MRPE Elective Course Options
Fall 2023
| Course Code | Course Title & Outline | Department |
| ANT 9230A | Disability & Health in Local & Global Worlds | Anthropology |
| GEO 9107A | Environment and Health | Geography |
| HIS 9806A | Understanding Archives | History |
| HIS 9833A | Environmental History | History |
| PSY 9545A | Test Construction - Psychometric Measurement Modeling | Psychology |
| PSY 9622A | Motivation and Leadership | Psychology |
| PSY 9733A | Advanced Topics in the Psychology of Gender | Psychology |
Winter 2024
| Course Code | Course Title & Outline | Department |
| ANT 9215B | Discourse and Society | Anthropology |
| ANT 9224B | Advanced Refugee and Migrant Studies | Anthropology |
| GEO 9114B | Urban Studies | Geography |
| HIS 9274B | Oh Gendered Canada! | History |
| POL 9755B | Globalization and Urban Politics | Political Science |
| PSY 9552B | Regression and Factor Analysis | Psychology |
| PSY 9650B | Status and Power in Organizations | Psychology |
| SOC 9268B | **Social Inequalities in Health | Sociology |
| SOC 9331B | **Death, Fertility and Migration: Deomographic Analysis of Social Change | Sociology |
| GSWS 9466B | **Gender and Environment | Gender & Women's Studies |
Courses are subject to change, depending the core course schedule.
All courses require department and instructor approval or prerequisite. Please contact Leha Huffman at mrpe@uwo.ca for further information on enrollment procedures.
**Courses are limited to 2-3 MRPE students. Pleaes contact Leha Huffman at mrpe@uwo.ca for enrollment.
Course Outlines will be posted as they come available.
Course Descriptions
Fall 2023
ANT9230A - Disability and Health in Local and Global Worlds
This course will provide students with a foundation to think critically about occupying and decolonizing health and disability and to use an anthropological lens to provide students with skills to critically evaluate health- occupation- and disability-related experiences both locally and globally.
GEO 9107A - Environment and Health
The conceptual frameworks for environmental health research and policy analysis. Appraisal of methods of deriving and substantiating evidence in environment and health research. Approaches to environmental health policy formulation and the uses of evidence in the environmental health policy arena.
HIS 9806A - Understanding Archives: The Management of Primary Sources in the Digital Age
This course is designed to introduce students to the fundamentals of professional archival work. Class sessions
will primarily be lecture driven, but combine discussion, practical exercises, and demonstrations. Students will
gain a solid grounding in the history of the profession, an understanding of basic archival terminology, principles,
theory, as well as an appreciation of current practices and how digital technologies have impacted both archival
management and public programming. Optional for Public History students; open to other graduate students
with the instructor's permission.
HIS 9833A - Environmental History
Environmental history considers how humans have thought about and acted toward nature through time, and how
nature itself has changed. Besides introducing the main concepts and debates in the field, “People & Nature
through Time” traces a global environmental history, with special emphasis on the concept of the Anthropocene -
the era in which humans have made intense, effectively permanent environmental changes on a global scale.
PSY 9545A - Test Construction Psychometric Measurement Modeling
Surveys designed to numerically quantify an individual’s standing for some intrapsychic construct (e.g., attitudes, beliefs, motives, values) are ubiquitous in psychological and social science research. The goal of this course is to help students develop an understanding of classic and prevailing psychometric theories that attempt to explain how constructs become expressed in survey responses, and the measurement modeling techniques used on survey responses by researchers to understand the form and substance of the constructs they are attempting to study. All analyses this semester will be taught using R, using a variety of available packages.
PSY 9622A - Motivation and Leadership
TBA
PSY 9733A - Advanced Topics in the Psychology of Gender
The study of gender is fundamental for understanding individual and group psychology. This course will provide a selected overview of the literature on the social psychology of gender, with a focus on gaps, open queries, and theory integration, where relevant. The psychological study of gender has grown so large that it is impossible to cover all topics. Consequently, the coverage of the course is somewhat selective but hopefully compelling.
Winter 2024
ANT 9215B - Discourse and Society
Discourse analysis provides empirical grounding for explanations and interpretations of culture, society and social behaviour. Attention to discourse (language in use as talk or text) reveals the diversity of perspectives within cultural and social groups, reminding us to be critical of generalizations we make, while deepening our understanding of issues. In this course, we will explore how discourse is shaped by many things including the world as we know it, the structures of language itself, socio-political relations, prior discourses, the limitations and possibilities of the medium, and various interactional goals. Examples of discourse features include: discourse markers, slang, stance, style, framing, register, genre, language choice, and reported speech.
ANT 9224B - Advanced Refugee and Migrant Studies
State borders, especially in North America and Europe are increasingly barring entry for many people considered undesirables, and for the relatively few who succeed in entering, asylum and citizenship are treated as a privilege not a right. Ironically, the same borders controlling human mobility have become more permeable for commodities and military interventions overseas, the latter in disregard of the principle of state sovereignty established as early as 1648 AD. Spaces such as airports, borders and harbors are today decked with cameras, detectors, and various kinds of mechanisms to restrain and deter, much of it under the banner of the “war on terror”. National “security” and a culture of fear became blanket pretexts to deport or detain individuals without due process, to change laws at the expense of civil liberties, and to render entry or citizenship much harder for people fleeing conflicts, persecution, or natural disasters. The course involves a critical examination of this changing world by examining some of the literature on refugees and forced migration. Although the course will be slightly modified to respond to students’ areas of research and interests, it will include core readings on the topics we cover. We will read and discuss articles that deal with the global context, and the shifts that led to the rise and erosion of refugee rights, and by implication rights to citizenship. We will discuss borders and perilous sea journeys, "illegal migrants", gender issues, indigenous displacements, camps, and refugee children and youth.
GEO 9114B - Urban Studies
An examination of social and physical characteristics of the function and evolution of cities at multiple scales and perspectives. A critical examination of everyday urban issues, theories, conceptual frameworks and research methods in geography, and cognate disciplines.
HIS 9274B - Oh Gendered Canada!
TBA
POL 9755B - Globalization and Urban Politics
Cities have long been the engines of social and economic change. Today, as the geographical epicenters of globalization, large urban areas are growing and developing in ways that challenge the abilities of local governments to deal with emerging social and economic issues. How social and economic change affects city politics at the local level is the central theme of this course. How are urban societies and economies affected by globalization, and what can local governments do about it? How can local governments respond when they lack the powers and resources to do so on their own? How can rapidly growing, changing cities keep up with the need for new infrastructure? Can urban politics help to overcome social and economic divisions, or does it make them worse? These are the kinds of questions that we will be discussing.
PSY 9552B - Regression and Factor Analysis
This course covers various regression-based procedures that fall within the general linear model as well as an introduction to generalized linear model methods such as logistic, multinomial, ordinal and poisson regression. Within multiple linear regression, we cover moderation and non-experimental design in depth including concepts of causality and methods of statistical control. We consider limitations of traditional mediation designs and improved methods. The course includes demonstrations of the parallels between regression methods and both ANOVA and ANCOVA, and also introduces multilevel modeling.
PSY 9650B - Status and Power in Organizations
This course offers an overview of research on the function and structure of social hierarchies within organizations and groups. In this course, we will examine traditional and contemporary accounts on the nature of social rank, how power and status differences are established and regulated, and the consequences of social hierarchy for individuals and organizations. We will discuss a range of topics, including the bases of social hierarchy, the social neuroendocrinology of status and power, motives and individual differences related to status and power, and the consequences of social rank as well as differing hierarchical configurations in organizations. This is a seminar-style course that is organized around weekly readings of theoretical and/or empirical papers. Students are expected to attend and actively participate in the weekly discussions, submit weekly discussion questions, write two brief reflection papers, and prepare a final research proposal.
SOC 9268B - Social Inequalities in Health
In this seminar, we will examine how a sociological perspective can assist us in understanding inequality in health. Health in adulthood is the result of lifelong experiences that begin at conception, and therefore we will focus on the mechanisms that maintain and magnify disparities in physical and mental health over the life course. The study of health inequality is multidisciplinary, cross-fertilization has occurred across disciplines, and the literature is vast; therefore this course focuses on an introduction to the major sociological conceptual frameworks and empirical research from Canada and the U.S. examining social inequalities in health.
SOC 9331B - Death, Fertility and Migration: Demographic Analysis of Social Change
This course introduces students to the field of population studies and the tools used by demographers to study the size, structure, and dynamics of human populations. It covers the collection, evaluation, and analysis of demographic data; census and vital registration systems; morbidity, disability, mortality, fertility, and migration; life table construction; and population projections. We will also discuss how demographic methods can be used to study other topics, such as education, health disparities, disability, and prison populations, in order to provide an understanding of how these methods are applied outside the field of traditional demography.
GSWS 9466B - Gender and Environment
This course will focus on the linkages between gender, human development, race, sexuality, environmental racism and environmental justice. We will examine key contemporary environmental issues such as climate change, food security, the “green” economy and low-carbon development; access to water, sanitation and energy; pollution; and wildlife conservation from feminist perspectives. Feminist and queer theory will also be used to interrogate binary categories such as natural/unnatural, nature/culture, normal/abnormal as they relate to our understandings of “nature and the environment.” The course will explore how racism, sexism, heterosexism, colonialism, imperialism and other forms of oppression have shaped and continue to shape environmental discourses. Course materials will include academic and non-academic literature, activist texts, case studies, fiction and film.
