Courses

Not all courses are offered in a given year. For an up-to-date statement of course offerings, please consult the Registration Instructions and Class Schedule booklet published in the summer.

F, W, S indicates term of offering. Courses offered in the fall and winter are followed by T. The number following the letter indicates the credit weight of the course: 1 denotes 0.5 credit, 2 denotes 1.0 credit, etc.

Compulsory Core Courses

CLMD 6101 T2 Perspectives on Interdisciplinarity in Cultural Theory (Credit value 1.0)
This course will address the theory and practice of interdisciplinarity and interdisciplinary studies of culture. Attention will be paid to those issues in cultural theory of the twentieth-century that inform current interdisciplinary work in literature, film, music, art and new media: the nature of the text and textuality; the status of representation; the role of technologies of production and reception; the formation of the subject and modes of subjectivity; the construction of difference (gender, ethnicity, social class); the functioning of ideology; the problematics of affect and corporeality; and the meaning and ethics of cultural value.

Specific works from literature, film and other cultural practices, including new media, will be introduced in relation to questions of theory.

While the course does not aim to survey the entire body of twentieth-century cultural theory, students can expect to become familiar with key theoretical texts in and across a number of disciplines that address the issues in question and to acquire a knowledge of the historical and intellectual contexts within which such work was produced. It is expected that the theoretical issues at hand and the debates they provoke will be situated both within and against the dominant Western tradition.

CLMD 6900 T2 Interdisciplinary Research Methods (Credit Value 0.5)
Students will be introduced to a range of methods of inquiry, procedures and practices across related disciplines, using both traditional and electronic research tools. The immediate aim of the course is to help students develop research methods that will enable them to prepare, write and defend the doctoral dissertation successfully in either print or electronic form. Students will also become familiar with the practices of academic publishing, the preparation of conference presentations and academic articles, along with private and public sector writing and research protocols.

Half-Credit Core Course Options

Students are required to complete successfully at least two of the courses listed below in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree.

These five courses articulate the complex formed by the conjunction of the context, the work, the individual and the apparatus. They are intended to address specific works of literature, film and other cultural practices both from inside and outside the dominant Western, cultural tradition. Because cultural forms and practices themselves generate particular ways of knowing and seeing, these courses will consider how specific examples of print, visual, aural and electronic culture speak to epistemological, social and libidinal operations that continually call for new conceptual and analytical approaches.

CLMD 6102 F1, W1, S1 Issues in Transnationalism  (Credit Value 0.5) 
This course will consider cultural production in the context of global exchange, examining the processes of mediation —  conflict, collaboration, transformation and hybridization —  that govern the movement of populations, objects, and ideas as they travel across borders and between societies.

CLMD 6103 F1, W1, S1 Issues of Cultural Mediation and Representation (Credit Value 0.5) 
This course will examine how works from different cultures or works in the same or different media from the same culture pose questions about the nature of representation, interpretation, meaning and affect. The emphasis will be upon the relation between the social intelligibility of these practices and their textual features. Intertextual and interdiscursive cultural practices invite questions about the epistemological consequences of formal and stylistic overlap between these practices and about the way in which one practice may change the conditions of production and reception of another.

Examples might include narrativity in literature and film; the roles and practices of avant-gardes; the issue of realism; problems of signification in music; issues of signification and affect in music and cinema; the film, video, and mixed media work of specific practitioners; the problematics of applying “first world” theoretical and interpretive protocols to “third world” cultural practices; the challenges of new media simulacra to old media representations.

CLMD 6104 F1, W1, S1 Issues of Subjectivity and Difference (Credit Value 0.5) 
This course will concern itself with understanding the theory of the subject and its relations, with examples from specific cultural practices in literary studies, film, music, art, popular culture and new media.

CLMD 6105 F1, W1, S1 Issues in the Technologies of Culture (Credit Value 0.5) 
This course concerns itself with the role that the technologies of print, visual and auditory cultures plays in changing models of literacy, visuality and aurality. The technologies of the cultures of print, vision and sound will be discussed through specific examples of cultural practices in various media. The course will be informed by an understanding of technology as a cultural and social practice. The course will therefore raise questions about the objective and subjective foundations of knowledge.

Examples to be discussed could include the technologization of the body; the urban world as a visual and aural space; the relations between global information systems and local knowledges; geographies of culture; the construction of time and space; the inter-related histories of cinema and sound, music and soundcarriers, film and painting, or literature and image-making; cultural practice and the law; the scopic and auditory regimes instituted by film, video, changing soundcarriers and electronic applications.

CLMD 6106 F1, W1, S1 Issues in History and Culture (Credit Value 0.5) 
This course will consider history as an object of representation and a condition of human experience. It will examine historical approaches to print, visual, and auditory culture in relation to theoretical texts and specific periods and genres. Topics may include history and the novel, visual culture in history, and historiography.

Special Topic and Reading Course Electives

Students may elect to complete one or more of these courses successfully in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree.

CLMD 6901 F1, W1, S1 Directed Reading in Cultural Mediations (Credit value 0.5)
This tutorial is designed to permit students to pursue research on topics chosen in consultation with members of faculty and the Graduate Supervisor.

CLMD 6902 F1, W1, S1 Special Topic in Cultural Mediations (Credit value 0.5)
This in-class course offers selected topics in interdisciplinary studies of culture not
available in the regular course offerings.

CLMD 6903 F1, W1, S1 Special Topic in Cultural Mediations (Credit value 0.5)
This in-class course offers selected topics in interdisciplinary studies of culture not available in the regular course offerings.

CLMD 6904 F1, W1, S1 Special Topic in Cultural Mediations (Credit value 0.5) 
This in-class course offers selected topics in interdisciplinary studies of culture not
available in the regular course offerings.

Comprehensive I

CLMD 6907 Comprehensive I (Credit value 1.0) 

The first comprehensive will be a general examination of the broad range of cultural theory of the twentieth-century as it informs interdisciplinary work today and the historical, intellectual and cultural frames of reference that this work invokes. The full credit core course, 25.611, may be considered preparatory to the writing of this comprehensive. To complement the preparation provided by the core course, a list of key texts for study will be drawn up by the graduate committee of the program. The examination will normally be set and graded by a board of at least two core faculty attached to the program and who have been involved in the instruction of the full credit core course, 25.611. Students will normally sit this comprehensive within twelve months of their registration in the program.

Comprehensive II

CLMD 6908 Comprehensive II (Credit value 1.0) 

The second comprehensive will be a discipline-specific examination in a specialised area of study chosen by the student in consultation with the graduate supervisor. Four comprehensive areas have been identified 1) Literary Studies 2) Visual Culture 3) Musical Culture 4) New Technologies. Within his or her comprehensive area, a student may choose to specialise in a national cinema, a field within a national literature, a musical tradition, world musics, etc. Based on a list of key texts in the discipline (primary, critical, theoretical), the examination will be set and graded by a board of at least two core faculty attached to the program who have the disciplinary background in question. Students will normally sit this comprehensive within twenty-four months of their registration in the program.

On the official University transcript of the student’s academic record, he or she will receive the notation of a “Specialisation” to indicate a research concentration based on the choice of the comprehensive area, as per:

• Specialisation: Literary Studies
• Specialisation: Visual Culture
• Specialisation: Musical Culture
• Specialisation: Technology and Culture

Such a notation will help to identify the research areas of the program in a shorthand way for the purposes of public knowledge and give the student some advantage by communicating on the transcript and the curriculum vitae his or her strengths.

Thesis

CLMD 6909 Thesis (Credit value 5.0) 

Course Listings for the 2026-2027 Academic Year

Please note: students are responsible for ensuring that their selected courses meet the program requirements stated in the Calendar. If, however, you feel that you need additional information or guidance please contact us.  

Fall 2026 Courses

CLMD 6101T (31045/11042)
Perspectives on Interdisciplinarity in Cultural Theory

Prof. Rebecca Schein

This course will address the theory and practice of interdisciplinary studies of culture. Attention will be paid to those themes and issues in cultural theory of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries that inform contemporary interdisciplinary work in literature, film, music, art and new media. ‎This course is continued in the second semester.

CLMD 6102F (31046) / ARTH 5112F / MGDS 5002E / ENGL 5004F
Issues in Transnationalism

Prof. Sarah Casteel

Topic: Black Europe

This seminar explores “Black Europe” as a historical phenomenon, a theoretical framework, and a set of artistic practices. We will engage with a series of creative and critical texts that foreground Europe’s historical and contemporary entanglements with Africa and its diasporas. Together, we will read, look at, and listen to works by Black European intellectuals, activists, writers, artists, performers, and musicians. Challenging an understanding of Europe as a bounded, racially homogenous space, these works reframe European history and culture through Black perspectives.

The interdisciplinary, or “undisciplined,” design of this course is critical to its excavation of Black European cultural histories that have been occluded by more conventional frameworks. Reading across different media will help to expose the “bundles of silences” (Trouillot) surrounding the contributions of Black artists—especially Black women artists—to European literature, art, and music.

CLMD 6105F (31047) / FILM 5107F / HIST 5702F / CURA 5003 
Issues in the Technologies of Culture
Please also register in CLMD 6105 FF (31048)

Prof. Aboubakar Sanogo

Topic: Cine-Archival Theory, History and Practice

The archive has, in recent years, become one of the most exciting and dynamic fields of inquiry in the humanities and social sciences. Taking this into account, this interdisciplinary seminar will explore theories, histories and practices pertaining to the archival, with the moving image as its point of entry and focus, while in conversation with other relevant media and fields concerned with the archival (museum studies, library and information sciences, philosophy, political science, history, heritage and memory studies, the hard sciences, etc.). It will revisit some of the most important theories of the archival along with lesser-known ones. It will also critically retrace the history of the moving image archival movement from its inception to the present. In addition, it will explore the major debates and issues pertaining to archival practice including safeguarding, preservation, restoration, heritage, collecting, cataloguing, access, curating and programming, policy, the analog vs digital, the status of film-related materials, as well as examine the significance of such identity formations as race, gender, sexuality, the national, etc. for a reimagining and reconfiguration of the archive.

Past contributors to the course have included both Canadian and international archival institutions, organizations and projects: Library and Archives Canada, the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) and affiliates, the Media Ecology Project (MEP), the Film Heritage Foundation (FHF), as well as filmmakers, academics, curators and critics and film preservationists from around the world.

CLMD 6106F (31049) / HIST 5702G / CDNS 5601A 
Issues in History and Culture

Prof. Peter Hodgins

Topic: Playing with Memory and Heritage

In Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes argued that “Imagination and Memory, are but one thing, which for divers considerations hath divers names.” This course will examine how artists (understood broadly), activists, electronic and analog gamers and others play with what Hobbes described as the blurry lines between memory and imagination in a variety of media and for a variety of purposes ranging from political transgression to entertainment to friendship. Topics may include: the use of satire and transgressive humour in contemporary “historical” artistic practices; digital and analog historical/fantasy gaming; the intersections between memory, desire, nostalgia, and trauma in cultural and spatial texts and practices. There will be gallery visits and workshops.

CLMD 6900T (31050/11046)
Research and Professional Development

Prof. Pascal Gin

The primary goal of this year-long, workshop-based course for second-year doctoral students is to help students prepare for the second comprehensive examination and dissertation research. The class will offer students a supportive space in which to workshop their second comprehensive examination lists and their preliminary dissertation proposals. Students will work together to develop and exchange ideas about their teaching fields and dissertations with their peers and to benefit from constructive criticism. Be prepared to engage with other students’ scholarship fully and constructively as we discuss, develop and refine plans for future research.

The second major goal of the course is to foster practical skills and knowledge necessary for academic success at the doctoral level and beyond. The course will help students master various aspects of the academic profession including: writing OGS and SSHRC plans of study, becoming acquainted with library resources, academic publishing, conference paper presentations, research ethics and other professional concerns. Further topics will be introduced in response to student need. This course is continued in the second semester.

CLMD 6901F (31051)
Directed Readings in Cultural Mediations

This tutorial is designed to permit students to pursue research on topics chosen in consultation with members of faculty and the graduate supervisor.

CLMD 6908 (31052)
Comprehensive II

A discipline-specific examination in a specialized area of study chosen by the student in consultation with the graduate supervisor. Students will choose from one of the following comprehensive areas: Literary Studies; Visual Culture; Musical Culture; New Technologies.

CLMD 6909F (31053)
Ph.D. Thesis

Winter 2027 Courses 

CLMD 6101T (11042)
Perspectives on Interdisciplinarity in Cultural Theory

Prof. Stuart Murray

This course is a continuation of CLMD 6101 in the first semester. It will address the theory and practice of interdisciplinary studies of culture. Attention will be paid to those themes and issues in cultural theory of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries that inform contemporary interdisciplinary work in literature, film, music, art and new media.

CLMD 6103W (11043) /CDNS 5301B /ENGL 5900X
Issues of Cultural Mediation and Representation

Prof. Peter Hodgins

Topic: After AI: reinjecting the “human” back into the humanities

The launch of ChatGPT in 2022 deepened an ongoing crisis of legitimacy and relevancy in the humanities. Even before the emergence of LLMs, enrollments in the humanities had been declining over the previous decades in the face of claims that they did not adequately prepare students for the work world. The retort of defenders of the humanities was that they taught their students to write, to analyze, to research, and to synthesize. However, as we now know, LLMs can do those things as well (but, as we also know, not always all that well).

Recently, a new defense of the humanities has emerged which emphasizes the “human” in the “humanities”. As Nesrine Malik writes in The Guardian: “Writing is about the particular alchemy of a single individual drawing on their own unique profile to construct an idea. It is about the way their brain works, the quirks they have picked up along the way, their politics, their history, their relationships, the very way they see the world.”

In this course, we will read texts by prominent Canadian feminist/decolonial scholars such as Anne Cvetovich, Julietta Singh, Dalie Giroux, and Sophie Tamas. Even before AI, they have worked in different ways to reinject the singular, the quirky and “the human” back into humanities writing by playing with, and often refusing, the lines between autobiography, memory, and history, between fact and fiction, between writing and other media, between research and creation, between the personal and the political. The assignments in this course will encourage students, as emerging humanities scholars, to use the work of these and other writers as models for their own writing.

CLMD 6104F (11044) / ENGL 5002W
Issues in Cultural Politics

Prof. Paul Keen

Topic: Marxism Without Guarantees

This course, which takes its name from a Stuart Hall essay, explores the theoretical work of a tradition of Marxist and leftist critics aligned with what Edward Said has described as radical humanism. The first half of the course will focus on three of the most prominent writers within this tradition: Said, Raymond Williams, and Stuart Hall. The second half of the course will then focus on some of the major influences on these thinkers, such as Antonio Gramsci, György Lukács, Herbert Marcuse, and Lucien Goldman before finishing by discussing more recent theorists who have positioned themselves within and responded to this tradition. Some of the issues we will explore will be their work on questions of agency and hegemony, competing definitions of ideology, the role of the critic, historical materialism, the changing meaning and role of culture, and the changing contexts of Marxist theory today. We will focus on two essays each week, with suggested background readings for those who wish to do further work in any of these areas.

CLMD 6105W (11045) / ARTH 5500W / CDNS 5003C 

Issues in the Technologies of Culture

Prof. Carol Payne

Topic: Photography, Memory, Archive

“For me the noise of Time is not sad: I love bells, clocks, watches — and I recall that at first photographic implements were related to techniques of cabinetmaking and the machinery of precision: cameras, in short, were clocks for seeing, and perhaps in me someone very old still hears in the photographic mechanism the living sound of the wood.”   

–Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography  

This seminar will address the role that photography plays in conceptualizations of memory. The class will engage with the rich body of theory drawn from Memory Studies, Photo Studies, and the critique of the archive.  As part of our exploration of photography and memory, we will also draw on work from photographic archives in the National Capital.

CLMD 6900T (31050/11046)
Research and Professional Development

Prof. Pascal Gin

This course is a continuation of CLMD 6900 in the first semester. See above for course description.

CLMD 6901F (11047)
Directed Readings in Cultural Mediations

This tutorial is designed to permit students to pursue research on topics chosen in consultation with members of faculty and the graduate supervisor.

CLMD 6902W (11069) / FILM 5203W
Special Topic in Cultural Mediations

Prof. Malini Guha

Topic: Making and Re-making the World: Cross Disciplinary Activations of Geographical Thinking

This seminar will ask students to engage in “geographical thinking” as it pertains to historical and speculative acts of world-making across a range of case studies, including films. The course will be designed in accordance with the logics of traction and flight; as we will study repeatable structures and forms, such as the property form and its links to the making of settler colonial worlds while also studying scholarly, artistic and critical propositions for new structures, formations and ways of inhabiting the world that are rooted in anticolonial and anti-carceral thinking and aspirations.

CLMD 6903W (11049) / MUSI 5200B / CURA 5003X
Special Topic in Cultural Mediations

Prof. Ellen Waterman

Topic: Research Creation: Theory and Method

Research-creation is an interdisciplinary theory/practice that takes place at the intersections of both research and creative practice, where each affects the other. In this course, we will explore theories and methods of research-creation across fine arts, music, and performance contexts. Research-creation design may employ traditional social science and humanities methodologies, but it may also embrace experimentation, improvisation, and community-engagement. The course will be useful for anyone curious about research-creation, but especially valuable for students who are using research-creation in thesis or other projects. Students will design and prototype a research-creation project and present it in a small class symposium.

CLMD 6908W (CRN 11050)
Comprehensive II

A discipline-specific examination in a specialized area of study chosen by the student in consultation with the graduate supervisor. Students will choose from one of the following comprehensive areas: Literary Studies; Visual Culture; Musical Culture; New Technologies.

CLMD 6909W (CRN 11051)
Ph.D. Thesis