Graduate courses
These summaries are not official course outlines. You will receive detailed course outlines for all courses you're registered in on the first day of class.
Courses are dependent upon enrollment numbers.
Search for classes in Online Tools to confirm dates, days, times and locations.
Fall 2026 500-level courses
SOCI 503 - Foundations of Sociological Explanations
Instructor: Simon Carrol
Schedule: Wednesdays 10:00 a.m. - 12:50 p.m.
Delivery: In Person
Course Description
TBD
SOCI 515: Qualitative Research
Instructor: Garry Gray
Schedule: Tuesdays 1:00 - 3:50 p.m.
Delivery: In Person
Course Description
SOCI 515 is a graduate seminar devoted to building a rigorous foundation in qualitative research methods. This course equips graduate researchers with the theoretical, methodological, and practical tools needed to design, conduct, and evaluate qualitative research. Students will engage with the ontological and epistemological underpinnings of qualitative inquiry, explore a range of methodological approaches, and develop core analytical and research design skills.
SOCI 515 is also the required prerequisite for SOCI 616: Advanced Strategies in Qualitative Research. The two courses are intentionally designed as a sequence: students who complete SOCI 515 will leave with a solid methodological foundation and the groundwork for an original research project they can carry directly into SOCI 616 and develop into a publication-ready journal article.
Professional Development
SOCI 515 is designed with the professional development of graduate researchers at its centre. Becoming a qualitative social scientist is not simply a matter of learning techniques. It requires developing a scholarly identity, a methodological sensibility, and the practical skills to execute research independently and rigorously.
To support this, the course includes dedicated online asynchronous weeks specifically designed to build professional development and applied research skills alongside the core seminar content. These sessions ensure that students are not only learning about qualitative research but actively developing the habits and competencies of a working researcher.
Applied Research Component
A distinctive feature of SOCI 515 is its applied research component, which connects coursework directly to each student's own graduate research program. For their final project, students will develop an original research proposal that can serve as the foundation for their MA thesis or major research paper.
Where applicable, students will also complete a UVic Human Research Ethics (HRE) application as part of this process. This is a genuinely valuable professional exercise: ethics clearance is required for most independent graduate research involving data collection, and every component of the HRE application maps directly onto what students will need to defend their MA research proposal. Completing it in SOCI 515 means students arrive at that milestone fully prepared.
Because SOCI 515 and SOCI 616 are taught by the same instructor, the research developed in SOCI 515 can move seamlessly into SOCI 616. Students can build on their projects across both courses, and office hours become an extension of an ongoing and productive research conversation. This continuity is particularly valuable for students who are in the early stages of developing their MA thesis or major research paper.
What Students Will Do
- Build a rigorous graduate-level foundation in qualitative research methods
- Engage with the ontological and epistemological foundations of qualitative inquiry
- Explore a range of qualitative methodological approaches used across the social sciences
- Develop an original research proposal applicable to their MA thesis or major research paper
- Complete a UVic HRE application where applicable
- Participate in dedicated professional development sessions through online asynchronous weeks
- Lay the groundwork for original research that can be carried directly into SOCI 616
The SOCI 515 to SOCI 616 Pathway
SOCI 515 and SOCI 616 are designed as a connected two-course sequence for graduate students who are serious about qualitative research. SOCI 515 builds the foundation. SOCI 616 puts it to work. Students who move through both SOCI 515 and SOCI 616 courses will emerge with a complete and methodologically grounded research project, hands-on experience with qualitative data analysis software, a formal conference presentation, and a publication-ready journal article. For graduate students looking to build their research profile and professional skill set, this sequence offers one of the most direct and practical pathways available.
Prerequisites
SOCI 374 or permission of the instructor.
Please Note
- Required course resources will be confirmed by the first day of class.
- This course does not permit auditing.
- In-person seminars will not be recorded or posted online.
- The above description is intended to provide a general overview only. A detailed and official course outline will be distributed to all registered students on the first day of class, and only that outline is to be considered official.
- For questions related to enrollment, please contact the Graduate Advisor or Graduate Program Assistant.
Instructor: Steve Garlick
Schedule: Thursdays 1:00 - 3:50 p.m.
Delivery: In Person
Course Description
This course will provide students with the opportunity to engage in depth with the field of study generally known as critical studies on men and masculinities (CSMM). This is a field of study with deep origins in sociology, but which has expanded to become a transdisciplinary field today. Hence, we will explore a variety of perspectives and scholarly work on men and masculinities across different areas of social life.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, students should: (1) have a solid understanding of the development of the field of CSMM; (2) have familiarity with contemporary issues and debates in the field; and (3) have developed their abilities to examine the relevance of men and masculinities in their own research work.
Topics Covered
We will begin with the foundational work of Raewyn Connell and move from there to consider the most influential contemporary theoretical perspectives and debates in the field of CSMM, including work on sexuality as well as transgender, racialized, and Indigenous men and masculinities. In the second half of the term, we will examine how perspectives from CSMM can be used to approach topics such as the climate crisis, anti-feminism and the ‘manosphere’, gendered violence, sports and gambling, nationalist populisms and the far right. Topics may be adjusted according to students’ interests.
Course Organization & Coursework
This is a seminar-style course. Students will each present and lead the discussion of the readings in at least one class session. Students will write weekly response papers and a final research paper.
Required Resources
All required course readings will be made available via CourseSpaces.
SOCI 598 - Major Research Paper
Delivery: on-campus
SOCI 598 - Major Research Paper
Delivery: off-campus
Delivery: on-campus
Delivery: off-campus
Fall 2026 600-level courses
SOCI 693 A01 - PhD Candidacy Examinations
Delivery: on-campus
SOCI 693 A02 - PhD Candidacy Examinations
Delivery: off-campus
SOCI 699 A01 - PhD Dissertation
Delivery: on-campus
SOCI 699 A01 - PhD Dissertation
Delivery: off-campus
Spring 2027 500-level courses
SOCI 504 - Current Issues in Social Theory
Instructor: Steve Garlick
Schedule: Thursdays 1:00 - 3:50pm
Delivery: In Person
Course Description
Social theorizing has always been informed by different materialisms, and this course examines how materialist theories have persisted and re-emerged in different forms through the linguistic and cultural turns of the late 20th century, with particular concern for how these shifts inform our understandings of key sociological concepts such as power, order, freedom, and social change. The course is divided into two parts. The first part focuses on key 20th-century theorists whose work has implications for materialist theorizing. The second part takes up recent developments in new materialist social theorizing, with particular attention to their relationships to forms of Indigenous theorizing. The course offers students the opportunity to engage with some of the most important and influential social theories and theorists of recent decades.
Course Objectives
By the end of the course, students should: (1) have a solid understanding of many theorists whose work informs much contemporary social theorizing; (2) have familiarity with contemporary issues and debates in social theory; and (3) have developed their abilities to theorize in relation to their own areas of research interest.
Topics Covered
We will begin with the Frankfurt School of critical theory, which in certain respects anticipates aspects of recent new materialist theories. We then work our way through the writings of a number of key late-twentieth-century thinkers (e.g., Fanon, Bourdieu, Foucault, & Butler) whose work is both influential today and of consequence for materialist theorizing. In the second half of the term, we will move on to examine some of the most significant developments in recent social theorizing associated with posthumanism, complexity, biopolitical capitalism, affect, Indigenous theorizing, and feminist new materialisms.
Course Organization & Coursework
This is a seminar-style course. Students will each present and lead the discussion of the readings in at least one class session. Students will write weekly response papers and a final research paper. All coursework is designed to assist students in developing their abilities to engage in theorizing.
SOCI 507 - Intermediate Social Statistics
Instructor: Min Zhou
Schedule: Lecture: Mondays 10:00 - 12:50. Lab: Thurdays 10 - 10:50am
Delivery: In Person
Course Description
The purpose of this course is to introduce useful statistical methods (especially multivariate regression models) for social scientists, including various extensions of linear models, logistic models, and count models.
In each class, we will both study the statistical model and its empirical application in substantive fields. For sociology students, the most helpful way to study a statistical model is to look at how it can be employed to address sociological questions in practice.
The course provides an overview of useful techniques, rather than going into great technical details. We will discuss some pertinent statistical theories in class sessions, but the emphasis will be on applications.
You will learn to conduct data analysis with the aid of a software package Stata. The computing facilities on campus have Stata on their computers. If you would like to work with Stata on your own computer, you may want to purchase a student copy of the Strata software. As an important part of this course, the lab will provide instruction on how to use Stata.
Attendance at labs is mandatory. The labs reinforce the material introduced during lecture and provide an opportunity to practice running models and interpreting the output. Students will be evaluated through lab homework assignments, an in-class exam and a quantitative research paper which will require synthesizing the course and lab material using the analysis tools learned.
Course Objectives
At the end of this course, you should have sufficient familiarity with regression techniques to (1) feel more confident reading literature that uses advanced regression techniques, and (2) apply these procedures properly in your own research.
This course will also lay the foundation for more advanced studies in statistical models. It is hoped that some of you will use the methods learned in this course in your own thesis/dissertation research.
Prerequisites
This course is intended to build upon the statistical knowledge students have acquired in Sociology 271. That is, I assume that students have had Sociology 271 or equivalent.
For students who completed their undergraduate training elsewhere, this implies one semester course in statistics, covering basic descriptive and inferential statistics, ideally including bivariate regression analysis.
SOCI 545 - Critical & Theoretical Approaches to Indigenous Health
Instructor: Athena Madan
Schedule: Wednesdays 10 a.m. - 12:50 p.m.
Delivery: In Person
Course Description
This course examines Indigenous health through Indigenous, relational, decolonial, feminist, anti-racist, and critical social theories to explore Indigenous understandings of health, wellbeing, governance, embodiment, land, and inequity across Indigenous contexts. Students will engage key debates concerning colonialism, biopolitics, relationality, sovereignty, environmental injustice, cultural continuity, Indigenous resurgence, and Indigenous critiques of Western health paradigms and universalising models of knowledge / practice.
We will pay attention to themes of reflexivity, relational accountability, and the ethical responsibilities of engaging Indigenous health scholarship across research, policy, and practice contexts. While grounded primarily in Indigenous health scholarship and contexts in what is now Canada, the course also engages broader global Indigenous and anti-colonial theoretical conversations.
This is a seminar-based course. As such, learning will emphasise in-depth reading, reflexive engagement, and discursive approaches. Drawing additionally on Indigenous pedagogies that value relationality and collective knowledge-making, students will take turns presenting and facilitating weekly readings while taking up course themes in relation to their own research interests and social locations.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, students should be able to:
- Identify major theoretical approaches informing contemporary Indigenous health scholarship;
- Analyse Indigenous health within historical, political, cultural, environmental, and institutional contexts;
- Critically engage debates concerning colonialism, sovereignty, relationality, governance, and the social / political determinants of health;
- Critically reflect on the relationships among theory, knowledge production, institutional practices, and students’ own disciplinary and social locations;
- Apply theoretical, relational, and reflexive frameworks in Indigenous health research, policy, and practice contexts.
Possible readings may include:
- Glen Sean Coulthard, Red Skin, White Masks: Rejecting the Colonial Politics of Recognition
- Sarah Hunt, Against abstraction: Reclaiming and reorienting to embodied collective knowledges of solidarity
- Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui, Ch’ixinakax utxiwa
- Marisol de la Cadena, Earth Beings
- Bagele Chilisa, Indigenous Research Methodologies
SOCI 598 - Major Research Paper
Delivery: on-campus
SOCI 598 - Major Research Paper
Delivery: off-campus
Delivery: on-campus
Delivery: off-campus
Spring 2027 600-level courses
SOCI 693 A01 - PhD Candidacy Examinations
Delivery: on-campus
SOCI 693 A02 - PhD Candidacy Examinations
Delivery: off-campus
SOCI 699 A01 - PhD Dissertation
Delivery: on-campus
SOCI 699 A02 - PhD Dissertation
Delivery: on-campus
SOCI 616 - Advanced Strategies in Qualitative Research
Instructor: Garry Gray
Schedule: Tuesdays 1:00 - 3:50pm
Delivery: In Person
Course Description
SOCI 616 is an applied graduate seminar devoted to the practice of qualitative research. Building directly on the methodological foundations established in SOCI 515, this course moves from theory to application and students will design and carry out original, independent research of their own choosing.
The course is intentionally hands-on and professionally oriented. If SOCI 515 was about building a methodological foundation, SOCI 616 is about putting it to work. The central goal of the course is the production of a complete, publication-ready academic journal article. This is not a hypothetical exercise. Many students from previous iterations of this course have gone on to successfully publish their work, and that remains a genuine and achievable outcome for every student who enrolls.
One of the distinctive strengths of this course is its flexibility and direct relevance to students at every stage of their graduate journey. Past students have used the research they developed in this course as the foundation for their MA thesis, as a chapter in their PhD dissertation, as a starting point for their Major Research Paper, and as a standalone journal article submission. Whatever your current research goals, this course is designed to move them forward in a meaningful and concrete way.
Professional Development
SOCI 616 is designed with the professional development of graduate researchers at its centre. The skills cultivated here are the core competencies expected of a working qualitative social scientist: designing and executing a qualitative study, analyzing data systematically, writing for academic publication, and presenting research confidently to a scholarly audience.
In addition to producing a journal article, students will develop and deliver a formal conference-style presentation of their research. The ability to communicate original work clearly and persuasively is one of the most valuable skills a researcher can develop, and students will leave this course having practiced it in a structured and collegial seminar environment. These are not just course assignments. They are the building blocks of a scholarly career.
Applied Skills & Training
A central component of the course is hands-on training in qualitative data analysis. Students will learn to code and systematically analyze qualitative data both manually and using computer-aided qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS). Multiple QDA software platforms will be introduced, giving students practical exposure to the tools used across the discipline and equipping them to make informed methodological decisions in their own ongoing and future research.
What Students Will Do
- Develop research that can serve as an MA thesis component, a PhD dissertation chapter, a Major Research Paper, or a standalone publication
- Design and execute an original qualitative research project
- Code and analyze qualitative data manually and with QDA software
- Gain direct exposure to multiple qualitative data analysis software platforms
- Write a complete, publication-ready journal article
- Deliver a formal conference-style research presentation
- Graduate with a portfolio of applied research skills and potentially a publication
Prerequisites
SOCI 515 or equivalent graduate-level qualitative methods course. This is strictly enforced.
Please Note
- Required course resources will be confirmed by the first day of class.
- This course does not permit auditing.
- In-person seminars will not be recorded or posted online.
- The above description is intended to provide a general overview only. A detailed and official course outline will be distributed to all registered students on the first day of class, and only that outline is to be considered official.
- For questions related to enrollment, please contact the Graduate Advisor or Graduate Program Assistant.