Academic Calendar 2024-2025

Black Studies (BLCK)

BLCK 200  Black Studies and the Politics of Liberation: An Introduction  Units: 3.00  
This course will introduce students to black studies. Focusing on liberation struggles that are nested in black scholarly and creative works, the course maps out how black diasporic communities have navigated and resisted racism, white supremacy, and other forms of oppression.
Learning Hours: 120 (36 Lecture, 84 Private Study)  
Requirements: Prerequisite None. Exclusion GNDS 380/3.0 (Topic Title: Introduction to Black Studies - Fall 2020).  
Offering Faculty: Faculty of Arts and Science  

Course Learning Outcomes:

  1. Critically analyze race as a historical and contemporary social construct and its relationship to blackness, sexuality, class, and other identifications.
  2. Assemble critical tools and theoretical concepts, and develop interdisciplinary methodological tools, in the area of black studies.
  3. Describe major trends across various black liberation movements.
  4. Explain theories and practices of anti-racism.
  5. Compose, critique, and critically engage creative texts as sites of struggle.
  6. Research and write independently; research and write collaboratively.
  
BLCK 220  African Literature on These Indigenous Lands  Units: 3.00  
Through a selection of readings by African writers and artists, students are asked to read and think alongside Indigenous writers and artists about what it means to be human, to be in relation, to remember, and to resist. Students will be introduced to contemporary literary works, artistic productions and theories arising from encountering these works in dialogue. Students will learn to evaluate these works as spaces of political solidarity and critical thinking between writers and writing across continents.
Learning Hours: 120 (36 Lecture, 84 Private Study)  
Requirements: Prerequisite (Level 2 or above) or permission of the Department. Exclusion BLCK 280/3.0 (Topic Title: Black and Indigenous Poetics - Fall 2022, Fall 2023).  
Offering Faculty: Faculty of Arts and Science  

Course Learning Outcomes:

  1. Introduce students to contemporary African and Indigenous writing and art production.
  2. Read and respond to contemporary African and Indigenous writing and art production.
  3. Illustrate spaces of solidarity and conversations that arise from reading these works together.
  4. Understand and recognize the effects of colonialism and the work of resistance across continents.
  5. Discuss strategies for thinking, writing and making connections towards liberation.
  
BLCK 280  Special Topics in Black Studies  Units: 3.00  
Offered when faculty resources permit, these courses are analyses of particular areas of black studies interdisciplinary research. Details regarding specific topics will be available from the Chair in Black Studies on an annual basis.
NOTE This course is repeatable for credit under different topic titles.
Learning Hours: 120 (36 Lecture, 84 Private Study)  
Requirements: Prerequisite (Level 2 or above) or permission of the Department.  
Offering Faculty: Faculty of Arts and Science  
  
BLCK 312  Black Feminist Thought: An Introduction  Units: 3.00  
Studies in black women's and black gender politics in Canada, the U.S.A., and the Caribbean.
NOTE This course is also listed/offered as GNDS 312/3.0.
Learning Hours: 120 (36 Lecture, 84 Private Study)  
Requirements: Prerequisite (Level 3 or above) or permission of the Department. Exclusion GNDS 312/3.0.  
Offering Faculty: Faculty of Arts and Science  

Course Learning Outcomes:

  1. Identify key topics, questions, theories and methods in the field of Black Feminisms.
  2. Understand the wide-ranging and intersectional impact of Black Feminist Thought and their own relationship to Black Feminisms.
  3. Explain the role of power and context in shaping Black Feminist epistemologies and methodologies.
  4. Develop critical thinking skills fostering their abilities to deeply analyze and evaluate Black Feminist Thought through varied disciplines and contexts.
  5. Identify past and current praxis of Black Feminist activism and organizing.
  
BLCK 320  Black Environmentalism: A Global South Perspective  Units: 3.00  
This course examines the historical and contemporary environmental issues facing the global South today, including climate and environmental change, resource management (resource extraction and habitat conservation), toxic waste dumping, informal recycling economies, environmental (in)justice, etc. through an interdisciplinary methodology drawing on literature from Racial Capitalism, Environmental Studies, Political Ecology, Black Eco-poetics, Black Studies, and Geographies, and more broadly, using case studies from the global South and works from global South scholars.
Learning Hours: 120 (36 Lecture, 84 Private Study)  
Requirements: Prerequisite (Level 3 or above) or permission of the Department. Exclusion BLCK 380/3.0 (Topic Title: Black Environmentalism: A Global South Perspective - Winter 2023, Winter 2024).  
Offering Faculty: Faculty of Arts and Science  

Course Learning Outcomes:

  1. Explain key theoretical approaches and concepts in the field of Black Environmentalism and Ecologies.
  2. Describe the relationship between race, colonialism, capitalism, and how it leads to the inequitable distributions of environmental harms and/or externalities on communities of colour.
  3. Reflect on how the histories and lived experiences of black communities in the global south have been shaped by the processes of racism, colonialism, and uneven global development.
  4. Compare how culture informs one's values and beliefs on issues of environmental injustice and anti-black racism prior to and after this course.
  5. Communicate a key concept from the course (i.e., environmental racism) in plain language format to a nonacademic audience to practice transferrable skills beyond the class.
  6. Demonstrate competency in, and a commitment to equity-related principles, e.g., anti-black racism by exploring their own relationships to power, and privilege within their personal and professional interactions.
  7. Practice effective time management techniques to improve concentration and productivity.
  
BLCK 360  Globalization and Black Health  Units: 3.00  
Global interconnectedness and interdependence have contributed to improvements in the social determinants of health (SDH): the conditions in which people live, work and play, and their access to opportunities for healthy lives and well-being, however, it has also brought many health risks especially for marginalized populations. This course will examine economic, social, technological, and the political dimensions of globalization and how these impact the health and well-being of Black populations, identifying opportunities and risks.
NOTE This course is also listed/offered as HLTH 360/3.0.
Learning Hours: 120 (36 Lecture, 84 Private Study)  
Requirements: Prerequisite (Level 3 or above) or permission of the Department. Exclusion BLCK 380/3.0 (Topic Title: Globalization and Black Health - Fall 2022); HLTH 360/3.0; HLTH 397/3.0 (Topic Title: Globalization and Black Health - Winter 2022, Fall 2022).  
Offering Faculty: Faculty of Arts and Science  

Course Learning Outcomes:

  1. Develop critical understanding of how conditions of power shape Black Health.
  2. Explain global Black health inequities and their social and commercial determinants.
  3. Identify the importance of practices that promote cultural safety and Black health equity.
  4. Identify opportunities to operationalize strategies to promote global Black Health.
  
BLCK 380  Special Topics in Black Studies  Units: 3.00  
Offered when faculty resources permit, these courses are analyses of particular areas of black studies interdisciplinary research. Details regarding specific topics will be available from the Chair in Black Studies on an annual basis.
NOTE This course is repeatable for credit under different topic titles.
Learning Hours: 120 (36 Lecture, 84 Private Study)  
Requirements: Prerequisite (Level 3 or above) or permission of the Department.  
Offering Faculty: Faculty of Arts and Science  
  
BLCK 460  Anti-Black Racism and Health  Units: 3.00  
This course examines the realities of anti-Black racism from the transatlantic slave trade and colonization to historical and contemporary policies and practices that have negatively impacted the health of African descendants and their communities within Canada and in transnational contexts. Using multiple analytic approaches and methodologies, the course will provide a strong understanding of Blackness and race as historically produced social constructs as well as how race interacts with other axes of diversity and social and commercial determinants to produce health outcomes. NOTE This course is also listed/offered as HLTH 460/3.0.
Learning Hours: 120 (36 Seminar, 84 Private Study)  
Requirements: Prerequisite (Level 4 or above) or permission of the Department. Exclusion HLTH 460/3.0; HLTH 495/3.0 (Topic Title: Racism and Health - Winter 2022).  
Offering Faculty: Faculty of Arts and Science  

Course Learning Outcomes:

  1. Critically assess how conditions of power shape social determinants and health inequities.
  2. Demonstrate a critical understanding of anti-Black racism and colonialism and their impact on health of African/Black populations from an intersectional perspective.
  3. Identify opportunities to operationalize strategies to advance racial health equity.
  4. Apply clear, critical, and creative knowledge translation skills.
  5. Collaborate with peers and apply leadership and public speaking skills.
  
BLCK 480  Special Topics in Black Studies  Units: 3.00  
Offered when faculty resources permit, these courses are analyses of particular areas of black studies interdisciplinary research. Details regarding specific topics will be available from the Chair in Black Studies on an annual basis.
NOTE This course is repeatable for credit under different topic titles.
Learning Hours: 120 (36 Seminar, 84 Private Study)  
Requirements: Prerequisite (Level 3 or above) or permission of the Department.  
Offering Faculty: Faculty of Arts and Science  
  
BLCK 594  Independent Study  Units: 3.00  
Exceptionally qualified students entering their third- or fourth-year may take a program of independent study provided it has been approved by the Department or Departments principally involved. The Department may approve an independent study program without permitting it to be counted toward a concentration in that Department. It is, consequently, the responsibility of students taking such programs to ensure that the concentration requirements for their degree will be met.
NOTE Requests for such a program must be received one month before the start of the first term in which the student intends to undertake the program.
Requirements: Prerequisite Permission of the Department or Departments principally involved.  
Offering Faculty: Faculty of Arts and Science