Capstone Courses

This senior seminar is offered as a capstone to studies in international relations and political science. It will focus on current issues in foreign policy from the perspective of the practitioner. Professor Wright was Canadian Ambassador to NATO and Assistant Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for Europe. How are decisions taken in crisis situations and how are broad foreign policy directions determined? The period covered will be from the fall of the Berlin Wall to the present day. How has Russia’s invasion of Ukraine changed geopolitics? Can turmoil in the Middle East be contained? How can the rules-based international order be preserved and strengthened? What is the future of the struggle between democracy and autocracy? American and Canadian foreign policies will be analyzed, as will the influence of domestic politics. The result of the US election in November 2024 and its impact on the global role of the US will be discussed. Any current crisis will be given historical and strategic context. There will be a good deal of debate and discussion in the class.  

This Vic Capstone Colloquium is a half-course taught over the full academic year. The Colloquium provides instruction, support, and practical experience for developing and increasing leadership  and mentorship skills, with in-course feedback and a final roundtable presentation. Students gain practical mentorship experience through placement in first-year Victoria College courses. Part of the course will focus on a theoretical orientation of mentorship, and will prepare you with strategies and skills for your practicum experience which will allow you to meet and work with a group of first-year students assigned to you (the students will be enrolled in the VIC One Hundred series of courses or similar). In this course, students will also examine higher education as a space of appearance, a place of belonging, and a system shaped by discursive practice.  

This seminar provides academic support for individual work placements in a specific sector of employment, through interdisciplinary readings, integrative discussion, and critical reflection on the culture of labour and the acquisition of workplace skills and experience. Assignments will include reflective exercises and critical analyses, leading to participation in a capstone seminar. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

Not eligible for CR/NCR option.