This course considers the barriers to establishing a defendant's guilt in common law jurisprudence. It is particularly concerned with questions of criminal responsibility and forensics, and with the interaction of medical, social scientific, and legal expertise in criminal contexts. The focus throughout is on the mind: How do we distinguish between disease and depravity, truthtelling and lies, bad luck and bad character? What kinds of technologies and expertise do we rely on to make these determinations? Common law jurisdictions have placed issues of mental capacity and culpability at the centre of their criminal justice systems. From assessing a defendant's fitness to plead to the criminal trial, from sentencing to evaluating a prisoner's eligibility for parole, the quality of a person's mind, and our ability to know it, is essential. This course approaches the concept of the 'guilty mind' from a critical perspective, emphasizing the roles of culture, context, and history in informing our understandings of the self, moral agency, and sinfulness. The reading list privileges historical, literary, and sociolegal works, especially monographs. These are paired with legal and policy-oriented articles that help us to bridge the gap between the past and the present, and to consider how recent developments in psychology and neuroscience affect how we approach the criminal mind today.

Criminological theories and research are used by a wide variety of non-academic audiences including activists, bureaucrats, lawyers, journalists, judges, politicians, and law enforcement actors. There are also many ways to mobilize academic research, including through litigation, government-led policy reform, public engagement, and grassroots activism. This course will examine criminology's potential to propel social change or reinforce the status quo by studying a selection of current Canadian debates and policy discussions within the fields of civil liberties and criminal justice. Specific topics may include criminal record checks, the bail system and pre-trial detention, solitary confinement, "carding" and racial profiling, prison conditions, the legal regulation of drug use, sex work, and/or sentencing reform. Throughout the course we will consider the benefits and pitfalls of academics using their research to propel social change, the challenges posed by "applied" academic research and the various ways in which social science research has been used (or abused) within the Canadian context.

Qualitative methods for social science research entail systematic collection and analysis of data found in observations, interactions, and texts. Qualitative research methods generally are inductive, interpretive, and labour intensive, and involve small samples and populations situated in a specific context. They also tend to require deeper and longer-term engagement with participants than most studies using quantitative methods. Qualitative research may allow understanding and explanation of some complexities of human practice, thought, and experience that elude enumeration or statistical analysis; it also may help discover new problems or provide scientific insights that work beyond the prediction of particular outcomes. In this course, we will examine and practice using various qualitative methods to consider how different approaches may be applied to answer specific questions, and to better understand and appreciate their potential contributions to building social theory and empirical knowledge.

Police will be examined as one of the state institutions providing normative regulation and social order in connection with other institutions like politics, economy, and culture. The course will include three main parts: i) Police: origin, structure, and functioning, ii) Police in changing social environment, and iii) Police: continuous change and innovation. Students will receive knowledge on the origin and short history of the police, its structure and operation as well as about major challenges, organized crime, and terrorism. Last developments such as community, private, and problem-oriented policing, a problem of reforming also will be examining. Additionally to Canadian police during this course police of some other well-established, developing, and transition countries will be studied with the focus on comparative policing.

Special topics courses are developed to complement existing courses, and cover emerging issues or specialized content not represented in our main curriculum. See the Centre's website for annual offering details.

This course provides an advanced historical and critical socio-legal examination of the intersections of social inequality, crime, and criminal justice in Canada and beyond. Much of the focus of contemporary discussions about inequalities, crime, and criminal justice centre on individual actors — police, judges, offenders, and so on. In this course we will move beyond simplistic notions about race, class, gender to examine how these identities come to be constructed and reconstructed, and how they inform and are informed by criminal justice policies, practices, and outcomes. Students will be introduced to a range of practical and theoretical issues associated with state responses to marginalized groups and how these groups perceive and experience crime and criminal justice. Course readings will consist of a combination of theoretical and empirical materials from Canada and other Western nations. The course will interrogate how new technologies, such as the rise of big data analytics and predictive decision-making influence the administration of criminal justice. The goal of the course is to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of the intersections between social inequalities, crime, and criminal justice.

Special topics courses are developed to complement existing courses, and cover emerging issues or specialized content not represented in our main curriculum. See the Centre’s website for annual offering details.

This course examines organized crime in its relationship to corruption. We focus on understanding organized crime and corruption in a societal setting including their embeddedness in politics, economy, social relations, and culture. The related concepts like informal economy, white-collar, and business/corporate/state crimes are also examined. The focus of the study is the origins and change, internal structures of organized crime, and its personnel in North America (USA and Canada) and around the globe. The types (petty and grand corruption, elite and political corruption, etc.) and functions of corruption in society are examined as well as its social mechanisms. We analyze policies to fight organized crime and corruption including criminal justice, economic regulation, and civil society responses.

This course is designed to give students a critical overview of penology. It will provide students with a theoretical understanding of punishment as well as contextualize shifts in contemporary punishment. The course is divided into four units. The first unit we will look at the 'old penology' and examine the origins of the prison in Canada. The second unit will explore the 'new penology' and emergent lenses for studying punishment such as risk, neo-liberalism, and colonialism. In the third unit, we will look 'within' prisons to explore experiences in the current penal landscape. In the final unit, we will look to other empirical sites and think about punishment beyond the prison such as in immigrant detention centres, school punishment, and/or penal abolition movements.

This course is an overview of scientific findings in the study of antisocial behaviour, violence, and crime. We will study different scientific literatures, including behavioural and molecular genetics, neurophysiology, child and youth development, and social learning, with a focus on identifying and understanding individual differences in propensity to engage in antisocial and criminal behaviour. We will also examine special populations (e.g., psychopaths, sex offenders) and discuss important developments in the assessment, treatment, and management of antisocial and criminal behaviour.

Special topics courses are developed to complement existing courses, and cover emerging issues or specialized content not represented in our main curriculum. See the Centre's website for annual offering details.

Special topics courses are developed to complement existing courses, and cover emerging issues or specialized content not represented in our main curriculum. See the Centre's website for annual offering details.

Under the direction and supervision of one or more members of the graduate faculty (core or cross-appointed), a course of specially directed readings and research in an area of criminology that is not adequately covered by other graduate courses available within the University, can be undertaken. This course will not be available to any student for credit without the approval of the Graduate Coordinator. Before such approval will be granted, a program of study, together with an indication of the written assignments, which students will be required to complete, and the criteria for evaluation of students, must be submitted for approval. With approval of the Graduate Coordinator, students may take up to two Directed Reading or Research courses taught by different faculty members.

Under the direction and supervision of one or more members of the graduate faculty (core or cross-appointed), a course of specially directed readings and research in an area of criminology that is not adequately covered by other graduate courses available within the University, can be undertaken. This course will not be available to any student for credit without the approval of the Graduate Coordinator. Before such approval will be granted, a program of study, together with an indication of the written assignments, which students will be required to complete, and the criteria for evaluation of students, must be submitted for approval. With approval of the Graduate Coordinator, students may take up to two Directed Reading or Research courses taught by different faculty members.

This course examines various aspects of the Canadian sentencing system. While this course is primarily legal in its orientation, the aim is to augment the discussion of sentencing issues with philosophical and criminological literature. The course commences with a consideration of the philosophical dimensions of sentencing and an examination of certain empirical issues, such as problems in assessing the efficacy of deterrence theory. During the course, considerable emphasis is placed on legislative and judicial approaches to the sentencing function and the procedural aspects of the Canadian sentencing system. Other topics for consideration include: the role of the victim, social context, sentencing Indigenous offenders, anti-Black racism, mandatory minimum sentences, and plea arrangements. The course also offers the opportunity to attend a busy plea court and a discussion a provincial court judge.

This course examines contemporary issues in youth culture, youth crime, and youth justice. The course will begin by discussing the definition of "youth" and how this concept has changed through time. The course will then address a number of contemporary youth-related topics including: 1) Trends in youth crime and reporting to the police; 2) The impact of television, movies, and video games on youth behaviour; 3) The relationship between hip-hop music, youth resistance, and youth violence; 3) The causes and consequences of street gangs; 4) Race, policing and criminal justice; 5) Perceptions of social injustice, youth radicalization, and crime; 6) Cyberbulling; 7) Sexting and youth gender relations; 8) Recent developments in youth justice; and 9) The implementation of evidence-based youth punishment and crime prevention policies.

The Research Paper option for MA students is the equivalent to two half courses. It is not a thesis but it does involve original research and/or analysis. Students pursuing this option must find a suitable supervisor by October, submit a formal paper proposal in December, and submit a final paper of 8,000 to 12,000 words by the end of August in order to meet the 12-month deadline. Research papers are evaluated by the supervisor and one other faculty member. Students pursuing a part-time degree must submit a proposal by the beginning of their second year in September.

Annual attendance at a minimum of 24 departmental seminars.

Annual attendance at a minimum of 24 departmental seminars.

This graduate course will cover theory and practical demonstrations of current light, fluorescent and electron microscopy. The first four weeks of classes will have lectures and video demonstrations on brightfield, epifluorescent, confocal and scanning and transmission microscopy including 1:1 imaging sessions. Student presentations will occur in the remaining week of formal classes.

This graduate module explores topics in Cell and Systems Biology according to specific subtitles. See the CSB departmental website for details.

This graduate module explores topics in Cell and Systems Biology according to specific subtitles. See the CSB departmental website for details.

Genomics and proteomics have revolutionized biological research. It is now theoretically possible to fully characterize the structure, organization, regulation, and interaction of all genes, proteins, and small bioactive molecules in an organism. This is an intensive and rigorous laboratory course that will teach students how to produce and analyze data that are central to the fields of genomics and proteomics. The course is divided into three modules, the first of which focuses on genomics, the second on transcriptomics, and the third on proteomics. Each module begins with at least two wet labs where students generate data and end with computer labs where students analyze the data. In this way students will learn how to conduct an experiment from beginning to end. Techniques taught include DNA and RNA extraction, shotgun library construction, PCR, DNA sequencing, expression profiling using microarrays, 2D-gel proteome analysis, mass spectrometry and associated bioinformatics analyses such as sequence analysis and assembly, and statistical analysis of microarray and mass spectrometry data. This is an advanced laboratory and computer-based course, and assumes a strong background in molecular genetics and some prior laboratory experience.

Recent technological advances have driven a revolution in genomics research that has had a direct impact on both fundamental research as well as direct application in nearly biological disciplines. These advances have made the generation of genomic data relatively straightforward and inexpensive; nevertheless, the data are meaningless if they cannot be properly analyzed. Computational genomics and bioinformatics are the tools we use to extract biological information from complex genomic data. This course will teach you the fundamentals of analyzing genomic data. It emphasizes understanding how core bioinformatic analyses work, the strengths and weaknesses of related methods, and the important parameters embedded in these analyses. This is not an applied methods course, nor a course to for developing new bioinformatic tools, but rather a course designed to provide you with a basic understanding of the principles underlying genome analyses. We will examine the fundamentals of sequence alignment, phylogenetic analyses, genome annotation, gene prediction, and gene expression data analysis. Theoretical, applied, and statistical issues will be addressed.

This course will focus on close reading and detailed discussion of landmark papers in genome biology and bioinformatics. Focus will be on the context of the paper, technological developments exploited (or reported) and impact on the field. Topics include: comparative, population and functional genomics, single cell genomic technologies, genome browsers, alignment and clustering algorithms. Evaluation will be focused on class discussion and presentations.

This is an independent research course for graduate students not registered in the Department of Computer Science who are working on a research project in computer science. Enrolment in this course requires departmental approval.

Concepts and state-of-the-art techniques in quality assessment of software engineering; quality attributes, formal specifications and their analysis; testing, verification, and validation.

Using mathematics to write error-free programs. Proving each refinement; identifying errors as they are made. Program development to meet specifications; modifications that preserve correctness. Useful for all programming; essential for programs that lives depend on. Basic logic, formal specifications, refinement. Conditional, sequential, parallel, interaction, probabilistic programming, and functional programming.

The structure of compilers, Programming language processing. Scanning based on regular expressions, Parsing using context free grammars, Semantic analysis (type and usage checking), Compiler dictionaries and tables. Runtime organization and storage allocation, code generation, optimization. Use of modern compiler building tools. Course project involves building a complete compiler.