In addition to degree programs, the department is a participating member of several Collaborative Specializations. These innovative programs emerge from cooperation between several units, providing students with a broader base from which to explore a novel interdisciplinary area or special development in a particular discipline, to complement their degree studies.
Collaborative Specializations provide a structured program of study, including appropriate graduate supervision, courses, and seminars. Students may indicate their interest in admission to a Collaborative Specialization on their application for graduate studies, however most units offering a Collaborative Specialization require that students submit a separate application and may have additional admission requirements. Please consult the offering unit’s website for admission requirements.
All degree requirements of both the degree program and the Collaborative Specialization must be completed. The thesis/MRP must be on a topic related to the specialization. Upon successful completion of both degree and collaborative specialization requirements, students receive a notation “Completed Collaborative Specialization in (Specialization Name) on their transcript and an official parchment from the School of Graduate Studies.
Environment and Health
The health implications of human impacts on the environment cover a very broad range of issues including air and water quality, contaminated land, and shifts in the distribution of vector-borne diseases (related to changes in land use, climate, and human migration). The Environment and Health Collaborative Specialization provides students in the health sciences with a broad environmental perspective while at the same time exposes environmental studies students to the health implications of environmental quality. This program may also be of interest to students who are concerned with sociological and policy approaches to the field of environment and health.
PhD Planning students enrolled in this specialization must complete the below requirements:
- PLA2000H
- ENV4001H
- JPG1111H or alternate methods course
- PLA2001H
- One elective course in environment (0.5 FCE)
- One elective course in any subject (0.5 FCE)
Environmental Studies
The Collaborative Specialization in Environmental Studies provides students who have an interest in the environment with interdisciplinary learning that complements the discipline-based study they are doing in their home units. That learning takes place in both the formal courses offered by the School and in the informal contacts with other students and faculty at seminars and other School events. One of the compelling strengths of the specialization is the interdisciplinary environment in which teaching and research are conducted. For example, the core course ENV1001H typically has students from 10 to 20 academic disciplines and accordingly places an emphasis upon the challenges and rewards of interdisciplinary communication. Students are both able to specialize in an area of environmental research and gain exposure to a wide range of intellectual and methodological disciplines focused on environmental issues.
PhD Planning students enrolled in this specialization must complete the below requirements:
- PLA2000H
- ENV1001H
- JPG1111H or alternate methods course
- PLA2001H
- One elective course in environment (0.5 FCE)
- One elective course in any subject (0.5 FCE)
Global Health
The graduate programs listed above participate in the Collaborative Specialization in Global Health. This specialization offers students collaborative and interdisciplinary graduate education and research opportunities in global health. Global health is viewed as an integrative construct that focuses on the inter-relationships between local, regional, national, and international factors influencing health and health equity and effective programs and policies that will address these factors.
The Collaborative Specialization in Global Health enhances the student experience by exposing students to a broad base of faculty expertise and an opportunity to share research ideas and results from multiple disciplinary perspectives. This specialization signals the University’s commitment to improving the well-being of people in Canada and around the world through higher education and advanced research in global health.
PhD Planning students enrolled in this specialization must complete the below requirements:
- PLA2000H
- CHL5701H
- JPG1111H or alternate methods course
- PLA2001H
- One elective course in global health (0.5 FCE)
- One elective course in any subject (0.5 FCE)
Women and Gender Studies (MA, PhD)
The Graduate Collaborative Specialization in Women and Gender Studies provides students with an opportunity for advanced feminist studies in concert with an MA or PhD degree in another discipline. The Collaborative Specialization offers a rich interdisciplinary environment in which to grapple with how gender and sexuality are entangled with questions of race, citizenship, embodiment, colonialism, nation, global capitalism, violence, political economy, cultural formations, aesthetics, and other pressing concerns.
PhD Planning students enrolled in this specialization must complete the below requirements:
- PLA2000H
- WGS5000H or WGS5001H
- JPG1111H or alternate methods course
- PLA2001H
- Two elective courses in WGS (1.0 FCE)