尼皮辛大学

GESJ is an interdisciplinary program with courses in the areas of Culture and Criticism, Power and Inequality, and Human Rights and Social Justice. We ask how race, class, colonialism, ability, sex, and gender intersect in everyday acts of power, oppression, activism, and resistance.

This program will provide you with highly transferrable skills in critical thinking, research, writing, argumentation, analysis, and communication.

As one of few programs of its kind in Canada, the GESJ program will teach you to think critically about who has the power in the world, and why, as well as how to resist, shape, and change power for social justice. This program is highly interdisciplinary with close links to Social Welfare and Social Development, Religions and Cultures, Political Science, and Philosophy, and is designed for those with interests in critical studies of popular culture; the politics of resisting inequality through the law; globalization and human rights; violent conflict and international justice; transnational organizing for social justice; histories of colonization; feminist philosophies; postmodernism; theories of justice; and the intersections of race, class, ability, sex and gender.

Students of the GESJ Department will receive a broad liberal education in Humanities and Social Sciences. Through a range of interdisciplinary perspectives, you will examine the social and cultural constructions of gender, sexuality, race and class, and how these social categories relate to our knowledge, experience, relationships and the quality of our lives.

Culture and Criticism Stream

From the social media sites that we check every day to the TV shows that we stream at night, media are central in forging our identities, connecting with others, and understanding the world around us. With close attention to representations of sex, gender, race, class, and sexuality, Culture and Criticism courses critically analyze how media reflect and dramatize social inequalities and transformations.

Power and Inequality Stream

What is power? How does it work? How might institutions—such as law, government, media, medical science, education, religion, the economy—produce inequality on the basis of gender, sexuality, race, economic class, and disability? How are cultural values and representations, various forms of violence, and our “every day practices” (such as taking a shower, caring for our pet, on-line shopping, and expressions of intimacy and sexual desire), linked to the wider social organization of power locally and globally? How have social justice activists challenged systems of inequality at different sites and in different eras? Courses in the Power and Inequality stream cover a broad range of interrelated systems of power: colonialism, hetero-patriarchy, white supremacy, global/capitalism, religion, and anthropocentrism.

Human Rights and Social Justice Stream

Courses in this stream examine the gendered, raced, economic and geopolitical dimensions to human rights violations. We also examine human rights advocacy in specific local and global contexts and practices: war, peace, prisons, schools, museums, workplaces, sex work, development, trafficking, torture, and everyday violence.

GESJ is a broad, interdisciplinary program. Because of that, your career options are very broad. You may choose to pursue a career as a researcher, administrator, lawyer, clinical counselor, or policy analyst, among other options.

Career and Academic Options

Graduate Studies

Professional School (Education, Law, MBA, Social Work)

Careers in non-profit and community-based organizations, media communications, government, international organizations, health and welfare, research, and advocacy