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Builds on guiding theoretical and practice frameworks (including child rights, child and family welfare, child health, child protection, etc.) used currently, both nationally and by the international community in order to shape interventions to address the challenges that exist for children and youth, with a specific focus on protecting children working with families and communities. Deconstructs colonialist practices, Eurocentric perspectives, using anti-oppression frameworks and Indigenous ways of knowing. Encourages understanding of the community and cultural systems of support for children and families that exist in many ways parallel to the more formal systems of support. Guides students to explore and navigate important tensions (such as the tension between immediate and long-term care; universal and local values; autonomy and safety) through critical reflection and discourse and questions who frames the problem and what impact this has on children, youth, and families.
Having developed a solid theoretical foundation of child wellbeing (inclusive of child and family welfare and child protection), explores the programmatic implications of guiding theories. Guides students to assess existing systems at the national and community level, with a lens to examine the impact on children’s wellbeing. This situates the child within broader ecological systems. Uses this deconstruction as a way to explore what reforming child protection systems might look like across different levels and contexts. Participates in critical discourse across multiple case studies.
Focuses on the intellectual foundations of the field through an interdisciplinary examination of the challenges of human security. Approaches the study of human security from the perspectives of economic security, food security, health security, environmental security, personal security, community security, and political security. Employs broad concept of peacebuilding to designate social transformation that offers greater hope of long-term, sustainable peace. Seeks to illuminate basic theories and concepts through regular reference to concrete cases.
Examines linkages between economic restructuring, economic crises, globalization and social crises in the contemporary world. Explores the interconnectedness between local and global dimensions of recurring crises and the ways these relate to policy decisions and outcomes. Focuses on social policy issues as they relate to human security and social reconstruction, and strategies for translating peacebuilding into public policy in support of the foundations of civil society and the rule of law. Includes social reconstruction, humanitarianism in human security, and the social/economic context of conflict.
Uses systematic, substantive, analytical and historical approaches to examine the changing nature of conflict and security threats in the post-Cold War era. Includes a critical examination of the changing patterns of conflict, conflict generating issues, sub-national conflicts, terrorism, international intervention, and counterinsurgency. Examines the consequences of conflict such as refugees and economic decline and political impacts such as failed states. Analyzes the types of conflict resolution strategies and possible interventions and the extent to which conflict can be prevented or deterred.
Analyzes the moral, ethical and legal basis for humanitarian action. Examines the history of humanitarian policy and practice, and considers its future trajectory in domestic and international contexts. Analyzes humanitarian actors and associated funding, coordination and accountability mechanisms and their influence on humanitarian practice. Examines principles of humanitarian action and efforts to professionalize humanitarian practice. Investigates the fundamentals of effective humanitarian action, including the modalities and the inter-relationship of assistance and protection.
Examines special topics in humanitarian policy and practice through comparative case study and discussion with experts in the field. Topics may vary from year to year, and will draw from current and anticipated issues of concern in a range of humanitarian contexts. Focuses on the connections between humanitarian principles and operations and their longer term development and sustainability consequences, placing particular emphasis on extracting lessons learned from recent cases. Examples may include protracted conflicts, political dimensions of humanitarian funding and action, population movements, homelessness, transition from the humanitarian stage to the development phase, and the efficacy of cross-cutting programming initiatives (e.g., gender, vulnerability).
Examines leadership theory, research, and practices that support resilience and adaptive planning, addressing concerns related to ill-structured, complex, and inter-related problems, and working in a range of threat environments and contexts.
Provides students opportunities to locate settings, situations and phenomena suitable for deconstructing concepts of justice and humanitarianism. Students can work with theoretical and practical paradigms to generate strategies focused on complex justice-related problem solving that may otherwise go unaddressed. Includes the identification of suitable research methods and policy development.
Evaluates a variety of evocative static and moving images of justice (broadly defined) throughout our social history in photos, videos, literature and other media. Draws on concepts of justice that transect theology, philosophy, sociology, criminal justice, the humanities and even popular culture to deconstruct various societal concepts of justice, fairness, culture, and communication.
Provides students with opportunities to explore trends in humanitarian theory and action from indigenous perspectives. Working with members of an indigenous community or referring to existing cases, students are required to work towards the development and application of indigenous approaches to humanitarian issues. Topics will vary according to student interest and instructor expertise.
Introduces students to the distinctions between multi and interdisciplinary conceptions of justice and transdisciplinary studies of justice. Traces the origins of transdisciplinary studies and examines the integration of natural and social sciences toward the development of holistic approaches to problems in justice. Provides a critique of current discipline-based approaches to the study of justice-related problems through the development of transdisciplinary models of justice within a democratic context.
Compares approaches to understanding and addressing injustice through analysis of case studies representing real events. Bridges the theoretical and practical perspectives on justice. Draws on a range of changing topics gathered from current societal issues which may include Aboriginal rights, health, disability, housing, poverty, racism, gender inequality and environmental issues or other topics as appropriate.
Examines the underlying and historic constructs of, and approaches to, social justice. Explores the critical theories and work of key thinkers across a range of disciplines to unpack issues of power, poverty, equity and social injustice based on individual and collective characteristics (e.g. gender, race, power, ethnicity, socioeconomic standing, religion, or sexuality). Highlights social activism and social movements designed to affect social change, and asks students to reflect on their own impact and relationship to issues of social justice.