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: David Boyd

Day/Time: Tuesdays 2:00 – 5:00 pm

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

Description

One of the most dynamic and exciting areas of law and policy today lies at the confluence of human rights and environmental protection. Whether it is the right to a healthy environment, the right to water, or the rights of nature, the legal landscape is struggling to respond to the global environmental crisis precipitated by the new geological epoch known as the Anthropocene.
Through a critical examination of international, constitutional, legislative, and jurisprudential developments, the course seeks to provide participants with a strong foundation and new insights into this dynamic field. Innovative comparative research techniques made possible through the Internet and online translation tools will also be highlighted.
A central theme will be evaluating the differences between human rights on paper and their realization in practice. Students will be expected to engage in critical thinking about the effectiveness, efficiency, and equity of laws, policies, and institutions intended to protect human rights, while considering the broader ecological, political, social, and economic context.

RES 500H Course Outline

Instructor: Gunilla Öberg

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 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: Claire Kremen

Day/Time: Wednesdays 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.

Instructor: Amanda Giang & Navin Ramankutty

Day/Time: Thursdays 9:30 am – 12:30 pm

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

Description

This course will introduce students to the policy debates and responses created by climate change, which has emerged as the most complex environmental challenge facing the planet. On the one hand, changes in global climate are likely to have significant impacts in many parts of the world, and while a small number of regions / sectors may benefit many others could be devastated. On the other hand, reducing greenhouse gas emissions poses significant technological, economic and political challenges. Reductions of greenhouse gas gases will be made in the presence of incomplete information and continued scientific and economic uncertainty. Changes in human behaviour and technological innovations of the magnitude needed to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions may be difficult to achieve.

2021-22 RES 520 Course Outline

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: Stephanie Chang

Day/Time: Tuesdays 2:00 pm – 5:00 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: Kai Chan

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

Coming Soon

Instructor: Jiaying Zhao

Day/Time: Wednesdays 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.