Each term, a variety of new courses are offered for the first time. Below is a centrally-maintained list of such courses, submitted by various academic units on campus.
Click the course link to see the full course description in the Undergraduate Studies Academic Calendar. Browse through the list for course details and check back often for updates.
Winter 2025
Last updated: December 3, 2024
ARTS450: Global Engagement Seminar
Topic title: Finding Our Future City: Health, Housing, and Humanity
Topic details: This course will explore what Future Cities within our lifetime could look like in terms of our individual and collective sense of being and belonging, and the ways in which we need to think creatively about how we can best ensure healthy and sustainable homes and communities at the local, national, and global levels.
Additional information:
- This course is CR/NCR and will meet weekly and in-person. The emphasis is on innovative and collaborative problem-solving, and it will culminate in the 2025 Desmarais Family Summit where students will have the opportunity to share your findings with the University of Waterloo community and beyond at the Desmarais Family Summit.
- For more information about the instructors and fellows, visit the Global Engagement Seminar website.
- Contact your academic advisor in your program to register.
PACS290: Special Topics in Peace and Conflict Studies I
Topic title: Mathematics and Peace: Decoding the Social Implications of Mathematics
Topic details: This course examines topics at the intersection of math and peace – such as poverty reduction, climate justice, predatory lending, predictive policing software, public health, racial bias in artificial intelligence, deepfakes and echo chambers. It involves sharpen an analysis of how both math and peace studies contribute to creating a stable and peaceful society. It engages with the material through reading, writing, discussion, presentations and group work; no computation is involved. Open to students from first year up, from all faculties and levels of comfort (or discomfort) with mathematics.
Additional information:
- Held with MTHEL 298.
- Instructor: Professor Judith Koeller
- Class size: 30 students
PACS301: Special Topics in Peace and Conflict Studies I
Topic title: The Future of War: Arms Control and Peace Research
Topic details: Advances in technology and the increasing use of drones, robots, AI, and cyberwarfare
are transforming warfare and shaping future war trends. This will require a new set of
responses from peace advocates, and peace research will play an increasingly important
role. The multilateral arena where many of these responses will play out, as well as
previous and ongoing efforts to respond to armed conflict, will be key factors that will
shape peace research and advocacy going forward.
Additional information:
- Prerequisites: Students must be in level 2A or higher
- Instructors: Cesar Jaramillo and Branka Marijan
PLAN442: Indigenous Peoples and Planning
Course title: Indigenous Peoples and Planning
Course description: This course explores how reconciliation has emerged as one of the key challenges in contemporary planning, as well as Indigenous peoples' efforts to reclaim their own planning traditions.
Additional information:
- If you do not meet the prerequisites but are interested in the course, contact Professor Janice Barry to discuss the possibility of a course override.
STV201: Society, Technology and Values: Special Topics
Topic title: Technology and Society in Film
Topic details: This course uses movies to examine social aspects of technology and technological change. Students will explore how movies portray, critique, and participate in perception and development of technology. By analyzing and discussing a selection of classic and contemporary movies, students will gain insight into themes including ethical aspects of artificial intelligence, automation and work, surveillance and privacy, governance and regulation, fairness and equity, and technology and human nature. Through class discussions, reflections, critical works and projects, students will develop a broad and nuanced understanding of cultural, political, ethical, and historical aspects of technology. This course assumes no special knowledge of cinema or technology.
Additional information:
- Instructor: Professor Cameron Shelley
STV304: Technology in Canadian Society
Topic title: Technology in Canadian Society
Topic details: STV 304 is back! After having not been taught in over a decade, it's time to ask new questions: what does "Made in Canada" really mean? Is there something distinctive about Canadian technology or design? How have Canadians tended to define or understand technology or its role in society? And, for the first time, how can Indigenous knowledge and practices help us better understand modern technology and engineering? Through the use of historical and contemporary cases, this course will examine these questions and more!
