Examines community, corporate and social responsibility as it pertains to hotel and resort management. The impact of accommodation on destinations, their competitive position, and the manager’s responsibility for sustainable business development will be examined domestically and internationally.
Author: Willem
IHMN520: Financial Analysis and Decision Making
Financial management is essential to any successful business. The theory and practice of financial management tools and analysis are examined, including capital budgeting, investment analysis, financing, firm valuation, risk and return, and financial decision making in relation to hotels, resorts or other specialty aspects of the international hospitality industry.
INDS500: Theory in Interdisciplinary Studies
Guides students in exploration of dominant theoretical paradigms currently used in applied social science studies. Draws from theories used in anthropology, communication studies, education, environmental studies, gender studies, geography, political science, psychology, and sociology. Places special emphasis on interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, and transdisciplinary theoretical frameworks and on theories guiding applied research.
INDS505: Academic Writing and Critical Thinking Across Disciplines
Introduces communication strategies designed to enhance clear and effective written discourse at the graduate level across disciplines. Examines the basic principles of successful scholarly writing, including those specific to the students’ own disciplines, and the critical analysis of academic research and discourse. Students will write a critical literature review through a series of research and writing assignments in an interactive online environment.
INDS510: Social Science Research Methods
Introduces students to qualitative and quantitative research methods commonly used in the social sciences. Emphasizes applied research projects designed from interdisciplinary, cross-disciplinary or transdisciplinary perspectives. Covers basic research process, research topics and questions, research design, accessing and evaluating research, common methodologies, data collection, ethics, and analysis interpretation and communication of research results.
INDS530: Indigenous Research Methods*
This course provides an introduction to Indigenous research methods within an interdisciplinary context. It highlights relational, land-based, and interculturally informed approaches to knowledge creation, translation, and mobilization. It examines how research is shaped by positionality, power, history, and place.
Drawing on emerging work in Indigenous knowledge and research methodologies, the course situates research as an ongoing, relational process grounded in community accountability, application, and impact. Students engage with ethical and creative application of research through multimodal and practice-based methods, including storytelling, visual and media-based research, and community-engaged scholarship, while considering how research can be meaningfully applied and shared across diverse contexts.
*Course pending formal approval by the Curriculum Committee.
INDS515: Global Perspectives on Indigenous Ways of Knowing
Introduces students to Indigenous ways of knowing in a global context by exploring Indigenous worldviews, identities, places and experiences, including colonialism and contemporary challenges. Outlines some key limitations to understanding Indigenous epistemologies, and privileges a decolonial approach that actively seeks to improve respectful relations with Indigenous peoples. Requires students to demonstrate graduate-level skills in reading, writing, and critical analysis.
INDS517: Directed Studies
The directed studies course is intended to help fill a conceptual void in the student’s program of study. The student will work with a faculty instructor to define a field of inquiry, develop a reading list related to the field of inquiry, and produce course deliverables that demonstrate an understanding of and engagement with the chosen reading list. This helps the student to explore areas that are not sufficiently covered in the current curricular offerings of the programs the student has combined in the MA in Interdisciplinary Studies. It is the student’s responsibility to select the topic, generate a draft reading list, and negotiate with the instructor an agreed upon literature list. The role of the instructor is to facilitate the student’s self-exploration. This course requires the student to work mainly independently, with the level of instructor involvement negotiated with the instructor.
INDS525: 2SLGBTQI+ Global Issues and Community Engagement
Introduces students to history and current issues affecting 2SLGBTQI+ individuals and their communities with particular attention to seniors, youth, cultural and linguistic minority groups. Includes discussion of issues affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, agender, transgender, non-binary, queer and Two-Spirit individuals and communities. Examines ways of creating welcoming and inclusive organizations, public services, and communities and approaches 2SLGBTQI+ issues from human rights and cultural identity perspectives.
INDS545: Misinformation in Society
Illustrates why misinformation is a particularly wicked problem at this moment in history and helps to situate current misinformation trends within the long history of propaganda, fake news, and information operations. Provides students with strategies to address misinformation in their own lives and communities.
From COVID-19 to the conspiracy theories like QAnon, misinformation is everywhere. This course will help you to understand the problem of misinformation and begin to think about how to combat it. First, you will be introduced to definitions of misinformation and fake news. We’ll investigate misinformation as part of a long history of propaganda, fake news, and information operations, all the way up to the social media fueled misinformation tsunami of our current media environment. This course looks at misinformation from many angles. We’ll consider the ways that influence matters for the spread of misinformation; we’ll look at the role of media and key influencers in spreading misinformation and how social media accelerates the reach and speed of misinformation. Finally, the course will teach you about the individual drivers of misinformation sharing and how to combat them: how to assess the quality of different messages in personal and professional contexts and how to speak with others who are sharing misinformation. INDS545 teaches you strategies to address misinformation in your own personal and professional lives and your communities.