WILSON 700: Studies in Leadership and Civic Engagement Topics
Wilson College’s annual graduate seminar covers a wide range of topics in leadership and civic engagement. The seminar is open to graduate students across campus. No matter your discipline, leadership skills and a deeper understanding of how to engage with your communities will help you on your path towards research and career success.
The seminar is open to all graduate students in the Faculties of Humanities and Social Sciences. Students outside of these faculties may still apply but will require permission from their program and the course instructor.
See below information for current and past course offerings. Interested in enrolling? Please email wilsoncollege@mcmaster.ca with your McMaster email and student ID.
Expandable List
Instructor: Dr. Kristina Llewellyn (History & Wilson College)
Schedule: Winter 2025, Tuesdays, 10 AM to 1 PM
Topic: Civic engagement is the participation of people in the civic life of a democracy, including formal politics, political advocacy, civil society, and community action.
It is critical for justice and for the strength of any democracy that diverse populations are engaged in civic life. This course will examine the history and current state of civic (dis)engagement with particular attention to youth.
Students will engage with local issues, agencies, and leaders to learn how to strengthen civic engagement, especially for youth, through deliberative dialogue, critical reflection, community organizing, social change strategies, and policy-making.
This course introduces graduate students of any discipline to the interdisciplinary field of civic studies and civic leadership.
Course outline: More information coming soon.
“Leaders as Thinkers: What does good leadership look like?”
Instructors: Dr. Catherine Frost (Political Science) and Dr. Violetta Igneski (Philosophy)
Topic: Ethical leadership and civic engagement begin with a deep reflection on one’s commitments and principles, their actions in relation to others, and their impact in the world.
This course critically examines commonplace ideas and expectations that shape what we think of as good leadership, such as reason, duty, and individual responsibility. It considers the role of autonomy and relationality in leadership and covers critical skills and virtues that enable people to work collectively to solve local and global problems in an ethical way.
It also addresses illusions of leadership that drive polarization, exclusion, distrust, and breakdowns in communication.
Course outline: Click the here to read the full course outline.