Contemporary Studies

Interpret today

The contemporary period is marked by continuous transformation, with new challenges but also new possibilities for change emerging constantly. The Contemporary Studies Program (CSP) engages with the ideas, thinkers and movements that have contributed to new understandings of the world, community, self and other. In CSP you will:

choose from a wide range of interdisciplinary courses that explore ideas about ethics, aesthetics, and politics; contemporary art, modern film, and digital media; new biotechnologies, nature, environment, and the body, and many others;
consider the place of science and technology in the contemporary world and challenge the supposed dichotomy of science and culture;
engage with texts by environmental philosophers, thinkers of the Global South, Indigenous thinkers and race and gender theorists;
participate in classes on transformative thinkers such as Ludwig Wittgenstein, Hannah Arendt, Judith Butler, bell hooks, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson and Michel Foucault;
conduct conceptual analyses of issues such as marginalization, social justice, migration and belonging, freedom and responsibility, while incorporating a range of critical perspectives;
participate in innovative teaching and learning environments; for example, laboratory observation sessions, community-outreach, and gallery visits;
use critical skills and creative talents.

Find out what’s new in the program

CSP+ News & Events Courses

Study abroad in Berlin

This month-long Contemporary Studies elective provides an opportunity to explore the themes of collective memory, public space, and historical trauma in Germany’s capital city. Through daily seminars, site visits, and museum tours, you learn about the political, architectural, and social stakes of the struggle to take responsibility for history in a city that is both burdened with the past and alive to the future.

Find out more

Publish your work

Hinge is an academic journal written, edited and published annually by the students in the Contemporary Studies Program. It is interdisciplinary in scope, not only because of the variety of academic backgrounds of our peers and contributors, but because an interdisciplinary approach is fundamental to understanding any aspect of the contemporary world. The papers are revised versions of the work produced by the students in Contemporary Studies program classes.

Read the latest volume

Course Requirements

Combined Honours

Contemporary Studies Program students are required to take the program’s three core course doublets:

CTMP 2001.03 & CTMP 2002.03 (or CTMP 2000.06)
CTMP 3001.03 & CTMP 3002.03 (or CTMP 3000.06)
CTMP 4001.03 & CTMP 4002.03 (or CTMP 4000.06)

plus at least twelve credit hours CSP electives.

The requirements for the second honours subject are dependent on that department, and vary from program to program. Students may fulfil the honours requirement in either of the two honours subjects. Usually, this subject will be the one in which the student has taken more classes. The honours requirement in CSP is satisfied by writing an honours thesis, which is defended at an oral examination.

MINOR

You can take a minor in CSP to complement your degree. Understand the contemporary world by choosing from a wide range of courses in the areas of social and political thought, science and culture, and aesthetics, literature and literary theory, and film.

Complete a minimum of 18 credit hours to a maximum of 27 credit hours including:

One of the core course doublets:
- CTMP 2001.03 & CTMP 2002.03 (or CTMP 2000.06)
  * Both CTMP 2001.03 & CTMP 2002.03 must normally be taken in the same academic year to meet this requirement.
- CTMP 3001.03 & CTMP 3002.03 (or CTMP 3000.06)
  *Both CTMP 3001.03 & CTMP 3002.03 must normally be taken in the same academic year to meet this requirement.
- CTMP 4001.03 & CTMP 4002.03 (or CTMP 4000.06)
  *Both CTMP 4001.03 & CTMP 4002.03 must normally be taken in the same academic year to meet this requirement.
6 credit hours at the 3000 or 4000 level. CTMP 3001.03 & CTMP 3002.03 (or CTMP 3000.06) OR CTMP 4001.03 & CTMP 4002.03 (or CTMP 4000.06) will also fulfill this requirement).
6 credit hours at any level.

Explore courses

Core Courses

: Modern Social and Political Thought I: Politics of Recognition; CTMP 2001.03

Fall; KTS Lecture Hall

M 1335-1525

W 1335-1425

: Modern Social and Political Thought II: Challenging Recognition; CTMP 2002.03

Winter; KTS Lecture Hall

M 1335-1525

W 1335-1425

: Science and Culture I: The Discourses of Modernity; CTMP 3001.03 / HSTC 3031.03

Fall; Archibald Room

M 1535-1725

W 1535-1625

: Science and Culture II: Resetting the Modern; CTMP 3002.03/HSTC 3032.03

Winter; Archibald Room

M 1535-1725

W 1535-1625

: The Deconstruction of the Tradition I: Language and Dispossession; CTMP 4001.03

Fall; Archibald Room

M 1035-1225

W 1035-1125

: The Deconstruction of the Tradition II: Precarities; CTMP 4002.03

Winter; Archibald Room

M 1035-1225

W 1035-1125

Electives

: Modern Social and Political Thought I: Politics of Recognition; CTMP 2001.03

Fall; KTS Lecture Hall

M 1335-1525

W 1335-1425

: Modern Social and Political Thought II: Challenging Recognition; CTMP 2002.03

Winter; KTS Lecture Hall

M 1335-1525

W 1335-1425

: Apocalypse: The Revolutionary Transformation of Politics and Culture; CTMP 2101.03

Winter; Scotiabank Room

T 1735–2025

: The Idea of Race in Philosophy, Literature, and Art; CTMP 2115.03/BAFD 2115.03

Winter; Scotiabank Room

MW 1005-1125

: Society, Politics and Literature; CTMP 2150.03

Winter; Scotiabank Room

TR 1605-1725

: Bio-Politics: Human Nature in Contemporary Thought; CTMP2203.03/HSTC2206.03

Winter; Classroom 1

W 1735-2025

: Environmentalism: origins, ideals and critique; CTMP2206.03/HSTC2209.03

Fall; Scotiabank Room

TR 1605-1725

: Ideas of the Sea and Seafaring: Intercultural Perspectives; EMSP 2490.03/CTMP 2207.03/HSTC 2220.03

Fall; KTS Lecture Hall

TR 1305-1425

: Pain; CTMP2301.03

Fall; KTS Lecture Hall

MW 1605-1725

: The Vampire: Modernity and the Undead; EMSP 2313.03/CTMP 2313.03

Fall; KTS Lecture Hall

T 1735-2025

: Reflections on Death; CTMP2330.03

Fall; KTS Lecture Hall

TR 1435-1555

: Feminisms: the First Three Waves; CTMP 2350.03 / GWST 2350.03

Fall; Archibald Room

TR 1005-1125

: Science and Culture I: The Discourses of Modernity; CTMP 3001.03 / HSTC 3031.03

Fall; Archibald Room

M 1535-1725

W 1535-1625

: Science and Culture II: Resetting the Modern; CTMP 3002.03/HSTC 3032.03

Winter; Archibald Room

M 1535-1725

W 1535-1625

: The Rise of Nietzscheanism; CTMP 3104.03

Fall; Shatford Room

MW 1005-1125

: The Nietzschean Legacy; CTMP 3105.03

Winter; Shatford Room

MW 1005-1125

: The Ideal World of Enlightenment: Desire and Freedom; CTMP3110.03/EMSP3210.03

Fall; Frazee Room

T 1735-2025

: The Real World of Enlightenment: Time and History; CTMP3115.03/EMSP3220.03

Winter; Frazee Room

T 1735-2025

: Theories of Punishment; EMSP 3430.03/CTMP 3170.03

Fall; Online/Asynchronous

: Science and Religion: Contemporary Perspectives; HSTC 3201.03 / CTMP 3201.03 / RELS 3201.03 / HIST 3076.03

Winter; Classroom 1

TR 1605-1725

: Human Experiments; HSTC3101.03/CTMP3204.03

Winter; Classroom 1

TR 1005-1125

: Culture, Politics and the Post-Colonial Condition; CTMP 3311.03

Fall; Seminar 7

TR 1605-1725

: Representations of the Holocaust: Remembrance; CTMP3322.03

Fall; Archibald Room

TR 1605-1725

: Girls and Girlhood; CTMP 3355.03/GWST 3355.03

Winter; KTS Lecture Hall

MW 1005-1125

: Representations of Disability; CTMP 3410.03

Winter; Seminar Room

TR 1005-1125

: The Deconstruction of the Tradition I: Language and Dispossession; CTMP 4001.03

Fall; Archibald Room

M 1035-1225

W 1035-1125

: The Deconstruction of the Tradition II: Precarities; CTMP 4002.03

Winter; Archibald Room

M 1035-1225

W 1035-1125

: Walter Benjamin's Materials; CTMP4124.03

Fall; Seminar 7

MW 1435-1555

: Hannah Arendt: Terror, Politics, Thought; CTMP4125.03

Winter; Archibald Room

W 1735-2025

: New Materialisms: Life, Science, and Politics; CTMP 4203.03/HSTC 4203.03

Fall; Scotiabank Room

MW 1305-1425

: French Feminist Theory; CTMP4302.03/GWST 4402.03

Winter; Seminar 7

MW 1435-1555

: Giants of 20th-Century Jewish Thought; CTMP 4340.03

Winter; Archibald Room

TR 1605-1725

Honours Thesis & Colloquium

: Contemporary Studies Honours Thesis; CTMP 0456.00 and CTMP 0457.00

Fall

Winter; Archibald Room

DALHOUSIE SELECTIVES

Students enrolled in the Combined Honours or Minor program in CSP can opt to take a maximum of one 3-credit hour “selective” course at Dalhousie University to count towards the CSP part of their degree. The Registrar’s Office at King’s should be notified if students wish to pursue this option. Not all selectives are offered each year. Please consult the current timetable for this year’s offering.

Contemporary Studies

Interpret today

Find out what’s new in the program

Study abroad in Berlin

Publish your work

Course Requirements

Combined Honours

MINOR

Core Courses

KTS Lecture Hall

M 1335-1525

W 1335-1425

KTS Lecture Hall

M 1335-1525

W 1335-1425

Archibald Room

M 1535-1725

W 1535-1625

Archibald Room

M 1535-1725

W 1535-1625

Archibald Room

M 1035-1225

W 1035-1125

Archibald Room

M 1035-1225

W 1035-1125

Electives

KTS Lecture Hall

M 1335-1525

W 1335-1425

KTS Lecture Hall

M 1335-1525

W 1335-1425

Scotiabank Room

T 1735–2025

Scotiabank Room

MW 1005-1125

Scotiabank Room

TR 1605-1725

Classroom 1

W 1735-2025

Scotiabank Room

TR 1605-1725

KTS Lecture Hall

TR 1305-1425

KTS Lecture Hall

MW 1605-1725

KTS Lecture Hall

T 1735-2025

KTS Lecture Hall

TR 1435-1555

Archibald Room

TR 1005-1125

Archibald Room

M 1535-1725

W 1535-1625

Archibald Room

M 1535-1725

W 1535-1625

Shatford Room

MW 1005-1125

Shatford Room

MW 1005-1125

Frazee Room

T 1735-2025

Frazee Room

T 1735-2025