada and the United States throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Beginning with the creation of the asylum, we will investigate both professional and consumer/survivor perspectives to uncover how persons diagnosed as mad or mentally ill were studied, treated, and cared for. How did definitions of madness and mental illness change? How did psychiatrists, psychologists, psychiatric nurses, social workers, and other mental health professionals attempt to treat patients, and how did consumers perceive and resist such efforts? To answer these questions, we will explore the rise and fall of institutional care, the development of therapeutic interventions, the popularization of public mental health campaigns, as well as acts of resistance. Special attention will be paid to the role of gender, race, and class in the construction and use of diagnostic categories and corresponding therapeutic interventions to demonstrate how vulnerable groups were pathologized and managed by mental health experts.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)