Courses for the Minor in Diversity and the Contemporary World: 2024-2025

Prerequisite: Membership in the Loyola College for Diversity and Sustainability, 30 credits, and permission of the College. The student works under the supervision of a Concordia faculty member on an in-depth research project approved by the Loyola College for Diversity and Sustainability as relevant to either Sustainability Studies or Diversity Studies. Note that the onus is on the student to find a supervisor willing to supervise their work.

Prerequisites: 48 credits and permission of the department. This seminar explores social ecological and political economic issues related to informal urban spaces and strategies for conducting social research in these spaces. Informal green spaces that officials and investors often consider to be wastelands ripe for development are often treasured by urban residents. These spaces become entangled with their sense of place and community, offer respite from the heat and bustle of the city, and are perceived as providing habitat and refuges for biodiversity. Seminar sessions introduce participants to social ecological and political economic issues in informal urban spaces. Lab sessions provide participants with practical experience with research techniques for studying these issues in three sites in Montreal: the Champ des Possibles in Mile End, the Falaise St. Jacques in NDG, and a complex of sites in Hochelaga (Boisé Vimont, Boisé Steinberg, and an area known simply as the friche, all near Parc Saint-Clément).

Prerequisite: 24 credits in the Major in Design; or 24 credits in a Major in Fine Arts; or enrolment in the Loyola College for Diversity and Sustainability’s Minor in Diversity and the Contemporary World; or written permission of the Department. A special project-based studio that provides students the opportunities to dialogue with and engage with Montreal-based outreach programs, community centres and not-for-profit organizations. Concordia students apply their communication and technical skill sets to collaborate with community partners and participants on specific design projects.

This course explores the main differences between the world’s major cultures, religious beliefs, and philosophies, and addresses the tensions between establishing universal values and maintaining cultural diversity in an age of accelerating globalization. There is also an emphasis on the conception of different levels of social complexity, principally the role of the individual, the interpersonal, and the group within a society. This course is intended to develop team research and presentation skills, and the ability to communicate and work effectively within a small group setting.

This course focuses on the natural environment and our interactions with it as presented through selected films. Students deconstruct the visual representation of a problem or complex set of problems around the natural environment presented both as “fact” and as “entertainment”. Students generate an understanding of how the individual and one's society can operate more effectively in a global context of increased inter-cultural interaction, in unison with the environment.

The course recognizes that much of the city’s early Black history is unknown and that even today, the current knowledge of the Black experience in Montreal continues to be fraught with myth and misconception.  Thus, this course is largely designed to introduce students to the major themes, issues, and debates in Montreal’s Black history from its origins until today.  This interdisciplinary survey is organized chronologically and will determine how certain trends and critical milestones have shaped Black Montreal’s unique face and given rise to complex community building on and off the island. Our wider lens explores Blacks as their own agents, contributing to the greater society while simultaneously creating cultural resources and events that highlight the multifaceted ways Blacks made their own history while simultaneously shaping and contributing to the history of Montreal. Ultimately, students should gain an understanding of how Blacks lived, worked, socialized, and defined themselves in Montreal.

This course introduces students to the study and practice of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) as it has emerged in North America over the past ten years. Covering best practices in EDI, the course will engage with both the pitfalls and promises of efforts to make workplaces more equitable. Topics to be covered include: the origins of EDI, current debates, and case studies of institutional transformation. Students will also have the opportunity to apply their learning to specific work-place scenarios.

This course explores the conceptual elements that underlie the religious experience. These elements include the notion of the sacred, beliefs, cosmologies and myths, the origins and understanding of evil, ethics and salvation.
Note: Students who have received credit for RELI 211 or 312 may not take this course for credit.
This course is cross-listed with RELI 312.

Prerequisite: Membership in the Loyola College for Diversity and Sustainability, 30 credits, and permission of the College. The student works under the supervision of a Concordia faculty member on an in-depth research project approved by the Loyola College for Diversity and Sustainability as relevant to either Sustainability Studies or Diversity Studies. Note that the onus is on the student to find a supervisor willing to supervise their work.

This course considers ethical issues arising in the context of personal and interpersonal relations, families and friendships, and health and medical care. These issues are discussed in relation to traditional and contemporary moral perspectives, both religious and non-religious. Topics covered may vary from year to year, but may include discussions of conscience and career, privacy, sexual relations, harassment, substance abuse, abortion, euthanasia, and gay and lesbian relations.

NOTE: Students who have received credit for RELI 310 or for this topic under a RELI 398 number may not take this course for credit.

Prerequisite: 24 credits in the Major in Design; or 24 credits in a Major in Fine Arts; or enrolment in the Loyola College for Diversity and Sustainability’s Minor in Diversity and the Contemporary World; or written permission of the Department. A special project-based studio that provides students the opportunities to dialogue with and engage with Montreal-based outreach programs, community centres and not-for-profit organizations. Concordia students apply their communication and technical skill sets to collaborate with community partners and participants on specific design projects.

The current state of biodiversity around the world and the forces that affect this diversity are the main focus of this course. It addresses the origins of this diversity, the advantages of variability in the environment for human life, and the contemporary challenges to this diversity. This course is intended to emphasize holistic thinking and system analysis.

This course examines, from a psychological perspective, how the concept of self varies across cultures. Whereas some cultures embrace the concept of the individual, other cultures emphasize the communal nature of social and personal existence. This theme is explored from several perspectives including theory about development, the treatment of “self” in literature, cultural variations in the concept of human rights, and the link between self and society. This course is intended to demonstrate the interface between the medical and social sciences and the analysis of change.

In 2015, the 193 members states of the United Nations (UN) adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), providing a vision of a brighter future for people and the planet. They explicitly recognized the links between social, economic, and environmental sustainability, stressing the crucial need to address issues of poverty, inequality, health, education, and economic growth, while tackling the challenges of climate change and biodiversity conservation. Through this course, students will be introduced to all 17 SDGs from an interdisciplinary perspective and will examine progress towards these goals in Canada and across the globe. By the end of the course, students will be able to describe the different SDGs, understand their inter-relationships, and analyze our effectiveness at achieving these goals from different disciplinary perspectives.

This course explores the conceptual elements that underlie the religious experience. These elements include the notion of the sacred, beliefs, cosmologies and myths, the origins and understanding of evil, ethics and salvation.
Note: Students who have received credit for RELI 211 or 312 may not take this course for credit.
This course is cross-listed with RELI 312.

Prerequisite: 12 credits of LOYC courses; or permission of the College. This course focuses on the conceptualization of cross-disciplinary inquiry and the problems of interdisciplinary communication. The role of discipline-based and cross-disciplinary research is studied. A brief intellectual history of discipline-formation and emerging interdisciplinary fields is discussed. One contemporary global issue will usually be discussed in detail in this context.

There are two options for this course: the internship option and the research project option. For the first, students complete 120 hours of an approved internship and some related work in class. For the second, students complete a major research paper.

Prerequisite: Membership in the Loyola College for Diversity and Sustainability, 30 credits, and permission of the College. The student works under the supervision of a Concordia faculty member on an in-depth research project approved by the Loyola College for Diversity and Sustainability as relevant to either Sustainability Studies or Diversity Studies. Note that the onus is on the student to find a supervisor willing to supervise their work.

This course explores how religion may be seen to engender or exacerbate violence, as well as the ways that religion may critique, prevent or even offer alternatives to violence. Sacred writings, theologies, rituals and communal actions of particular communities are studied, as well as notions of the self, the group, others, outsiders and enemies. In particular, the life-work and writings of such key figures as Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King are studied in order to provide some religious perspectives on the relationship between non-violence and the resistance to injustice.
NOTE: Students who have received credit for this topic under a RELI 398 number or a LOYC 398 number or under RELI 355 may not take this course for credit.