No matter how much you hated exams, essays and 8 a.m. classes, there's something about September that makes us want to be students again — but just for the courses that we'll actually enjoy, this time around, of course.
As it turns out, there's plenty of interest to be found at Canada's post-secondary institutions. A look at schools across the country has uncovered that it's not all law or math classes on offer. Or more accurately, there are plenty of law and math classes on offer, but they come with angles anyone would care about, like learning about organized crime in North America, or discovering probability theory through Texas Hold'em.
That's not to say there isn't plenty for the pop culture junkie as well (hello full Harry Potter literature course! How's it going, LOLcat grammar class?). No matter what you cared about as a student, or have a passion for now, there's probably an academic standing at the front of a classroom, leading a discussion on it.
Read on, and weep with jealousy over how good Generation Y really has it.
Brewing Science: The History, Culture And Science Of Beer
Where: University of King's College
Department: History of Science and Technology
What it's all about: "The development of the modern world, with its emphasis on measurement and calculation, sanitation movements, tax reforms, bacteriology, and experiments on life, culminating in 19th century thermodynamic theory, is intimately connected to brewing interests ... This 'special topics' class will take a selective interdisciplinary approach to the study of the relation between brewing history, science and 'the modern'."
History Of Video Games And Interactive Media
Where: University of Victoria
Department: Faculty of Fine Arts
What it's all about: "The History of Video Games will look back at not only influential games and designers, evolving genres and technological innovations but will also study the integration of sound, visual art, narrative and interactive game play. Classes will consider emergent sub-cultures and online communities while debating social controversies, media depictions and the internationalization of gaming culture." And yes, will discuss how Space Wars — not Pong — was the first real video game.
Gangsters, Goodfellas and Wiseguys: North American Perspectives of Organized Crime
Where: Wilfrid Laurier
Department: Criminology
What it's all about: "This course covers the history, trends and patterns of organized crime in the United States and Canada, including an examination the Five Families of New York, the Chicago Outfit, and the experience of organized crime in cities such as Montreal, Las Vegas, Philadelphia and Boston."
History Whodunits
Where: Wilfrid Laurier
Department: Arts First-Year Seminar
What it's all about: "Using a problem-based approach and the Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History website as our 'textbook', this course explores historical "cold cases" in depth. Students become detectives, working with a vast digital archive of texts, maps, images, and multimedia, learning how to weigh evidence, assess all the possibilities, and unravel (or at least, explain) some of the great unsolved mysteries in Canadian History."
Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe
Where: University of King's College
Department: Early Modern Studies
What it's all about: "The period of European history from 1500 to 1800 saw the rise of modern science and philosophy. It was also a period in which thousands of witch trials and executions were carried out. This course will seek to understand how these seemingly contradictory developments could have occurred simultaneously."
Religion and Disney
Department: Religious Studies
What it's all about: "This course provides an in-depth examination of the religious themes and issues arising from and within the Disney franchise, including Disney Animated feature films, other Disney films and cartoons, and the Disney theme parks. The course will explore the religious convictions of Walt Disney himself, and the impact of his philosophies on the Disney franchise."
British Drama in Performance
Department: Faculty of Arts
What it's all about: Taught by 'This Hour Has 22 Minutes's' Mary Walsh, "students will attend plays in London, U.K., and other locations, write reviews, participate in seminars and keep a journal of their experiences."
Logarithm & Blues
Where: Simon Fraser
Department: Science Breadth
What it's all about: Music and physics, together at last. "An exploration of the production, propagation and perception of sound and music from an interdisciplinary perspective. The viewpoints of a professional musician and a physicist will be presented and compared."
Digital Lives
Where: University of Waterloo
Department: English
What it's all about: "An examination of how digital communication technologies create and promote online identities and social spaces, as well as interpersonal and communal interactions." And, according to the school, that includes LOLcat grammar, Facebook and selfies.
The Beatles
What it's all about: "This course addresses the musical, social, and cultural issues surrounding one of the most important rock groups of the twentieth century .. The course considers the Beatles’ albums from early covers of music by other artists to their own “song cycles” such as Sgt. Pepper and Revolver."
Where: Mount Allison University
Department: Music
Poker 101
What it's all about: You guessed it — a math classic disguised in poker terms. "An introduction to elementary probability theory, game theory, and the mathematical underpinning of games of chance, demonstrated through their applications to poker games such as Texas Hold'em."
Where: University of Ottawa
Department: Mathematics and Statistics
Graduate Seminar in Music, Gender and Sexuality
What it's all about: "The public may not have any idea that the role of gender and sexual orientation in the creation of classical music is something that one could study. What does a composer's gayness or straightness have to do with what they composed? How do we view the music they wrote through this light?"
Where: McGill University
Department: Schulich School of Music
Hot Cities of the World Tour
What it's all about: "A once in a lifetime opportunity to travel to Mongolia and South Korea (in 2014). Amidst sightseeing to 1,200 year old temples, going on horseback excursions, and visiting a towering statue of Genghis Khan, students met with business executives from a variety of industries such as banking, technology, and food and beverage as well as with public and non-profit leaders."
Where: McGill University (but around the world)
Department: Faculty of Management
Studies in Global Modernisms with a focus on Piracy
What it's all about: "Beginning with maritime piracy in the 18th century, and moving through pirate radio, digital piracy, and contemporary maritime piracy in the Gulf of Aden, the course will consider how artists from various geographies address notions of property, nationhood, collectivity, and violence in an age of globalization."
Department: Art History
All About Facebook
What it's all about: "Facebook use has been shown to influence various aspects of people's personal and social lives including communication patterns, social identity, popularity, privacy perceptions and social relationships, to name a few. This course will use Facebook as a vehicle for the delivery of knowledge and research skills related to the societal and social psychological impact of social media in our lives."
Where: University of Guelph
Department: First year seminars
Harry Potter
Where: Nipissing University
Department: English
What it's all about: "Areas of critical inquiry include generic tensions in the series between quest-romance, school story, detective story, and Bildungsroman; the relationship in the series between Christian myth and historical allegory; the textual treatment of class, race, and gender; the films (2001-2011) as adaptation; the series (books and films) as cultural phenomenon; transformative works (for example, fan fiction, fan vids, parodies, amateur musicals) in fandom."
The Roots of Evil
What it's all about: "What is evil? Can evil be reconciled with belief in God? How are we to respond to evil? Is evil still a useful category? This course explores such questions from historical and contemporary perspectives as they relate to both secular and religious ideas."
Where: Nipissing University
Department: Religions and Cultures
The Art of Seeing
What it's all about: This visual literacy course, designed specifically for Family Medicine residents, has students study fine works of art from the McMaster Museum of Art collection. This is in order to identify shapes, symbols and imagery from great works, which will help them to better diagnose, observe and identify symptoms in their patients.
Where: McMaster University
Department: Department of Family Medicine
Theories of the Body: Monsters, Freaks and Cyborgs
What it's all about: The social fascinations and anxieties surrounding the known and unknown; the rise of the freak show in late 19th/early 20th centuries; a look at "contemporary freak shows" in social media and on TV; ideas surrounding monsters and people being constructed as monstrous, and how being different does not equal monstrous/freakish; the idea of the criminal body being monstrous; and how we have "monstrousized" others through race and disability."
Where: University of PEI
Department: Diversity and Social Justice Studies
The Art of The Clown-Doctor
What it's all about: Learning the practice of clown-doctoring (literally, donning clown costumes and going into healthcare settings) in lifespan maintenance and therapeutic environments.
Where: Brock University
Department: Dramatic Arts
Wine and Winemaking
What it's all about: Scientifically training grape growers and wine makers in the heart of wine country.
Where: Brock University
Department: Oenology and Viticulture program
Hockey: Culture and Commerce
What it's all about: This most Canadian class ever examines "the cultural and business aspects of the sport of hockey .. The course explores such topics as fan identities, cultural memory and tradition, race and ethnicity, gender and youth culture, labour relations and free agency, salary caps and revenue sharing, minor hockey, audiences and the mass media, fighting and violence, league expansion and franchise relocations, and arena construction."
Where: University of Alberta
Department: Kinesiology
Tolkien: The Theology of Middle Earth
What it's all about: "This course seeks to critically appreciate the artistic vocation and theological vision of J.R.R. Tolkien while exploring a major work of 20th century literature."
Where: University of Alberta
Department: Religious Studies
Soccer In Brazil
What it's all about: "Tracing the historical forces behind the evolution of soccer in Brazil, from an elite sport to a national passion with unifying powers. Topics include: the transition to a slave-free society, immigration, the development of a national identity, urbanization, the military dictatorship, as well as gender divisions and the role of the media and economics behind the popularity of the sport."
Where: Saint Mary's University
Department: History
Yoga in India and the West
What it's all about: A class that surveys the history and philosophy of yoga in India and the West.
Where: Queen's University
Department: Religious Studies
Global and Domestic Governance of Tainted Finance
What it's all about: "Organized around anti-money laundering regulation, terrorist finance and international taxation, this course introduces and analyses the global regulation of tainted finance."
Where: University of Manitoba
Department: Faculty of Law
Pow Wow to Proscenium
What it's all about: "This course will examine traditional Indigenous dances and explore how they may be used to generate contemporary dance movement and choreography for staged performances."
Department: Indigenous Fine Arts/UR Theatre
Path of the Warrior: History, Philosophy, Ethics, and Practice in Eastern Martial Arts
What it's all about: This course will survey the beginning and historical evolution of eastern martial arts, including the philosophical undercurrent that surrounds eastern martial arts and Zen Buddhism. Students will be exposed to the code of the Samurai (Bushido), the mighty feudal warrior class, whose moral code is still at the core of Japanese social, political and corporate structure.
Where: Algoma University
Department: History
Medicinal and Hallucinogenic Plants
What it's all about: "A botanical and historical survey of medicinal, hallucinogenic and poisonous plants used in various cultures."
Where: University of Manitoba
Department: Department of Biological Sciences
The Many Faces Of Harry Potter
What it's all about: This course examines the Harry Potter series in relation to the gothic novel, detective fiction, fantasy, adventure, and even the dystopian novel.
Where: Western University
Department: English
Fetish Appeal: Desire and Consumption
What it's all about: This course probes the role of pleasure, desire and power in contemporary consumer culture, especially around objects of consumption, such as so-called designer goods or iconic products such as the KitchenAid mixer or the Ipod.
Where: York University
Department: Humanities
Apocalyptic Science Fiction
What it's all about: "Cautionary warnings concerning potential misuse of science and technology have become a defining feature of the best imaginative fiction of our time. This course will consider the (post)apocalyptic as both genre and mode; as both a major branch of fantastic literature and a speculative scenario in literature, radio, film, manga, graphic novels and gaming."
Where: York University
Department: English
Rap Linguistics
What it's all about: A linguist's approach to analyzing language used by rappers like Eminem, Jay-Z and Kanye West in their music. The class will also look at the evolution of hip hop language and its impact on language as a whole in the western world.
Where: University of Calgary
Department: Linguistics