Though some change from year to year, you can always find interesting, unusual and fun courses in the Academic Calendar. Here is a handful of some of the cool courses – and two exciting new programs – that MacEwan students had to choose from this academic year.
Where nursing meets climate change
In Health Studies 354: Healthy Populations, nursing students analyze films about climate change events, including the ones that affect Canada. They then make connections between the films and population health to come up with solutions. Students also learn about environmental racism and injustice using the lens of intersectionality.
Beads have lessons for us too
In ANTH 497: Beaded Sexualities: Indigenous Arts-Based Resurgence, instructor Brittany Johnson introduces students to research-creation through this theoretical and hands-on course. Students practice advanced beading stitches while learning about decolonization and resurgence, sexual and reproductive justice, relationality and, ultimately, how beads are teachers.
Beyond child’s play – using LEGO to build hearing aids
In HAPR 211 – their final hearing instrument technology course – Dr. Tara Winsor’s students in the Hearing Aid Practitioner program use LEGO during a single-day-hands-on capstone project that is the culmination of a year's worth of learning. Their focus? Not child’s play. Selecting appropriate hearing aids and assistive accessories, and supporting clients throughout the fitting and follow-up period can make a huge different in their quality of life.
Looking death in the eye
In PSYC 405: Psychology of Mortality, Dr. Nicholas Jacobs brings together psychology and philosophy to explore the existential mystery that is our end – death. Students look at how knowing that we will die – a singularly human experience – impacts and informs how we live.
Taking a deep dive into conspiracy theories and paranormal beliefs
The socio-cultural significance of fringe belief systems is the focus of SOCI 424: Alternative Beliefs: The Paranormal and Conspiracy Theories. Dr. Susan Raine takes students through paranormal beliefs and conspiracy theories – including looking at why some turn to these counter-ideologies for answers to questions about their place in the world.
The weaponization of information
In POLS 490: Politics of Information, Dr. Jeffrey Rice guides students through the politicization and weaponization of information, now and throughout history, including things like state-sponsored propaganda, the role of mass communications in conflict, disinformation campaigns and their impact on electoral integrity, the rise of fake news and conspiracy theories, and the politics of education, music and movies.
From telescopes to the big bang
Students take ASTR 122: The Astronomy of Stars and Galaxies to satisfy their curiosity about the origin, evolution and nature of stars, galaxies and the universe as a whole. Students get a chance to use telescopes and learn about parallax, the inverse square law, Stefan-Boltzmann law, Doppler shift, and what the laws of Newton and Kepler all have to do with the universe.
This zoology lab is not for the squeamish!
In ZOOL 250: Invertebrate Zoology, students see, hands-on, how invertebrates have evolved over time. In the lab portion, tables are covered with a plethora of preserved specimens – and even a few live ones. Exploration in class and in the lab helps students see how the evolution of an animal’s anatomy over time is related to the diversity of ecological niches, behaviours and life histories of a variety of invertebrates.
Sustainability talk
If you’re curious about how human communication can construct the environment and our relationships to it, take BCSC 204: Foundations in Sustainability Communication. Bachelor of Communication Studies students look at how humans communicate about our natural environments in the face of rising ecological, social and economic threats to the sustainability of the Earth’s ecosystems, all life on it and the societies we have created.
Plants versus animals – how we use and abuse one another
Dr. Arthur Whiting takes students on a journey of the co-evolutionary history of plants and animals in BIOL 495: Plant‐Animal Interactions. Looking at how plants and animals use and abuse each other, students learn about pollination biology, herbivory and dispersal, and the impact of these relationships over time.
What does “urban wellness” mean around the world?
Dr. Marielle Papin leads students through an analysis of what wellness looks like in cities around the world. Using an interdisciplinary lens, students in URBW 497: Global Perspectives on Urban Wellness will examine urban wellness in developed and developing countries, or between global, large and small municipalities.
Of monsters and the monstrous
Students revisit stories from their childhoods with Dr. William Thompson in ENGL 389: Monsters and the Monstrous. Students consider different definitions of the word “monstrous,” and cultural constructions of the child using a variety of children’s and young adult fantasy and science fiction, from Alice’s adventures to the world of Harry Potter.
Confront your ghosts
CRWR 404: The Ghost Story, taught by instructor Jackie Baker, looks at a range of ghosts and ghost stories from the purely supernatural or speculative to how hauntings can manifest out of issues of grief, loss and trauma. Work may include elements of classic horror, fantasy, or science fiction and students will use contemporary and classic ghost stories for reference.
Spies, lies and deception?
In HIST 460, Dr. Michael Carroll leads students through Canada’s own history of espionage. Think communists, sex scandals and the suspension of civil liberties aren’t part of Canada’s past? Think again. In this seminar, students examine the role that Intelligence and National Security has played in Canadian history throughout the 20th century focusing on events, personalities, policies and the relationship to human rights.
New programs
We’ve also got a couple of brand new and exciting programs:
Fighting cyber crime
Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science students can now choose the new Cybersecurity Minor – a series of senior-level courses about emerging trends in the quickly changing world of cybersecurity. Students explore topics, including the effect of artificial intelligence on detection and encryption, and leave equipped with an arsenal of knowledge about cyber crime and the know-how to protect digital assets.
Taking a human-centred approach to digital experience design
A brand new post-diploma certificate in Digital Experience Design explores the ways that people interact with digital products, research real-world problems and create digital solutions that are useful, usable and desirable.