GDBA 531 Professional Business Skills

Offered: 2017 /2 /4
Credits: 3 credits 

This course provides students with the necessary skills for successful interaction with others in business settings. Topics include designing and delivering effective written and oral messages from concept to delivery, working in groups, and negotiating and resolving conflict by using ethical communication tactics. Pedagogical methods include group-based work, in-class workshops, case studies, presentations, and report writing.

Prerequisites: None

Special instructions: This course is of interest to students from any discipline wishing to achieve the following learning outcomes:

By the end of this course you should have:

• Developed more productive and efficient energy management skills
• Enhanced listening skills
• Increased ability to develop and communicate persuasively with internal and external stakeholders
• Enhanced confidence delivering oral presentations

Contact: Karen Fada

FMST 665 Managing Media

Offered: 2017 /2
Credits: 3 credits 

Management - on the surface it seems marginal to the films and television we care about; boring, even. Yet there is nothing more critically essential to understanding the process of how an idea for a film makes it to the big screen. This course will examine the mysterious middle realm of media management, from the production processes where film and television and novels get made, to the management of media franchises, star images and brands, to the managing of consumers through increasingly complex and arcane end-user license agreements (EULAs), apps, interfaces and retail environments. It will chart the multiple layers and levels at which media is managed, from platforms to hardware to ad agencies and talent agencies, and will analyze the many self-refential films and TV series that stage these management practices for our enjoyment. 

Contact: Marc Steinberg

FMST 804 Walter Benjamin and Film Studies

Offered: 2017 /2
Credits: 3 credits 

Walter Benjamin was a prolific writer, whose corpus spans a wide range of genres, from philosophy, to criticism, to autobiography. A small cottage industry has developed around Benjamin’s extensive writing, producing an ongoing stream of interpretations, applications, and contextualizations. A host of different “Benjamins” have arisen, depending on the great variety of analytical frameworks and disciplinary concerns. Benjamin’s difficult life in interwar Europe as a nomadic character on the fringes of so many cultural circles is very much part of his philosophy, and cannot be entirely separated from his critical theory. Benjamin worked on the edge of a political precipice, and adapted methodologies from a wide range of cultural currents, expressing himself eloquently in French and German, providing a significant challenge to his English translators. He challenges the film critic and media analyst to craft new avenues of interpretation in order to recognize the utopian within the ideological, and to illuminate the lost promises of technological modernity.

Students in this class are encouraged to think through Benjamin’s critical aesthetics in light of contemporary image culture and tropes of recycling, affect, technologies, and posthumanism. The fragmentation and circulation of images in digital media is anticipated by Benjamin along with its dangers and potentials for social justice. We will explore the ways that his work has been taken up by feminist theorists, media archaeology scholars, and other interdisciplinary scholars as a way of opening up a richly interdisciplinary approach to the aesthetics and politics of film and media. Students will be required to do class presentations and complete a final research paper. 

Prerequisites:

• Registration in a PhD program in a Humanities discipline.
• Some background in critical theory, philosophy, or film theory.

Special instructions:

• Please contact the instructor, Catherine Russell - please attach a recent academic transcript and CV.
• Please explain why you are interested in the course - priority will be given to students enrolled in the PhD in Film and Moving Image Studies program.

Contact: Catherine Russell

APLI 604 Applied Language Studies

Offered: 2017 /2
Credits: 3 credits 

This course examines the different theoretical concepts and methods used to analyze and describe the linguistic structure of language, and explores ways in which these can be applied to the teaching and learning of second/foreign languages. The course introduces students to the key concepts that characterize the different components of language, namely phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics, within an approach that recognizes that languages can be affected by the social, psychological, and pragmatic aspects of human behaviour.

Prerequisites: None

Special instructions: Priority will be given to students in the MA in APLI. The course will be accessible to students with little or no background in the field of linguistics, and could serve as an introduction to different linguistic dimensions related to language teaching and learning.

Contact: Nadine Wright

APLI 616 Pedagogical Grammar

Offered: 2017 /2
Credits: 3 credits 

This course surveys the theoretical and empirical literature related to the teaching and learning of grammar in second language classrooms. Topics include the nature of pedagogical rules, the use of metalinguistic terminology, teachers’ knowledge and beliefs, learner characteristics, and task design.

Prerequisites: APLI 604 (previously or concurrently), or any related undergraduate course that focuses on describing language (e.g. Intro to Linguistics). Experience teaching a second language would be beneficial, but not required.

Special instructions: Priority will be given to students in the MA in Applied Linguistics.

Contact: Nadine Wright

APLI 623 Sociolinguistics

Offered: Winter 2018
Credits: 3 credits 

This course is an introduction to educational and sociolinguistic issues affecting the promotion and maintenance of individual and societal bilingualism, multilingualism, and multiculturalism. The societal consequences of being multilingual and multicultural and the perspectives of both students and educators in multilingual/multicultural language classrooms will be examined. The course is designed to help students understand basic concepts related to bilingualism and multilingualism at the individual and societal levels, develop critical thinking in reading sociolinguistic research, and learn about a variety of research tools and methodologies used in sociolinguistic research. After completing this course, students should be able to understand several basic sociolinguistic processes and phenomena involved in language learning, know how to read and understand sociolinguistic research, be familiar with common sociolinguistic methodologies, and be able to discuss social issues of bilingualism and multilingualism with various stakeholders (e.g., educators, policymakers, parents, general public).

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor

Special instructions: Priority will be given to students in the MA in APLI.

Contact: Nadine Wright

APLI 644 Technology in Language Learning

Offered: 2017 /2
Credits: 3 credits 

This course explores theoretical and applied issues related to the use of technology in second/foreign language learning and teaching. The principal aims of the course are to enable students to critically evaluate existing instructional uses of technology and to design methodologically sound technology-based materials for second language teaching. Emphasis is placed on developing skills needed for the integration of instructional technology into second/foreign language instruction.

Prerequisites: None, but students need to be familiar with basic computer functions (word processing, creation of folders, use of search engines). Experience with language learning and/or teaching would be beneficial.

Special instructions: Priority will be given to students in the MA in APLI. The course will be of interest to anyone planning to teach or conduct research on the teaching/learning of languages via technology (including mobile and web-based tools). The course will also be relevant to anyone interested in working in related fields such as software development and eCourse design (e.g., using course management systems such as Moodle).

Contact: Nadine Wright

APLI 645 Literacy

Offered: 2017 /2
Credits: 3 credits 

This course focused on reading and writing in a second language. The literacy issues of a range of ages and levels will be considered, including those of university-aged students acquiring advanced academic writing skills. Throughout the course, the implications for language teaching of the different theoretical and empirical findings will be considered.

Prerequisites: None

Special instructions: Priority will be given to students in the MA in APLI.

Contact: Nadine Wright

HENV 610 Advanced Quantitative Research Methods for the Environmental Sciences and Geography

Offered: 2017 /3
Credits: 3 credits 

This beginning graduate student course considers experimental design and advanced data analysis methods in Geography and the Environmental Sciences. Phenomena describable by multiple variables arise in many subfields of physical and human geography, the environmental sciences and related disciplines. This course focuses on the display and analysis of multivariate geographical and environmental data by traditional multivariate methods and by newer methods of scientific visualization. The open-source R programming environment is used (free for you to use these skills for the rest of your career!). Graduate students with all levels of statistical and R expertise are welcome! 

Prerequisites: An undergraduate statistics course

Contact: Dr. Jeannine-Marie St-Jacques or Jennifer Srey

HENV 650 Political Economy of the City

Offered: 2017 /2
Credits: 3 credits 

The course will review different theoretical approaches to studying cities (drawing on critical geography and sociology approaches). A key focus will be on the rise of neoliberal urban governance and its implications for social and economic divides in the city, as well as efforts to contest such divides.

Contact: Jennifer Srey

MATH 630 Topics in the Psychology of Mathematics Education: Research into students' difficulties in mathematics

Offered: 2017 /2
Credits: 3

This course is premised on the assumption that there is no learning without overcoming some difficulty. If you have experienced no difficulty in performing a task then you have probably learned nothing by doing it. Therefore difficulties are treated as something normal, expected and even welcome. The teacher must have a sufficiently deep understanding of the possible cognitive, epistemological, and didactic sources of difficulties in mathematics to recognize those difficulties in particular students. Based on this understanding, the teacher can create learning situations that motivate students to overcome the difficulties associated with the material. In this course, you will have an opportunity to learn to anticipate the possible difficulties students may have in learning different content areas in mathematics such as arithmetic, high school algebra, geometry, college algebra, college level calculus, and, depending on the interests of the participants, the more advanced areas of mathematics. Difficulties related to the specificity of mathematical reasoning and proving will also be tackled. Students will choose topics to study more in depth according to their own interests. They will inform the instructor about their interests and the instructor will help them select relevant literature.

Prerequisites: Mathematics background with at least college level Algebra and Calculus.

Contact: Debbie Arless

MAST 678 Statistical data analysis

Offered: 2017 /2
Credits: 3

The course is an introductory course to using the SAS software system for analyzing data. Through a mixture of lectures and in-class examples and exercises, students will gain experience using the SAS system for data management and analysis. Emphasis will be placed on the skills and techniques necessary for efficient data management and analysis. It is designed for students with little to no background with SAS, but who have an understanding of the basic statistical concepts.

Prerequisites: STAT 360 (linear models) or permission of the Department.

Contact: Lisa Kakinami

MAST 679H Statistical Learning

Offered: 2018 /4
Credits: 3

The statistical learning class aims at providing an introduction to multiple techniques commonly used in statistical and machine learning.

Topics covered include supervised learning (linear models, stochastic gradient methods, regularized regressions), unsupervised learning (K-means, principal component analysis), neural networks, dynamic programming and reinforcement learning. Financial and actuarial applications will be illustrated.

Prerequisites: Linear regression, basic probability.

Contact: Debbie Arless

PHYS 660 Chemical aspects of Biophysics

Offered: 2017 /2
Credits: 3

The topics covered by the course are the following.
Energetics of macromolecular structures: bonding and nonbonding interactions; Methods for estimating and measuring the dielectric properties of proteins; Stabilizing protein structures:  electrostatic stabilization by pKa shift of side chains, interactions with solvents and the surrounding; Electrostatic interactions influencing folding/unfolding of macromolecules. Thermodynamics of protein folding; Ligand Binding; Theory of biological electron transfer; Tuning redox potentials; Interaction between electromagnetic radiation (from radio waves to gamma-rays) and macromolecules: absorption, fluorescence, X-ray, UV, VIS, NIR, FTIR and Raman, EPR, NMR  and Mössbauer spectroscopies.

Prerequisites: Thermodynamics knowledge at the undergraduate level is required (such as the course PHYS 334 in the Physics Department).

Special instructions: This course should be of interest to students in Biochemistry and Chemistry, as well as those in other departments that have knowledge of thermodynamics  and interest in the biophysical basis of biological processes.

Contact: Pablo Bianucci

Note: Priority will be given to students in the Political Science PhD and MPPPA programs. Interested students must obtain permission to enroll from the professor.

POLI 683/POLI 815 - Democratic Governance, Public Policy & Research Methodology

Offered: Summer, Fall, Winter (2017, 2018, 2019)
Credits: 3

This course provides a unique opportunity for students to take a selection of the Workshops on Social Science Research (WSSR) offered by the Department of Political Science for credit.

The WSSR are intensive short learning experiences designed to enhance your knowledge and skills in the areas of democratic governance and public policy. These workshops are led by highly reputable and insightful guest lecturers from well-known academic institutions and/or well-qualified and distinguished backgrounds. For this course, you must select, register in, and attend six workshops, as well as complete all the requirements listed in this outline below.

Prerequisites: Graduate students from all faculties are welcome to take the WSSR for credit. Be sure to consult with your Graduate Program Director (GPD) in order to confirm that you are eligible to receive credit toward your degree. Please email confirmation of eligibility from your GPD to wssr@concordia.ca once you have completed and submitted your "Permission Request" form (see below). See a list of Concordia GPDs and GPAs.

Special instructions:

• To apply for permission to register for this course, students need to complete the Permission Request Form on the website.
• To earn credit for this course, students will select, register in, and attend six days-worth of workshops (9:00am-4:30pm). The listing of workshops can be found on the website.
• For information about how the course works, download the course outline.

PSYC 726 Bilingualism

Offered: 2017 /1
Credits: 3

Many people around the world are bilingual, and increasing research shows that bilingualism affects individuals across the lifespan in both in linguistic and non-linguistic domains.  This course will focus on cutting-edge bilingualism research, and how this work can inform policy and practice.  Research topics will include defining and measuring bilingualism, language learning and processing in bilinguals, language acquisition in bilingual infants and children, and bilingual cognitive advantages.  Applied topics will be determined according to the interests of enrolled students, and might include the impact of bilingualism on psychological assessment, and how bilingualism research can inform public and educational policy.

Special instructions: This course will be of particular interest to students in education and linguistics.

Contact: Kim Breux

PSYC 727 Circadian Rhythms in Regulation of Brain Processes and Role in Psychiatric Disorders

Offered: 2018 /1
Credits: 3

Recent studies have revealed that clock genes are rhythmically expressed throughout the brain and play critical roles in the regulation of normal brain processes.
Current evidence suggests that circadian rhythms regulate short and long-term synaptic plasticity in neural circuits that underlie rhythmic behaviors, including respiration, blood pressure, cortisol, and locomotor activity, among others. Despite the evidence that circadian rhythms are involved in the regulation of several neural processes and in turn behaviors, this topic has not been extensively studied thus far, and there is much that is not known as to how and why circadian rhythms regulate such processes. Although mammalian circadian rhythms are controlled predominantly by the suprachiasmatic nucleus, recent advances made in this field on the emerging roles of clock gene rhythms across brain regions have suggested that the circadian system is involved in brain region specific regulation of cell activity and specific behaviors. Furthermore, recent studies have suggested a critical role of the circadian system in several disorders, including major depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, anxiety, stress regulation, age related cognitive deficits including Alzheimer’s disease, eating disorders, drug addiction, and alcoholism. The impact of circadian rhythm disruption on cognitive function, mood, and cardiovascular health, in populations of shift. workers and frequent travelers, may also be due to underlying effects of circadian disruption on synaptic plasticity.

The aim of the seminar is to discuss recent advances in the role of the circadian system in normal brain functions and psychiatric disorders.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following: 

• Recent advances in our understanding of peripheral brain oscillators
• Clock gene regulation of neuronal function including synaptic plasticity
• Circadian rhythm abnormalities in mood disorders and psychotic disorders
• Circadian disruption and health in shift workers and frequent travelers
• Role of circadian rhythms in cognition and aging
• Circadian rhythms in regulation of reward processes and addiction
• Interactions between the circadian system and stress response system

Prerequisites: Some background in behavioral neuroscience and/or biology

Contact: Shimon Amir

PSYC 734 Multivariate Statistics, aka Latent Variable Modelling

Offered: Winter 2018
Credits: 3

This course covers the analysis of continuous and categorical latent variable based on continuous and categorical indicators, taking into account the nesting of information units within individuals (longitudinal) and groups (multilevels). As such, we will cover: Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), Path Analysis, Mediation, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), Exploratory and Bifactor SEM, Multiple groups analyses and tests of measurement invariance, Moderation, Autoregressive cross lagged models, Latent change models, Latent curve models, multilevel analyses, and doubly latent multilevel analyses. Emphasized for these topics are the correct estimation of models, the correct interpretations of the results, and the ability to pursue autonomous learning thereafter.

Prerequisites: This course is an advanced graduate course in statistics, and as such requires students to have completed at least one prior graduate statistics course (similar in content to PSYC 601) and covering at least the basic principles of correlation, regression, and analysis of variance.

Contact: Kim Breux

RELI 630/RELI 833 Anthropology of Christianity

Offered: 2017-18 /4
Credits: 3

Anthropology of Christianity has attracted so much ethnographic and theoretical attention that it  has  become  one  of  the  fastest  growing  sub-disciplines  in  contemporary  anthropology.  This  course will engage current themes that are pertinent to the study of religion in anthropology as a  whole,  but  will  focus  on  major  debates  and  topics  pertaining  especially  to  Christianity.  Themes  may  include  conversion  and  debates  about  continuity  versus  rupture;  explorations  of  how  individualism  and  sociality  interact  on  earth  and  in  the  afterlife;  the  interplay  of  public  and  private  spaces  and  constructions  of  the  secular.  This  course relies  on  in-depth  seminar  discussion   and   reading   materials   will   span   Christianity   globally,   including   Catholicism,   Pentecostalism, and Eastern Orthodoxy.

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor.

Contact: Hillary Kaell

RELI 630F/RELI 835 Islam in the West: Gender Issues

Offered: 2017-18 /4
Credits: 3

This course treats gender issues in relation to Muslim communities in Canada and the West overall both in terms of the perceptions of non-Muslims and commitments and debates among Muslims themselves. Topics include veiling practices, media representations, gender ideals, Muslim family law, women’s participation and authority, queer movements and intermarriage.

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor.

Contact: Lynda Clarke

RELI 650 Women in the Hebrew Bible

Offered: 2017-18 /4
Credits: 3

Many presume to be able to identify—and easily reject-- the systemic patriarchy of biblical literature. This course aims at reintroducing the text itself and the notion of patriarchy to clarify, challenge and open up a critical discussion with individual female characters and their historic portrayal. The reading course will interrogate women’s experiences and expressions only in the narrative traditions of the Hebrew Bible. Students will be challenged to rethink accepted categories of gender and scripture. The close reading of text will require a critical consideration of narrative forms and popular renditions of said stories.

Readings and discussion will engage both feminist critical theory and Judaic tradition. A variety of Judaic approaches will be considered such as are found in classical commentaries, legends and midrashic literature. Both Judaic and feminist approaches will challenge our notions of women’s place and participation in the ancient Israelite community.

The graduate course will concentrate on one biblical book as our group project while students will choose their own character to discuss and probe. The reading course will meet bi-weekly but students will be expected to attend the undergraduate course. Each student will be required to participate in class discussions and present their own research.

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor.

Contact: Norma Joseph

RELI 670, RELI 806 Talmud

Offered: 2017 /2
Credits: 3

The Talmud has been censored, burned, and maligned by outsiders at the same time as it has been revered by Jews for the past two millennia as one of the central texts of Judaism and Jewish tradition. Through a close reading of selected passages from the Mishnah, the Babylonian Talmud, and the Jerusalem Talmud, as well as a survey of current debates in the scholarship, we will set out the Talmud’s key components and methodologies and situate the Talmud in its ancient cultural context. By actively engaging these ancient texts, we will attempt to uncover what has given and continues to give the Talmud so much power to inspire.

The main goals of the course will be to familiarize students with this important body of literature, to situate it historically and culturally, to train students to access this body of literature on their own, and to provide the opportunity to relate it to their own area of interest. For students not primarily focused on the study of Judaism or Ancient Judaism, I add that  this course focuses on cultural historical inquiry through the reading of ancient texts and archaeological evidence. It looks at an important ancient text that goes against the conventions we typically associate with texts in the Western world, embracing conflicting voices and interpretations. Because it is remarkably different from what most students will be used to, it is particularly exciting! Please note as well that special focus will be given to issues of gender and power.

Prerequisites: It is expected that students registering for this course will have previous experience in studying Judaism, Jewish literature and/or Jewish history and be comfortable with critical theory.

Contact: Naftali Coh

ANTH 601 World Anthropologies

Offered: 2018 /4
Credits: 3

This course takes the idea of the ‘world’ as fundamental to ethnographic research. By the ‘world,’ this course refers to both the ‘public-We’ and one’s ‘own’ closest environment and to relations in-between. On this premise we will look at various case studies and ethnographic investigations in order to interrogate how it is humans experience and gain knowledge of self, Others, objects, and practices in the world. We will traverse issues ranging from globalization, development and action research to apprenticeship, psychiatry and off the grid living in a bid, on the one hand, to better understand how anthropologists generate theory about the human condition through ethnographic research and writing and, on the other, to mull over the central question of whether it is individuals who experience the world or is it subjects who are constituted through experience?

Contact: Eve Girard

SOCI 602 Issues in Classical Sociological Thoery

Offered: 2017 /2
Credits: 3

This course is designed to examine selected classical texts and analyze the work of recent interpreters and critics. During this course, we will endeavour to develop our critical understanding of the classics. In addition, we will strive to create an awareness of the diversity of readings of classical texts that will enhance our ability to make further critical appropriations, revisions, and uses of the classical tradition.

Contact: Eve Girard

SOCI 603 Issues in Contemporary Sociological Theory

Offered: 2018 /4
Credits: 3

This course is an in-depth study of issues in contemporary sociological theory. It is designed to foster awareness of the plurality, diversity, and divergence among contemporary readers and readings of current texts. The focus is on critical analysis of major writings representing diverse theoretical orientations in recent sociology. Attention is given to fundamental assumptions and to practical implications of given orientations and styles of sociology.

Contact: Eve Girard

SOCI 644 Sociology of the Body

Offered: 2017 /2
Credits: 3

This three-credit course provides an interdisciplinary introduction to social theories of the body. The course consists of two key parts. In the first part, we consider a number of different theoretical trajectories (e.g., psychoanalysis, phenomenology, poststructuralism) and how they have informed contemporary scholarship on the body. In the second part, we apply these theories to a range of current issues (e.g., obesity, cosmetic surgery, erectile dysfunction, facial transplantation) as they relate to bodies and embodiments in the early post-millennium. At the intersection of cultural studies, gender studies, health studies and media studies, the course will be relevant to anyone with an interest in the mutually constitutive forces of self, body and society and how they both shape and are shaped by phenomena such as biotechnology, beauty standards and consumer capitalism.

Contact: Eve Girard

SOCI 650 Law and the Irrational

Offered: 2017 /2
Credits: 3

Within the legal positivist tradition, law is celebrated as one of the Enlightenment’s most significant achievements leading to reason-based governance, egalitarian and impartial legislation, and a more humanitarian criminal justice system.  Indeed, it can be seen that we have come far compared to sovereign forms of violent governance against which Cesare Beccaria (1764) wrote. During this time, wrong-doing was discovered by secret accusations and inquisitorial forms of interrogation and understood as personal violation against magistrates. However, contemporary social theorists have challenged this optimism, implicating the many ways in which the so-called objective sphere of law is compromised through culture, contingency, and politics.  That is, for many thinkers the legal sphere merely conceals the reification of deep-seated social discourses that undermine this putative rationality and objectivity. This class will examine some of the sources of legal reasoning that exceed the bounds of the rational. What social and historical discourses haunt law? How does law produce and destroy subjects? Themes will consist of colonialism, space, race, animals, mechanisms of accusation, mass-incarceration, and biopolitics.

Contact: Eve Girard

THEO 643 Saint Augustine's Confessions

Offered: 2017 /2
Credits: 3

This seminar offers an introduction to and a close reading of Augustine’s Confessions, perhaps the most famous work of Christian theology, in which Augustine narrates his early life and conversion to Christianity. Each class will focus on the historical and philosophical background to each Book of the Confessions, attending to such questions as: what is a confession and how does it relate to autobiography? How are we best to understand this text, as a work of theology, philosophy, or literature (or is that division even helpful)? It will also give students a sense of later theological and philosophical importance of particular aspects of the Confessions and of Augustine's thought.

Special instructions: Course of interest to students in Religious Studies, Philosophy, Epistemology, Literature, Classics, Ancient History.

Contact: Lucian Turcescu