Elective courses are normally taken at the 6000 (PhD) level and must be approved by the student’s Supervisor and the IDSR Program Director. Masters (5000) level courses, usually drawn from the Trent Graduate Calendar, may qualify for the elective requirements with approval from the Program Director.
IDSR Elective Courses 2025 Winter Term
IDSR 6030H-A-PTBO Special Topics in Critical Social Justice
Narrating Experience: (Post-)Pragmatisms and Socio-ecological Justice
Experience is essential to understanding social phenomena. In this course, we will trace theories of experience through a pragmatist lens beginning roughly with John Dewey and tracing Dewey’s legacy of experiential theorizing along a trajectory towards more contemporary “post-“ discourses (Foucault, Deleuze & Guattari, Bauman, Bhaskar, etc.). We will look for applications of theories of experience to frames of social and ecological justice, seek avenues for leveraging this body of theory in our own research, and consider approaches for narrating theory to a range of audiences.
Prerequisite: IDSR 6010H or an equivalent graduate level theoretical foundations course. Students from other Trent graduate programs may request permission from the IDSR Program Director.
Wednesdays, 16:00-19:00 Instructor: Blair Niblett
IDSR 6040H-A-PTBO
Advanced Studies in Community-Engaged Research
This course offers an in-depth exploration of the history and current state of community-based, community-engaged, collaborative, participatory, activist and action-oriented research theories and practices.
Prerequisite: IDSR 6020H or an equivalent graduate level social research methods course. Students from other Trent graduate programs may request permission from the IDSR Program Director.
Mondays, 16:00-19:00
SUST 5550H-IDSR 6550H
Environmental Policy Analysis
Explores environmental policy analysis and development in the Canadian context. We cover methods of analyzing environmental policy responses across a range of issues, including stakeholder engagement, policy tool selection and development, evaluation, and communication of policy aims to diverse audiences.
Thursdays, 17:00-20:00
IDSR Elective Course 2026 Winter Term
IDSR 6030H-A-PTBO Special Topics in Critical Social Justice
Theories of Institutional Violence
Instructor: Deborah White