Random Senior Arts Courses You Didn’t Know Existed + NO Prerequisites Required!
Fall 2021 in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Alberta.
As we gear up for returning to campus and the start of Fall term lots of students will be making adjustments to their course selections. If you’re looking to switch things up, consider one of the Fall term, senior-level Arts courses featured below — none of which require any pre-requisites!
*Please note that course content, delivery method and instructors are subject to change. Refer to the course syllabus for full and final details.
*Updated August 3 with a few new courses.
Religion 345 (RELIG 345-A2, 57464) — Tantric Traditions
Number of Sections Offered: 1
Professor/Instructor: Dagmar Wujastyk
Delivery Method: In-person, Entirely or mostly synchronous/real-time
Course Time: T/R from 9:30–10:50 AM
Pre-requisite: None
Course Description: Combining sexuality, sensual pleasure, and the full range of physical experience with soteriological aims, tantric traditions offer a system of theory and practice for the transcendence of the human condition and the attainment of salvation. This course will introduce students to the fascinating history of tantric thought, its founding texts, major beliefs and practices, tracing the spread and development of tantric practices throughout Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain traditions. Students will be made familiar with the diversity of tantric esoteric practices and techniques such as the use of mantras, geometric patterns and symbols, gestures, the mapping of the microcosm within one’s body to the macrocosmic elements outside as the subtle body, meditation, ritual worship, and initiation, as well as Tantra’s more transgressive sexual and magical elements.
Main Themes: Social change | Beliefs and Values | Power & authority
Anthropology 219 (ANTHR 219: A1) — World prehistory
Number of Sections Offered: 1
Professor/Instructor: Pamela Willoughby
Delivery Method: In-person, Entirely or mostly synchronous/real-time
Course Time: M/W/F from 12–12:50 PM
Pre-requisite: None
Course Description: Have you ever wondered about human history? This course surveys the origins and evolution of human cultures from the earliest humans in Africa to the emergence of complex civilizations throughout the world. Or as my colleague Dr. Mary McDonald of the University of Calgary says, “around the world in 80 days”.
Main Themes: Evolution of culture; human origins
Other Themes Covered: Identity | Social change | Industry, Invention, Progress | Technology
Other faculties/programs that would take this as an option course: ALES | Education | Native Studies | Science
Drama 247 (DRAMA 247) — Speaking in Public: Presentation and Presence
Number of Sections Offered: 2
Professor/Instructor: Jean O’hara
Delivery Method: In-person, Entirely or mostly synchronous/real-time
Course Time:
A3: M/W from 9–10:50 AM
A4: T/R from 9–11:20 AM
Pre-requisite: None
Course Description: Students will learn first and foremost about communication and connection. Speaking in front of a group can be a daunting task that students may dread or simply want to get better at. Through vocal and physical warmups, exercises aimed to reveal personal styles of expression, and a lot of practice, students will become more comfortable than they ever imagined they could. Students will learn how to be clear, concise, and meaningful speakers and active listeners; skills that are valuable in any field. Why Take This Course: This course will prepare you for a career working in Law, Teaching, or Business.
Main Themes: Identity | Beliefs and values | Heroes and Leaders | Fantasy and imagination | Technology | Power and authority | Social concerns, issues | Current Events and Pop Culture
Other faculties/programs that would take this as an option course: ALES | Business | Education | Science
History 289 (HIST 289) — Classical India to 500 CE
Number of Sections Offered: 1
Professor/Instructor: Dominik Wujastyk
Delivery Method: In-person, Entirely or mostly synchronous/real-time
Course Time: T/R from 11AM-12:20PM
Pre-requisite: None. However HIST 290 or any history course on the ancient world would be an advantage.
Course Description: In this course, you will explore the wonder that was India and gain a historian’s view of one of the greatest civilizations that the ancient world produced. Our understanding of India’s past has been through several revolutions in the last few decades. You will learn about these developments and gain an understanding of the historical timespan of classical Indian culture, as well as a knowledge of selected areas of Indian intellectual and cultural achievement.
Main Themes: Cultural change through time
Other Themes Covered: Identity | Social change | Beliefs and values | Heroes and Leaders | Power and authority | Social concerns, issues
Other faculties/programs that would take this as an option course: Education | For anyone interested in Indian/South Asian culture
Scandinavian 399 (SCAND 399) — Mamma Mia! ‘Queer’ I Go Again
Number of Sections Offered: 1
Professor/Instructor: John Eason
Delivery Method: In-person, Entirely or mostly synchronous/real-time
Course Time: T/R from 2–3:20PM
Pre-requisite: None
Course Description: Of all the musical groups and individuals to have gone on to attract large gay followings, the status of Abba — the Swedish super group from the 70s — as international gay icons is unrivalled. While it may seem unlikely that a group consisting of two heterosexual couples could go on to achieve deistic status in gay culture, Abba’s consistently strong presence in the world’s LGBT communities cannot be ignored. The objective of this course is two-fold: firstly, to introduce a phenomenon which until the 90s was largely hidden from mainstream society and secondly to explore ways in which queer fans understand, identify with and relate to the visual, aural and performative aspects of Abba in ways that often differ significantly from mainstream interpretations.
Main Themes: LGBT Culture
Other Themes Covered: Identity | Conflict and adversity | Social change | Beliefs and values | Heroes and Leaders | Fantasy and imagination | Power and authority | Social concerns, issues | Hope | Current Events and Pop Culture | Equity, Diversity, Inclusivity and Decolonization
Other faculties/programs that would take this as an option course: Counts towards the Certificate in International Learning | For anyone interested in Scandinavia and/or pop music or gender studies
Philosophy 345 (PHIL 345) — Humans and Animals
Number of Sections Offered: 1
Professor/Instructor: Dr. Howard Nye
Delivery Method: In-person, Entirely or mostly synchronous/real-time
Course Time: T/R from 9:30–10:50AM
Pre-requisite: None
Course Description: Are we morally required to be vegan? Under what conditions, if any, is animal experimentation ethical? What kinds of experiences and thoughts are different animals capable of having, and how does this affect our moral duties towards them? In this course we will explore questions about the ethical treatment of non-human animals; including general ethical and conceptual issues underlying our duties to avoid harming others, what makes death harmful and killing wrong, and what constitutes good evidence that a being is capable of various feelings or thoughts.
Main Themes: Nature and the environment | Social concerns, issues
Other faculties/programs that would take this as an option course: ALES | Science
Women’s & Gender Studies 498 (WGS 498-A3–56069) = Special Topics: Women of Color Feminisms
Number of Sections Offered: 3 sections each with their own special topic (see Bear Tracks for other sections and topics)
Professor/Instructor: Dr. Sabujkoli Bandopadhyay
Delivery Method: In-person, Entirely or mostly synchronous/real-time
Course Time: R from 2–4:50PM
Pre-requisite: Any 100 or 200 level WGS course, or permission from the instructor.
Course Description: Women’s movements from non-western and non-European backgrounds have highlighted that resistance against women’s exploitation needs to address histories of colonialism, third-world women’s victimization in neocolonial economic situations, as well as racial and ethnic relations that add to the subjugation of women of color in the western societies. This course examines the ongoing struggles of women from the “developing”, “underdeveloped” and the “third world” as well as their counterparts in the diasporic communities who live in the west.
Our focus will be on critical race analysis and intersectionality and we will cover a range of topics, including the fashion industry, food industry, media industry, care work and higher education. Critical issues raised by “women of color feminisms” invite us to probe gender with an intersectional and interdisciplinary lens. We will also look at the emerging and existing networks that facilitate dialogues amongst various women’s movements of the global south and also with their “western” counterparts in resisting patriarchal oppression.
Main Themes: Identity | Power and authority | Social concerns, issues | Equity, Diversity, Inclusivity and Decolonization
Other faculties/programs that would take this as an option course: Education | Native Studies
History 386 (HIST 386) — History of Science in Early India
Number of Sections Offered: 1
Professor/Instructor: Dominik Wujastyk
Delivery Method: In-person, Entirely or mostly synchronous/real-time
Course Time: T/R from 2–3:20 PM
Pre-requisite: None. However HIST 289 would be an advantage.
Course Description: An introduction to the indigenous scientific activities and achievements of ancient and classical India, from the earliest calendrical and astral treatises of 500 BCE to the works of the Kerala mathematicians in 1400 CE. The course will include discussion and problematization of the concept of science in pre-modern societies. It will focus on surveys of Indian mathematics, astronomy, medicine and alchemy. There will also be discussion of specifically Indian sciences such as generative linguistics. There will be discussion of the tools and locations of scholarship, including manuscript transmission and orality, and the endowment of scholarly centres and early monasteries. We will be making use of a variety of literary sources to survey, temporally and thematically, classical Indian science and the scholarly cultures of rigorous intellectual and empirical thought.
At the end of this course you will have a good knowledge of how science developed in one of the great cultures of the pre-modern world, and how India exchanged scientific ideas with the rest of the early world.
Main Themes: Non-western science; indigenous intellectual traditions of India
Other Themes Covered: Social change | Nature and the environment | Beliefs and values | Technology | Social concerns, issues
Other faculties/programs that would take this as an option course: Education | Science | Computing Science | For anyone interested in Indian/South Asian culture
Philosophy 366 (PHIL 366) — Computers and Culture
Number of Sections Offered: 1
Professor/Instructor: Dr. Richard Kover
Delivery Method: In-person, Entirely or mostly synchronous/real-time
Course Time: T/R from 3:30–4:50PM
Pre-requisite: None
Course Description: The computer and information revolution is a defining event of our time. From the boardroom to the bedroom, few areas of our lives have remained untouched by digital technology and media, yet their psychological, cultural, and political impacts often go unnoticed, fading into the inconspicuous periphery of assumptions and practices that inform day-to-day existence, with once provocative metaphors and forecasts now deemed common-sense. In this course, we will examine the interrelationship between information technology systems and their broader social, cultural, political, economic, and philosophical context, seeking to uncover how the information revolution has not merely been a technical revolution, but a social, economic, political, and cultural one as well. In particular, a specific topic of focus for class this term will be social media.
Main Themes: Social change | Industry, Invention, Progress | Technology | Social concerns, issues
Other faculties/programs that would take this as an option course: Computing Science
Philosophy 217 (PHIL 217) — Biology, Society, and Values
Number of Sections Offered: 1
Professor/Instructor: Dr. Edwin Etieyibo
Delivery Method: In-person, Entirely or mostly synchronous/real-time
Course Time: T/R from 9:30–10:50AM
Pre-requisite: None
Course Description: Why have the Sciences, especially Biomedical and Social Sciences, had such privileged status in society? What interplay with social values has supported this? What conflicts with social values explain the recent rise of social mistrust? In this course, we will critically reflect on these sciences as institutions which continue to transform our lives and our views of ourselves. And we will explore conflicts between these institutions and social values that can erode respect for them, creating mistrust of their methods and conclusions. [No text book is required for this class.]
Main Themes: Beliefs and Values
Other Themes Covered: Social change | Beliefs and values | Technology | Power and authority | Social concerns, issues
Other faculties/programs that would take this as an option course: ALES | Science | Computing Science
Anthropology 486/586 (ANTHR 486/586-A1, 52288, Seminar) — Archaeology & the Anthropocene: Modern Day Relevance of the Human Past
Number of Sections Offered: 1
Professor/Instructor: John W. (Jack) Ives
Delivery Method: In-person, Entirely or mostly synchronous/real-time
Course Time: T from 2–4:50 PM
Pre-requisite: ANTHR 206* or other senior anthropology courses. *Students without these courses and from other disciplines should feel free to contact the instructor regarding specific interests they might explore.
Course Description: This course will pursue the present-day relevance of archaeological thought, beginning with the long temporal “tail” of human impacts in the world leading to an Anthropocene. We will begin with the inception of hominid use of fire, discuss human involvement in extinctions, examine predictable human impacts on climate change, and review instances of societal collapse. We will consider archaeological perspectives on how human societies have responded to significant change in the past, and explore how archaeological understandings of ancient and indigenous lifeways can inform hopeful future practices such as rewilding, traditional sustainability measures like mariculture, and regenerative agriculture.
Main Themes: Social Change | Hope
Other Themes Covered: Conflict and adversity | Social change | Nature and the environment, Fantasy and imagination | Social concerns, issues, Has significant Indigenous content, Hope, Current Events and Pop Culture, Equity, Diversity, Inclusivity and Decolonization
Other faculties/programs that would take this as an option course: ALES | Business | Native Studies | Science
Italian 299 (ITAL 299) — Italy: A trip
Number of Sections Offered: 1
Professor/Instructor: William Anselmi
Delivery Method: Online, Entirely or mostly synchronous/real-time
Course Time: T/R from 2–3:20PM
Pre-requisite: None
Course Description: Taught in English, this course is an introduction to “Italy” through readings, films, history, from Dante to the present. Italy is the birthplace of the basis of Western Civilization from Umanesimo to the Rinascimento to modernity and post-modernity. As such you can’t really say you know who you are unless you know your roots beyond stereotypes.
Main Themes: Identity | Social change | Beliefs and values | Technology | Power and authority | Social concerns, issues | Current Events and Pop Culture
Other faculties/programs that would take this as an option course: Business | Education | Science
History 300 (HIST 300) — Communism in Eastern Europe: Ideology, Society, and Culture
Number of Sections Offered: 1
Professor/Instructor: Adam Takács
Delivery Method: In-person, Entirely or mostly synchronous/real-time
Course Time: T/R from 9:30–10:50AM
Pre-requisite: None
Course Description: What was it like to live in a Communist country? This course will address one of the most dramatic developments in post-1945 European history: the formation and functioning of modernized sate socialist societies. Focusing predominantly on the situation of East and Central Europe (Hungary, East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia) in its heyday period (the 1960–1970s), the course will explore the historical, political and economic dimensions of these regimes, and will pay special attention to daily life experience in society and culture. We will be particularly interested in discussing the overarching contrast in the communist countries between political ideals and concrete social reality. The course will be conducted in a lecture format, with regular class discussions.
Main Themes: Identity | Social change | Beliefs and values | Power and authority | Social concerns, issues
Latin Studies 205 (LA ST 205) — Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean
Number of Sections Offered: 1
Professor/Instructor: Odile Cisneros
Delivery Method: In-person, Entirely or mostly synchronous/real-time
Course Time: M/W/F from 11–11:50AM
Pre-requisite: None
Course Description: “A general introduction to the cultural contexts of Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. Focusing on specific social/cultural moments in the region’s 500-year history, the course will explore both high intellectual versions of cultural history as well as more popular genres (popular music, cinema, oral traditions, and folklore) that shape Latin American and Caribbean identities. Taught in English. No prerequisites. Counts toward the Certificate in International Learning.
Main Themes: Identity | Conflict and adversity | Social change | Heroes and Leaders | Power and authority | Social concerns, issues | Has significant Indigenous content
Other faculties/programs that would take this as an option course: Business | Education | Native Studies
