Courses Offered in 2026-27
Course Offering List (PDF)
BLCK Course Descriptions
Expand each section below for more details on our course offerings. Other courses may be approved for inclusion in this academic program with permission of the Director of Black Studies.
Core Courses
Description: This course introduces students to black studies as a project of liberation. In the course, we will discuss key theories and concepts of black liberation and will engage with historical as well as present black freedom struggles across various global and local contexts. Engaging with the creative and transformative struggles and worldmaking projects of black people globally, the course explores key theories and frameworks (analysis of racial capitalism, black radical tradition, anti-colonialism, black feminism, black and abolition geography) and themes such as migration, state (police, prison, borders) and ecological violence, labor and reproduction. Focussing on resistance and creation, black social movements as well as multi-racial coalitions and solidarities, the course engages with black studies as a universal project of liberation.
Learning Hours: 120 (36 Lecture, 84 Private Study)
Exclusion: GNDS 380 (Topic Title: Introduction to Black Studies)
Description: Studies in black women’s and black gender politics in Canada, the U.S.A., and the Caribbean.
Learning Hours: 120 (36 Lecture, 84 Private Study)
Prerequisite: Level 3 or permission of the Department
Note: This course is cross-listed as GNDS 312
Option Courses
Description: This course is an introduction to Black Studies in the context of diasporic movements, migrations, and geographies. Focusing on liberation struggles that are nested in Black scholarly and creative works, the course maps out how Black communities have navigated and resisted racism, white supremacy, and other forms of oppression.
Learning Hours: 120 (36 Lecture, 84 Private Study)
Prerequisites: None.
Description: Through a selection of readings by African writers and artists, students are asked to read and think alongside Indigenous writers and artists about what it means to be human, to be in relation, to remember, and to resist. Students will be introduced to contemporary literary works, artistic productions and theories arising from encountering these works in dialogue. Students will learn to evaluate these works as spaces of political solidarity and critical thinking between writers and writing across continents.
Learning Hours: 120 (36 Lecture, 84 Private Study)
Prerequisites: Level 2 or above or permission of the Department.
Exclusions: BLCK 280/3.0 Black and Indigenous Poetics
Description: Offered when faculty resources permit, these courses are analyses of particular areas of black studies interdisciplinary research.
Learning Hours: 120 (36 Lecture, 84 Private Study)
Prerequisite: Level 2 or permission of the Department
Note: This course is co-offered as GNDS 280.
Students are able to take multiple Special Topics courses of the same course code (i.e., GNDS 280, 380, 480), provided it is a different topic than the one(s) previously taken.
Description: Offered when faculty resources permit, these courses are analyses of particular areas of black studies interdisciplinary research.
Learning Hours: 120 (36 Lecture, 84 Private Study)
Prerequisite: Level 2 or permission of the Department
Students are able to take multiple Special Topics courses of the same course code (i.e., GNDS 280, 380, 480), provided it is a different topic than the one(s) previously taken.
Description: This course examines the historical and contemporary environmental issues facing the global South today, including climate and environmental change, resource management (resource extraction and habitat conservation), toxic waste dumping, informal recycling economies, environmental (in)justice, etc. through an interdisciplinary methodology drawing on literature from Racial Capitalism, Environmental Studies, Political Ecology, Black Eco-poetics, Black Studies, and Geographies, and more broadly, using case studies from the global South and works from global South scholars.
Learning hours: 120 (36 Lecture, 84 Private Study)
Prerequisites: Level 3 or above or permission of the Department
Exclusions: BLCK 380/3.0 Topic: Black Environmentalism
Description: Offered when faculty resources permit, these courses are analyses of particular areas of black studies interdisciplinary research.
Learning Hours: 120 (36 Lecture, 84 Private Study)
Prerequisite: Level 3 or permission of the Department
Note: This course is co-offered as GNDS 380.
Students are able to take multiple Special Topics courses of the same course code (i.e., GNDS 280, 380, 480), provided it is a different topic than the one(s) previously taken.
Capstone Courses
Description: This course examines the realities of anti-Black racism from the transatlantic slave trade and colonization to historical and contemporary policies and practices that have negatively impacted the health of African descendants and their communities within Canada and in transnational contexts. Using multiple analytic approaches and methodologies, the course will provide a strong understanding of Blackness and race as historically produced social constructs as well as how race interacts with other axes of diversity and social and commercial determinants to produce health outcomes.
Learning hours: 120 (36 Seminar, 84 Private Study)
Prerequisites: Level 4 or above or permission of the Department
Exclusion: HLTH 460/3.0; HLTH 495/3.0 Racism and Health
Note: This course is cross-listed as HLTH 460.
Description: Offered when faculty resources permit, these courses are analyses of particular areas of black studies interdisciplinary research.
Learning Hours: 120 (36 Lecture, 84 Private Study)
Prerequisite: Level 4 or permission of the Department
Students are able to take multiple Special Topics courses of the same course code (i.e., GNDS 280, 380, 480), provided it is a different topic than the one(s) previously taken.
Courses offered in other Departments
Other courses may be approved for inclusion in this academic program with permission of the Director of Black Studies.
Option A Courses
Courses with 100% Black Studies content
Description: An introduction to the arts and visual culture of Africa, encompassing traditional or classic African arts, as well as modern and contemporary artists. The course also examines how the African art field was shaped, and its critical turning points.
Learning hours: 120 (36L;84P)
Recommendation: ARTH 226/3.0 and ARTH 228/3.0
Requirements: Level 3 or above. Exclusions: no more than 3.0 units from ARTH 303; ARTH 305.
See Art History Courses for more information.
Description: An introduction to the history of ideas and cultural evolution in French Canada, African and Caribbean culture and literature, from the colonial period to the present day.
Learning Hours: 120 (36L;84P)
Prerequisite: (FREN 230/3.0 and FREN 241/3.0) or (FREN 212/6.0 and FREN 220/6.0) or FREN 221/6.0
See FREN Courses for more information.
Description: A study of representative works by African and the Caribbean writers. Travaux pratiques include essays and tests.
Learning Hours: 120 (36L;84P)
Prerequisite: (FREN 230/3.0 and FREN 241/3.0) or (FREN 212/6.0 and FREN 220/6.0) or FREN 221/6.0.
EXCLUSION(S): FREN 451/3.0.
See FREN Courses for more information.
Description: In this course, which aims to provide a solid undergraduate-level foundation in several key figures, texts and concepts in Haitian Studies, students will learn to address some common misunderstandings about Haiti by exploring the political documents of its revolutionary period and literary representations of its popular culture and vodou.
Learning Hours: 120 (36L;84P)
Prerequisite: FREN 230/3.0 and FREN 241/3.0
See FREN Courses for more information.
Description: This course explores the post-emancipation history of African Americans in the United States. It studies the modern civil rights movement and its long roots in ongoing resistance to racial subjugation by positioning the African American perspective at the centre of its investigation.
Learning hours: 117 (36L;81P)
Requirements: Prerequisite Level 2 or above
See HIST Courses for more information.
Description: A topic of current interest in Religious Studies not covered in other available courses.
Learning hours: 120 (36L;81P)
Requirements: Prerequisite Level 2 or above
Note: This is a special topics course code. Since the course topic may change from year to year, annual review is required. A special topics course may be approved for use in this degree plan, with permission of the Black Studies Program Director, in the Department of Gender Studies.
See RELS Courses for more information.
Description: A topic of current interest in Religious Studies not covered in other available courses.
Learning hours: 120 (36L;81P)
Requirements: Prerequisite Level 3 or above
Note: This is a special topics course code. Since the course topic may change from year to year, annual review is required. A special topics course may be approved for use in this degree plan, with permission of the Black Studies Program Director, in the Department of Gender Studies.
See RELS Courses for more information.
Description: Black religions have been central to the lives of Black people in diaspora - sometimes by force, sometimes by choice. This course explores the theories, theologies, rituals, and praxes that characterize Black religions with an emphasis on Afrodiasporic experience in the Americas. Students are encouraged to contemplate the role of religions in the lives of Afrodiasporic peoples through critical engagement of relevant fiction and historical research.
Learning hours: 120 (36L;81P)
Requirements: Prerequisite Level 3 or above or 6.0 units of RELS at 100-level
See RELS Courses for more information.
Option B Courses
Courses with Black Studies content
Description: This course first provides the historical and regional context necessary to understand urban southern Africa's contemporary struggles, then examines strategies to address key development challenges and how they may be creating opportunities for new ways of thinking about citizenship in South Africa and the Global South more generally.
Learning Hours: 120 (24L;12T;84P)
Prerequisite: Level 3 or above
See DEVS Courses for more information.
Description: Students explore the impact of racism on the health of individuals and equity-deserving communities in Canada. A framework conceptualizing the social determinants of Indigenous Peoples' health, progressing from historical data to now are used. Reflection on biases, positionality, and skill development to support positive change are key components.
Learning Hours: 120 (36O;84P)
Prerequisite: Level 2 or above or permission of the instructor
See for more information.
Description: Decades after the formal decolonization of former colonies, the power relations of the colonial world - and the racism it engendered - remain deeply embedded in the West, and are intrinsic to contemporary relations of globalization. This course explores European colonialism; historical and social constructions of 'race'; the ongoing occupation of Indigenous peoples' territories; and contemporary racism.
Learning Hours: 120 (24L;12T;84P)
Prerequisite: Level 2 or above or permission of the Department
See GNDS Courses for more information.
Description: This course examines gender in an international context with emphasis on current global issues of women and development. Topics include gendering international political economy, women's health and sexualities, and forms of struggle, resistance and change in non-western contexts.
Learning Hours: 120 (36L;84P)
Prerequisite: Level 3 or above or permission of the Department
See GNDS Courses for more information.
Description: A seminar in which students work in and outside the classroom on community organizing projects. Students reflect on how feminist, anti-racist, decolonial, and queer theory can be integrated with real-world practices.
Learning Hours: 120 (18S;36P;66P)
Prerequisite: Level 3 or above and registration in a GNDS or BLCK Plan or permission of the Department
See GNDS Courses for more information.
Description: This course will introduce students to a selection of major themes, figures, or movements within the black intellectual tradition, which spans Africa and the African diaspora. Potential focuses include African Sovereignty, Slave Revolts, Maroon Societies, Black Religious Fraternities, Black Loyalists, and Black Abolitionists.
Learning Hours: 120 (36L;84P)
Prerequisite: Level 2 or above
See PHIL Courses for more information.
Description: This course will identify and describe characteristics of religion as they appear in popular culture (e.g. fashion; comics; movies; art; music; novels; sitcoms; dramas; video games) and analyze how such depictions present, shape, and create perceptions of religion in public discourse.
Learning Hours: 120 (24L;12T;84P)
Prerequisite: None
See RELS Courses for more information.
Description: The course will explore the intersection of race, ethnicity, and religion, alongside gender, sexuality, culture and more. It will challenge students to think about how racial identities, theories, and movements implicate(d) the way religious communities construct their own systems and worldviews.
Learning Hours: 128 (18L;18S;12G;80P)
Prerequisite: Level 3 or above or 6.0 units of RELS at 100-level
See RELS Courses for more information.