Undergraduate Communication Requirement (Arts First)

Arts First course topics are listed in alphabetical order in the following drop-down section, however they are not listed in alphabetical order in Quest.

Cultivating A Growth Mindset

A growth mindset is the belief that human capacities are not fixed but can be developed over time through effort. But does having a growth mindset actually influence our behaviors and experiences? We will explore this question by learning how to access and examine research on growth mindset—why it matters, how it works, when it works, and for whom. We will also learn how to communicate this knowledge and relate it to our personal and academic experiences.

Delivery mode: In-person (class number 9193)

Food for Thought

From comfort foods and culturally “authentic” recipes to food marketing and popular dietary movements, from food accessibility and insecurity to culinary sustainability and the future of food, this course will ask you to consider more deeply how and what we eat. As we examine various genres that explore how and what we feed our bodies, we will investigate how information, methods of analysis, and communication in various food industries create knowledge (and influence consumer attitudes) about our food.

Delivery mode: In-person (class number 8267)

Friendship

This course will examine various perspectives on friendship, as we try to understand this powerful and perplexing relationship. Friends make our lives sweet, but they can also trouble us with their partiality and with their fleeting natures. We will read some of the classic texts on friendship, and we will consider our own modern friendships. We will ask whether our modern world is threatening friendship or supporting its growth in unique ways. Finally, we will consider friendship as more than a personal relationship, as we ask whether friendship is a necessary condition for a sustainable and participatory democracy.

Delivery mode: In-person (class number 8253)

Great Myths of Psychology

Myths about human behaviour are pervasive in modern society. Where do these misconceptions come from, why are they so enduring, and how can we separate fact from fiction? This course will explore why people fall prey to falsehoods about human behaviour and how we can use critical thinking and evidence to challenge some of our most intuitive beliefs.

Delivery mode: In-person (class number 8258)
Delivery mode: Online (class number 8269) Note: Online sections are fully reserved for Adult and Part-time learners.

Haunted Houses

Haunted houses have been and continue to be a powerful image in artistic and literary forms, in part due to the terror they evoke in audiences. Students will examine the significance of the haunted house in short story, visual art, and film in different cultural and historical contexts.

Delivery mode: In-person (class number 8259)

How to Live a Simple Life

This course will explore the notion of Voluntary Simplicity (VS) as a real and potentially transformative alternative to the prevailing system of globalization and its associated challenges of climate change, economic insecurity and social conflict. There are strong indications that the current model of economy activity and its consequent impacts on society and the environment are not sustainable. VS is an old idea and in this course we will examine this concept against the current thinking on these subjects. This course will be based on weekly readings, in class discussions and assessments as well as experiential learning exercises that students will conduct outside of the classroom.

Delivery mode: In-person (class number 8247)

I Shop, Therefore I Am

What have advertising, shopping malls, theme parks, and the internet done to us? How have they affected our emotions and memories, our houses, jobs, and (unequal) relationships? "The Truman Show" (1998), "The Stepford Wives" (1975), "Fifteen Million Merits" (2011), "Get Out" (2017), and "Lovecraft Country" (2020) might offer uncomfortable answers…

Delivery Mode: In-person (class number 8249)

Ideology: Blueprints for Progress

Recent events in the United States, Europe, and Asia have demonstrated the power of ideologies to shape contemporary politics, economic, social institutions, and culture. Ideologies give us a global picture of what society is, what it should be, and how we can move from where we are now to where we should be. They provide us with “blueprints for progress.” Using an interdisciplinary approach, students will examine ideological commitments as they play out in contemporary debates around topics such as nationalism, economics, populism, politics, gender, religion, and ecology. Students will learn to use diverse ways of finding, examining, and using data, to separate information from misinformation and disinformation, and to communicate their research effectively. 

Delivery mode: In-person (class number 8245)

Improvisation & Creativity

How do we create spontaneously? From storytelling, to music, writing, to problem-solving, improvisation as a technique is everywhere. This course will teach the practical skills of creating on the fly, developing students' listening, trust, confidence, and collaborative skill sets. We’ll use research, data and analysis looking at a wide array of sources exploring improvisation in comedy, dance, jazz, poetry, and our own diverse lived experiences!

Delivery mode: In-person (class number 8263)
Delivery mode: In-person (class number 8264)

Miscommunication

This course will explore barriers to effective communication in modern, global communities. Students taking this course will develop information, analysis, and communication skills by examining verbal and nonverbal communication norms across different ethno-cultural groups, generations, and media, including news outlets, social media, email, and text. We will use a psychological lens to understand how miscommunication occurs and how to avoid it.

Delivery mode: In-person (class number 8252)

Political Correctness-Trashcan

„Die politische Korrektheit gehört auf den Müllhaufen der Geschichte.“ - Those were the exact words of the German right-wing leader of the AfD party, Alice Weidel. However, before you judge her statement, do you understand what political correctness (PC) means? Do not fall for the word ‘political’, PC has more to do with language use than with politics. In this course, the students are going to explore the different aspects of language that are used in our everyday lives and how this language use affects the individual members of our society. Primarily, we are going to evaluate Mr. Putin’s utterance that Political Correctness is a Crime a against humanity.

Delivery mode: In-person (class number 8260)
Delivery mode: In-person (class number 8261)

Pop Culture in the 1990s

“Pop Culture of the 1990s” explores major mainstream trends in television, film, and music, with some video game and fashion included, particularly in North America but with a bit of Japanese, European, and other content mixed in as well. Anchored in socio-cultural history and cultural studies, students will engage in a variety of assignments over the term as they focus on their own interests in the decade of authenticity, bright hopes, and cautious warnings. Our main themes will include sci fi, dystopias, sitcoms, the environment, rap, alt-rock, grunge, metal, and a variety of representation and intersectionality issues regarding indigeneity, ethnicity, women, and the LGBT+ community—plus so much more. So, grab your docs, ripped jeans, and favourite plaid as we connect the context and content of pop culture in the vibrant 90s with today’s pressing issues.

Delivery mode: In-person (class number 8265)
Delivery mode: In-person (class number 8266)

Student Life: Telling our Story

This course will examine student life at St. Jerome’s University from the university's founding to the present.  By exploring historical student newspapers, yearbooks, and other memorabilia in the St. Jerome’s Archives, students will be able to learn more about the depth and variety of student experiences at our university over the years.  Working as part of a small research team, students will present a mid-term poster display project that summarizes their findings.  For the duration of the course, students will participate in a series of in-class writers’ workshops designed to help them prepare their final research paper on a theme related to the modern student experience.

Delivery Mode: In-person (class number 8246)

The American Impact on Canada

The course explores how the United States has influenced the development of Canada since 1774.

Delivery mode: In-person (class number 8251)

The Arts of Listening

Listening is often considered the passive side of communication. In this course, we will challenge that assumption and approach listening as an intentional practice: a form of performance. To perform listening more effectively, you must develop presence, be alert, spontaneous, self-reflective, and make spontaneous decisions. In this hybrid seminar-workshop course, you will re-create a range of listening situations to experience yourself reflectively in the roles of speaker and listener. You will engage critically with literature on listening to understand how to perform listening compassionately in different situations and, thus, be a more humane and effective communicator in your personal and professional interactions.

Delivery mode: In-person (class number 8248)

Theory of Cannabis Culture

This course examines the budding culture surrounding cannabis in modern society, with particular emphasis on applying social theory as a framework to navigate its exploration. Students taking this course will develop information, analysis, and communication skills by delving into cross-disciplinary concepts at both macro and micro levels of investigation, like identity, behaviour, and politics, in relation to our discussion of cannabis. 

Delivery mode: In-person (class number 8256)
Delivery mode: In-person (class number 8257)

Thinking About Happiness

Many people today would say that happiness – like beauty – is “in the eye of the beholder”.  In other words, happiness is radically subjective. If that’s so, then the quest for a happy life is essentially a matter of individual trial and error; learn from experience what “works” or doesn’t work for you.  

On the other hand, many thinkers through the ages have argued that some ideas about happiness provide an objectively better path to a happy life: for instance, good character;  the pursuit of pleasure;  devotion to love, in the largest sense of the term; or dedication to something that gives your life “meaning.”  

Students in this course will explore all of these possibilities, including the possibility that happiness is radically subjective. This exploration will position them to think more critically about their personal quest for a happy life. It will also introduce them to key questions about the way in which we pursue knowledge in the liberal arts. How do we draw the line between subjectivity and objectivity? How do we know what we know?

The course will also focus on the development of essential tools for liberal arts learning. These include:  library research; critical reading of scholarly work; logical thinking; the interpretation and presentation of data; the ability to develop an effective group presentation; and the capacity to develop a persuasive written argument.

Delivery mode: In-person (class number 8250)

What makes something original?

What is originality? Can we assess and measure the originality of creators and their creations? This section of ARTS 160 explores the nature of originality in order to teach essential research, analysis, and communication skills. While our primary case studies will be works of literature and cinema, including Shakespeare and the films of Christopher Nolan, our investigation of human creativity and the tension between tradition and innovation will expand outward to consider other forms of art and culture in the 21st century as well as the advent of generative AI.

Delivery mode: In-person (class number 8262)
Delivery mode: In-person (Class number 9255)

Winning at Trade

People have been engaging in exchange with one another throughout the passage of time, with increasing levels of formality and complexity and global reach in more recent times. Currently, international trade has become a geopolitical challenge, as some countries enact policies that reflect skepticism about the gains from exporting and importing. As a small open economy, Canada has lived the past 50 years in liberal trade relations with partner countries, enacting domestic policies that help it respond intelligently to the evolving opportunities for fair exchange. If international exchange is such a compelling and enduring practice, why is it portrayed so negatively in the media and by some countries’ leaders? This class looks at the irresistible incentives that countries have to engage in mutually advantageous trade and how the rules of trade matter to fair prosperity.

Delivery mode: In-person (class number 8254)
Delivery mode: In-person (class number 8255)
Delivery mode: Online (class number 8268) Note: Online sections are fully reserved for Adult and Part-time learners.

Apologies, Rites, and Wrongs

We live in an “age of apology” in which nations, corporations, churches, and universities use public apologies and other rituals (or “rites”) to address past wrongs. These entities have made statements on residential schools, slavery, racist policies, and corporate malfeasance. Apologies reflect particular ways of thinking about the past, and the implications of the past for the present. They may affirm particular values, commit to a particular future, and mobilize for a common cause. They may also deflect blame and deny responsibility. Public apologies, as well as physical monuments, anniversaries, and national holidays also shape what, and how, societies remember painful histories.
In this course, we analyze specific apologies and related rituals, as well as scholarly writing about apologies, in order to understand how they work and what they mean. We will consider not only the words that are said, but also the context, settings of public delivery, subsequent actions, and the range of responses to apologies especially by those who have been harmed. When are apologies “just words,” and when might they advance justice, reconciliation, or healing? When do they make things worse? How should individuals think about an apology that has been made on their behalf? What is the place of apologies in public life?

In-person (class number 7943)

Eating Beings                 
This course asks you to think critically about acts of eating while building skills in research and communication. What relationships do we build with family, culture, the environment, and our own bodies through acts of eating? What power structures do we partake in? By asking such questions, we will contemplate how acts of eating inform the construction of self. If we are what we eat, then what are we? You will use our explorations of these ideas as jump off points into developing your own research and communication practices. This course will require you to be an active learner who comes to class ready to share your ideas about our texts and to participate in a community of learning where we all help each other progress.

In-person (class number 7939)
 

Food: Memory, Belonging, Being
Food is a primary medium through which humans construct and communicate meaning. It reflects social values, articulates memory, and sustains connection across time and space. Across cultures and histories, the act of eating together has marked moments of grief, joy, and transition while shaping relationships and building communities, and it has also created connection in moments of absence. Meals mark change, convey care, and preserve continuity—between generations, among the living, in memory of the dead, cutting across space and time.

In this course, we will use food as a lens through which to investigate how cultural practices of nourishment, commemoration, and communication intersect. 

Through our analyses, we will consider:

• the ways food functions as a language of memory, comfort, and belonging;
• how eating and sharing food communicate emotion, identity, and relationship in everyday life;
• the representation of these dynamics in visual and digital media such as television, film, art, and social platforms;
• how cultural norms and personal habits around food articulate ideas of care, loss, and community, and how these meanings travel across borders; and
• the roles that food and eating play in processes of grief, death, and dying, including how societies understand and ritualize different kinds of death.

By examining these intersections, students will develop a critical understanding of food as a social and intercultural language—one that encodes memory, communicates emotion, and mediates continuity in the face of change.

In-person (class number 7959)

Gender at the edge of time
"In Marge Piercy's science fiction novel Woman on the Edge of Time, Connie time travels between a utopian future without gender and a dystopian one where gender, race, and wealth divide people into ""haves"" and ""have nots."" Alongside Connie, and with the help of feminist texts, students will explore how gender, race, class, sexuality, and disability operate in our society.

In-person (class number 7947)


Great Myths of Psychology
Myths about human behaviour are pervasive in modern society. Where do these misconceptions come from, why are they so enduring, and how can we separate fact from fiction? This course will explore why people fall prey to falsehoods about human behaviour and how we can use critical thinking and evidence to challenge some of our most intuitive beliefs.

In-person (class number  7948)
                 

Haunted Houses
Haunted houses have been and continue to be a powerful image in artistic and literary forms, in part due to the terror they evoke in audiences. Students will examine the significance of the haunted house in short story, visual art, and film in different cultural and historical contexts.

In-person (class number  7952)
In-person (class number 7953)
 

Healthy News?
Almost all of us consume news – but, unlike food, news in Canada does not come with a nutrition facts label.  How do we know what we’re consuming?  Students will be challenged to critically assess both the conceptual renderings of reality underpinning current political news reporting in Canada as well as the factual information presented in news reporting (both qualitative and quantitative) in order to understand the underlying social and ethical implications of ostensibly objective factual depictions.

In-person (class number 7944)
 

I Shop Therefore I Am             
This course examines how advertising, shopping malls, theme parks, and the internet have shaped everything about us from our emotions, senses, and memories to our houses, jobs, and (unequal) relationships with each other and the world at large. We’ll explore this through art and cultural criticism, as well as film and television shows such as Peter Weir’s "The Truman Show" (1998), Bryan Forbes’s "The Stepford Wives" (1975), Charlie Brooker's "Fifteen Million Merits" (2011), Jordan Peele’s "Get Out" (2017), and Misha Green's "Lovecraft Country" (2020).  

In-person (class number 7940
 

PC to the Trashcan of History!
 PC here stands for political correctness. The words of the course title are the exact words of the German right-wing leader of the AfD party, Alice Weidel. However, before you judge her statement, do you understand what political correctness (PC) means? Do not fall for the word ‘political’, PC has more to do with language use than with politics. In this course, the students are going to explore the different aspects of language that are used in our everyday lives and how this language use affects the individual members of our society. Primarily, we are going to evaluate both Ms. Weidel words and president Putin’s utterance that Political Correctness is a Crime a against humanity.

In-person (class number 7954)
In-person (class number 7955)
 

Pop Culture of the 1990s
“Pop Culture of the 1990s” explores major mainstream trends in television, film, and music, with some video game and fashion included, particularly in North America but with a bit of Japanese, European, and other content mixed in as well. Anchored in socio-cultural history and cultural studies, students will engage in a variety of assignments over the term as they focus on their own interests in the decade of authenticity, bright hopes, and cautious warnings. Our main themes will include sci fi, dystopias, sitcoms, the environment, rap, alt-rock, grunge, metal, and a variety of representation and intersectionality issues regarding indigeneity, ethnicity, women, and the LGBT+ community—plus so much more. So, grab your docs, ripped jeans, and favourite plaid as we connect the context and content of pop culture in the vibrant 90s with today’s pressing issues.

In-person (class number 7956)
In-person (class number (7957)
 

Ten Days that Shook Canada
The course uses 10 key days to engage students in written and oral communication. It encompasses key days from the landing of Columba’s in 1492 to the final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2015.

In-person (class number 7946)
 

The Art of Listening
Listening is often considered the passive side of communication. In this course, we will challenge that assumption and approach listening as an intentional practice: a form of performance. To perform listening more effectively, you must develop presence, be alert, spontaneous, self-reflective, and make spontaneous decisions. In this hybrid seminar-workshop course, you will re-create a range of listening situations to experience yourself reflectively in the roles of speaker and listener. You will engage critically with literature on listening to understand how to perform listening compassionately in different situations and, thus, be a more humane and effective communicator in your personal and professional interactions.

In-person (class number 7941)
In-person (class number (7942)

The Vampire in Fiction and Film
This course will tease out the social and cultural layers of the vampire, through an analysis of one novel and its film adaptation. Students will have the opportunity to independently and collaboratively express their perspective on this topic before focusing on a research project of their choosing.

Online (class number 7934)

Theory of Cannabis Culture               
This course examines the budding culture surrounding cannabis in modern society, with particular emphasis on applying social theory as a framework to navigate its exploration. Students taking this course will develop information, analysis, and communication skills by delving into cross-disciplinary concepts at both macro and micro levels of investigation, like identity, behaviour, and politics, in relation to our discussion of cannabis.

In-person (class number 7949)
Online (class number 7935)

Thinking About Happiness
Many people today would say that happiness – like beauty – is “in the eye of the beholder”.  In other words, happiness is radically subjective. If that’s so, then the quest for a happy life is essentially a matter of individual trial and error; learn from experience what “works” or doesn’t work for you. 

On the other hand, many thinkers through the ages have argued that some ideas about happiness provide an objectively better path to a happy life: for instance, good character;  the pursuit of pleasure;  devotion to love, in the largest sense of the term; or dedication to something that gives your life “meaning.” 

Students in this course will explore all of these possibilities, including the possibility that happiness is radically subjective. This exploration will position them to think more critically about their personal quest for a happy life. It will also introduce them to key questions about the way in which we pursue knowledge in the liberal arts. How do we draw the line between subjectivity and objectivity? How do we know what we know?

In-person (class number (7958)
 

Why History? Why Now?     
History – or what we think is history – informs much of what we do in our professional, public, and private lives. We cannot rewrite the past but we are constantly rewriting history which can have profound political and cultural consequences.  Through projects, presentations, and discussions, students will consider these questions and develop skills in identifying and analyzing sources, and gain experience in communicating their results in different formats and to different audiences. We will also address the possibilities as well as the pitfalls of Generative AI in research and writing.

In-person (class number 7945)
 

Winning at Trade
People have been engaging in exchange with one another throughout the passage of time, with increasing levels of formality and complexity and global reach in more recent times. Currently, international trade has become a geopolitical challenge, as some countries enact policies that reflect skepticism about the gains from exporting and importing. As a small open economy, Canada has lived the past 50 years in liberal trade relations with partner countries, enacting domestic policies that help it respond intelligently to the evolving opportunities for fair exchange. If international exchange is such a compelling and enduring practice, why is it portrayed so negatively in the media and by some countries’ leaders? This class looks at the irresistible incentives that countries have to engage in mutually advantageous trade and how the rules of trade matter to fair prosperity.

In-person (class number 7950)
Online (class number 7951)