Directed Studies courses are designed by a student and faculty instructor to meet the needs of a student in an area that is not addressed in the current curriculum. RES students may register in an RES Directed Studies course with the approval of their supervisor and the RES Graduate Advisor. You must have an approved RES Directed Studies Form prior to registering in this course.

Instructor: Joséphine Gantois

Day/Time: Thursdays 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Enrollment: RES Graduate Students. Non-RES graduate students or advanced undergraduates may register with instructor approval.

Description

TBD

Instructor: Leila Harris

Day/Time: Wednesdays 9:00 am – 12:00 pm

Enrollment: Graduate Students (or advanced undergraduates with instructor approval and completed G+PS form)

Description

This course offers an introduction to qualitative research approaches and their practical applications for interdisciplinary research related to socio-ecological sustainability. Using a student-led learning format, we will undertake original research as well as read and critically assess qualitative research conducted in interdisciplinary contexts. We will discuss the relationship between research motivations, paradigms, and methodological choices, ethical considerations and the process of ethics review, and fieldwork experiences in both academic and applied research settings. Careful examination of representation, voice, reflexivity and researcher positioning will be investigated as part of the course. The course includes activities and assessments related to qualitative research design, ethics approvals, fieldwork methods (including observation and fieldnotes, interviewing, focus groups, visual and arts-based methods, community engagement) and approaches to qualitative data analysis, including coding, analysis, and write up. Students will design and carry out an original field research project incorporating qualitative methods. Options include projects with UBC SEEDS collaborators to improve sustainability issues on the UBC campus.

Course Syllabus

Instructor: Hannah Wittman

Day/Time: Thursdays 9:00 am – 12:00 pm

Enrollment: Graduate Students (or advanced undergraduates with instructor approval and completed G+PS form)

Description

Dynamics of environmental issues across temporal and spatial scales using disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches to integrating sociological, cultural, and ecological perspectives. This course considers interdisciplinary socio-ecological approaches that allow us to consider intwined social and ecological processes together.. Course content will include exposure to core concepts and debates from SES, political ecology and allied fields associated methods that focus on the integration of socio-ecological perspectives. as well as several case studies. Attention will also be paid to the evaluation of perspectives where such integration does not occur and why this matters. Students will leave the course with an understanding of (i) how these interlinked systems and dynamics function, (ii) how existing policies, incentives, governance regimes, behaviours (individual and collective), and preferences affect these systems and processes and (iii) how new policies and institutions might learn from available research to better promote sustainable trajectories.

Directed Studies courses are designed by a student and faculty instructor to meet the needs of a student in an area that is not addressed in the current curriculum. RES students may register in an RES Directed Studies course with the approval of their supervisor and the RES Graduate Advisor. You must have an approved RES Directed Studies Form prior to registering in this course.

Instructor: Jiaying Zhao

Day/Time: Thursdays 9:00 am – 12:00 pm

Enrollment: RES Graduate Students. Non-RES graduate students or advanced undergraduates may register with instructor approval.

Description

This is a course in which case studies are used to teach how sustainability questions are turned into researchable topics and what research methods (qualitative and quantitative) are used to arrive at answers.  The case studies will reflect the various foci of research at IRES.  The case studies will begin with simple questions and grow in sophistication and complexity.  Case studies will be used to explore similarities and differences in how questions in different domains are structured and researched. The students in the class will then be encouraged to develop the research questions and proposed methods for their own thesis by work-shopping their ideas in the class setting and through one-on-one mentoring with class instructors.

The case studies will be selected with the aim of highlighting key features of good research design, how different perspectives (theoretically, conceptually and methodologically) can lead to different kinds of research and how there is value in these different approaches, and foster the search for even better hybrid approaches.

Given the wide range of incoming academic and professional backgrounds among the students, peer mentoring will be used within the class to help bolster knowledge of and familiarity with qualitative and quantitative methods.
The goals of this course are to:

• foster literacy in research methods and bring about familiarity with good research design;
• initiate design of the research proposals for every student.

2023-2024 RES 502 Course Outline *Master’s

Instructor: Terre Satterfield

Day/Time: Wednesdays 2:00 pm – 5:00pm

Enrollment: RES Graduate Students. Non-RES graduate students or advanced undergraduates may register with instructor approval.

Description

Survey research is increasingly popular among interdisciplinary environmental social and natural scientists. This seminar aims to harness that interest to develop survey design skills appropriate to environmental social scientists. It is best suited for graduate level and senior undergraduate level students who have either minimal training in survey methods or are transitioning from disciplines not normally acquainted with these. We will address survey design fundamentals such as: hypothesis development, structure and question order, problems of validity and reliability, the problem of behaviour and choice and direct versus indirect elicitation of preferences. We will also cover sampling strategies for different lay and expert communities. A particular focus for design will be the subfields known as: environmental values, attitudes and beliefs; perceived environmental risks; climate beliefs and actions; meanings of landscape and place; relational values; and indices of social-ecological and cultural-ecological well-being. Theory and practice for developing scales or indices where none exist or where the design involves ‘difficult to measure’ phenomena or where interactive survey designs are key will also be examined. Students will also become familiar with and literate in practices pertaining to research ethics, including sensitivity to local norms, racialized sample frames, gender, power, data sharing and ownership. The course will be workshop intensive and thus is most suited for students who already have a particular field-relevant research topic or objective in mind. One key end goal for the seminar is a fully theorized and realized survey instrument that is largely ready for piloting and data collection.

Instructor: Stephanie Chang

Day/Time: Tuesdays 9:00 am – 12:00 pm

Enrollment: RES Graduate Students. Non-RES graduate students or advanced undergraduates may register with instructor approval.

Description

This course introduces students to the role and influence of technology in society, and its relationship to public policy, human development and the environment. Technology contributes to many current-day environmental issues, as both a source of and potential remedy for problems. This course explores the complex interrelationship between technological development and societal change. It addresses such questions as: How has technological change influenced how human society functions and utilizes resources? How have technological innovations that solved a pressing problem led to new problems born of these solutions? How do societal factors and forces influence technological change? What is the role of policy in managing technological developments and their social and environmental impacts? The course is organized around three major themes: (i) societal impacts of technology, (ii) societal drivers of technology, and (iii) technology policy. Each of these topics will be studied through historical and current case studies, including some chosen by students, with the goal of preparing students to recognize issues and apply conceptual frameworks in a range of settings.

Sample RES 507 project: LNG White Paper, 2020, by Mauricio Carvallo Aceves (IRES), Nigel C. Deans (IRES), Cristian Hernandez (UBC Graduate Program in Science and Technology Studies), and Muhyee Nyera Bakini (UBC School of Public Policy and Global Affairs).

Instructor: Jiaying Zhao

Day/Time: Thursdays 9:00 am – 12:00 pm

Enrollment: Graduate Students

Description

In this course, students will learn how inchoate ideas and topics of interest are turned into researchable topics that are concrete, well-defined, and precise, and what research methods (qualitative and quantitative), rules of evidence, and strategies of proposal development are used to arrive at answers. Topics include research design, presentation, theory, research questions and policy relevance.

The course will begin with the evaluation of published papers and successfully funded proposals. The remaining portions of the course involve an explicit focus on students’ own research designs, which will develop in stages and be iteratively peer-assessed. By the end of the class, students will complete a solid, review-ready proposal for their own thesis work.

Given the wide range of incoming academic and professional backgrounds among the students, peer mentoring will be used within the class to help bolster knowledge of and familiarity with qualitative and quantitative methods. This is an interactive seminar, where robust and consistent participation and attendance is expected of all students. Each week, the class may include lecture, discussions, group problem solving, design workshops, identifications of core ideas, scenario-based learning, and proposal evaluations.

602 Syllabus

Description

This course offers an introduction to qualitative research approaches and their practical applications for interdisciplinary research related to socio-ecological sustainability. Using a student-led learning format, we will undertake original research as well as read and critically assess qualitative research conducted in interdisciplinary contexts. We will discuss the relationship between research motivations, paradigms, and methodological choices, ethical considerations and the process of ethics review, and fieldwork experiences in both academic and applied research settings. Careful examination of representation, voice, reflexivity and researcher positioning will be investigated as part of the course. The course includes activities and assessments related to qualitative research design, ethics approvals, fieldwork methods (including observation and fieldnotes, interviewing, focus groups, visual and arts-based methods, community engagement) and approaches to qualitative data analysis, including coding, analysis, and write up. Students will design and carry out an original field research project incorporating qualitative methods. Options include projects with UBC SEEDS collaborators to improve sustainability issues on the UBC campus.

Description

Dynamics of environmental issues across temporal and spatial scales using disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches to integrating sociological, cultural, and ecological perspectives. This course considers interdisciplinary socio-ecological approaches that allow us to consider intwined social and ecological processes together.. Course content will include exposure to core concepts and debates from SES, political ecology and allied fields associated methods that focus on the integration of socio-ecological perspectives. as well as several case studies. Attention will also be paid to the evaluation of perspectives where such integration does not occur and why this matters. Students will leave the course with an understanding of (i) how these interlinked systems and dynamics function, (ii) how existing policies, incentives, governance regimes, behaviours (individual and collective), and preferences affect these systems and processes and (iii) how new policies and institutions might learn from available research to better promote sustainable trajectories. Students will also engage in a whole-class applied research project to experience first-hand the challenges and opportunities of conducting interdisciplinary social ecological systems research and synthesis.

Description

This course is a graduate level seminar with lecture and discussion covering advanced topics in conservation of biological diversity.   We will read a mixture of foundational as well as recent papers covering a range of current topics within Conservation Biology. One of the most exciting aspects of the course is that students will have the opportunity to work in interdisciplinary teams on an active conservation project, commissioned by international and local NGOs (for example, World Wildlife Fund and Delta Wildlife Farmland Trust). Students will prepare deliverables that will help these organizations in their current on-the-ground work, under the guidance of the instructor and the project lead(s) from respective NGOs.  Group projects represent an exciting and unique opportunity to learn while contributing to conservation, and can lead to future projects or co-authored publications, resumé-building and networking. Students will also gain experience leading discussions and developing interactive class exercises.