I completed my MA through a course‑based option (rather than a thesis, project, or creative route) because I wanted sustained, in‑depth exposure to the full range of human rights and social justice topics. The breadth of courses let me think deeper, more often—engaging with multiple perspectives, case studies, and methods I didn’t want to miss. Each term layered new lenses, rigorous readings, and applied work that strengthened both my analysis and practice.
A list of courses I completed are provided below with a brief note on what I learned and how I applied it. Highlights & accomplishments that grew from this coursework—practical, evidence‑based pieces that demonstrate my growth and impact.
HRSJ5010 Foundations of Human Rights and Social Justice
Students explore themes of human rights and social justice. Students engage with issues of justice, fairness, and decolonization at local, national, and transnational settings. Students examine relevant theoretical approaches such as universalism/relativism, equity, diversity and inclusion, intersectionality, distributive justice, critical race theory, disability theory, feminist analysis, and the role of social and political structures. The foundations course places emphasis on Indigenous, anticolonial, decolonizing, antiracist, and global south perspectives. Thematic areas may include practical application of theoretical approaches in international and domestic contexts, such as human rights laws, social movements and activism, decolonization and reconciliation, torture and lack of legal process, refugee and immigrant rights, access to justice, disability rights, governance and transnational governance, Indigenous rights, and international human rights.
Credits: 3 credits
HRSJ5020 Indigenous Ways of Knowing: Resurgence of Land Based Pedagogies
and Practices
Students explore Indigenous land-based epistemologies within an interdisciplinary
framework of Indigenous law, geography, social work, education, health and
wellness. Through an alignment with Indigenous intergenerational land-based
contexts, practices, and processes, students experience and articulate ethical modes
of living that respect Indigenous self-determination and sovereignties. Students take
an experiential approach that centres Indigenous knowledges and considers the land
as the primary text and instructor. Students explore how policies and practices of
colonialism and violence systematically block Indigenous access to the land and how
diverse resistance and resurgence movements are asserting Indigenous rights in
relation to food, water, education, ceremony, and movement.
Credits: 3 credits
HRSJ5030 Problem Solving in the Field: Study Techniques and Methods
Students examine social science and humanities field research as multidisciplinary
practices that take place over a variety of contexts and locations. Students engage with
quantitative and qualitative epistemologies and methodologies. Students learn to
formulate basic research questions and move on to explore methodological research
choices and ethical implications. Students engage with Indigenous and anti-colonial
approaches to research methods including data collection and analysis practiced in the
global south. Students learn to create a comprehensive research proposal and ethics
application. Students may choose to use this work as a thesis or project proposal.
Credits: 3 credits
HRSJ5040 Human Rights and Social Justice Field Experience
Students investigate research problems related to human rights and social justice by
working with relevant organizations and groups. With the help of the Arts Graduate
Coordinator and Practicum Coordinator, students partner with local, provincial, national,
or international organizations or groups that do work related to human rights and social
justice. Students conduct research or work on research projects developed in
agreement with the partner organizations or groups. Prior to field experience, students
participate in training around cultural sensitivity, ethics, and safety.
Credits: 3 credits
HRSJ5120 Settler Colonialism: Decolonization and Responsibility
Students explore the operation of settler colonialism as a distinct ongoing structure
rather than an historical event. Students examine settler colonialism as a cultural
project of overt colonial domination producing a new entity, such as Canada, the United
States, Australia, and New Zealand, and thus premised on the ongoing dispossession
of Indigenous Peoples from land. By investigating the process of settler colonialism as it
emerged out of colonial expansion and domination globally and attending to the ways in
which settler colonialism manifests and maintains itself locally, students will examine
themselves in relation to settler colonialism.
Credits: 3 credits
This was one of my favourite classes – I invite you to click and view Time & Place: A Personal Journey, my final creative piece for our class exhibit. The video explores the intersection of time and place, paralleling my journey of privilege with key moments in Indigenous history on the lands where I am a guest as a white settler. With deep gratitude to Dr. Lisa Cooke and Dr. Robin Westland.
HRSJ5160 Social Justice and Networked Culture: Digital Communities, Mediated
Identities and Online Journalism
Students examine the technologies, structures, and practices of networked culture to
analyze the implications for human rights and social justice. Students investigate the
inherent tensions within the myths of an open and accessible internet in the contexts of
challenging structural inequalities and social constructs of identity, accessing public
discourse, and building and sustaining robust civic media. Engaging various theoretical
perspectives on networked culture and communication, students question what can be
communicated, by whom and for what purposes in networked space, evaluating online
practices and platforms as productive tools for social justice projects.
Credits: 3 credits
Below, is a link to my final project for this course.
In this episode of Digital Dialogues, host Karie Russell will discuss an important question: How can Indigenous data sovereignty drive justice and self-determination for Indigenous communities? The idea behind this podcast is
to tell the story of how Indigenous communities are rewriting the narrative about Indigenous data sovereignty, and to explore how Indigenous communities are flipping the oppressive narrative toward reclaiming their stories, protecting culture and traditions, and driving toward self-determination through ethical data practices.
IMPORTANT NOTE: This episode contains a case study which speaks to the medical experiments on Indigenous people and children in 1940’s and 1950’s, including experimental trauma and health care struggles. Some listeners may find these themes distressing. Please prioritize your well-being and feel free to skip this episode or sections if needed.
HRSJ5220 Trauma, Rights and Justice: From War and Gender-Based Violence to
Peacebuilding
Students confront gender-based violence in situations of war and conflict. Students use
critical analysis tools, guidelines of social justice, and potentialities for solutions to
analyze war and conflict. Using the expertise of various disciplines to uncover the
complexities of what gender-based violence and trauma mean in the context of war and
conflict, students explore the possibilities for peacebuilding and healing. In tackling all of
these issues, students engage with the larger issues of human rights.
Credits: 3 credits
HRSJ5250 Risk, Place, and Social Justice in a Turbulent World
Students examine different types of risks in society and the different populations, places
and life experiences associated with these risks, the forms of planning and practices to
reduce risks, the gaps in knowledge and policies in addressing particular risks, and
media coverage of differing types of risks. Students follow a case study approach,
allowing for different disciplines to be integrated through varied readings from sociology,
history, politics, and environmental studies in assessing through social justice the
inclusionary / exclusionary practices in addressing risks.
Credits: 3 credits
My final research paper is below, one which I truly enjoyed writing. Many thanks to Dr. Terry Kading and Dr. Michael Mehta for their guidance and recommendations with navigating this piece,
HRSJ5230 States, Violence, Revolutions and the Emergence of Global Capitalism
Students explore the history and development of modern political structures such as the
nation-state and the capitalist global order through processes of social and political
revolution, war and pacification, liberal constitutionalism, and democratization. Students
discuss cosmopolitanism and its relationship to contemporary awareness of global
interconnection. Students trace the patterns of conflict and cooperation between state
actors and social groups at regional, national, and transnational levels. Students also
examine key questions in the contemporary world from the perspectives of different
social science disciplines and draw on core theories related to cosmopolitanism,
materialism, and post-structuralism, and consider how states can peacefully coexist in
an anarchistic world system.
Credits: 3 credits
HRSJ5940 Master of Arts e-Portfolio
Students create an e-portfolio summarizing their experiences and learning within the
MA program. Students enrol in HRSJ 5940 if they have decided to take the coursebased completion option for the MA, and they work with a faculty supervisor. Students
can enrol in HRSJ 5940 after having completed nine credits at the 5000 level, but
typically do not finish the e-portfolio until they have completed all required credits for the
MA HRSJ.
Credits: 3 credits