Winter 2026 Learning Community

 

Making Sound Musical

“Making Sound Musical” brings together two foundation General Education courses, one from Cluster Two (GNED 1203 – Nature and Ideas) and the other from Cluster One (GNED 1103 – Innovation). Together, they approach both sound and music as scientific innovations with quantitative elements (for example sound waves, propagation in instruments, tuning, symmetries, and more qualitative humanistic elements like perception, composition, philosophy, and historical context.  The course is taught by Charles Hepler from the Department of Math and Computing and Guy Obrecht from General Education.

 

The Robots are Coming: Automation, Artificial Intelligence and Society into the Information Age

“The Robots are Coming” is a Learning Community of two GNED foundation courses: GNED 1103 – Innovation, and GNED 1303 – Conflict and the Social Context. Together, the courses explore the basic ideas, challenges, techniques, and problems in artificial intelligence.  Course topics will include exploring the philosophical underpinnings behind automation; probability and uncertainty; machine learning; implications on intellectual property; and information creation, dissemination and measurement; social responsibility; and ecological impact of AI.  Through an interdisciplinary framework, this learning community will ask students to engage in activities and discussions through information science, computer science and other lenses.  This will help students develop an understanding of not only how to use these tools but also what they are and how they work.

 

Law and Society

This Learning Community consist of two courses (6 credits): GNED 1202 – Texts & Ideas and GNED 1303 – Conflict & the Social Context that share a common theme on the idea, place and importance of law in society. It is taught by two instructors who will take an interdisciplinary approach to explore the law and legal systems as a social phenomenon expressed through philosophical, sociological, historical and ethical points of view.  As the law often finds expression in courtrooms and through trials, this Learning Community will also critically analyze how the law has been applied in famous historical trials, with an emphasis on Canadian trials.  Trials and courtrooms are inherently filled with conflict.  Prosecutors and defense attorneys present arguments and evidence to win the innocence or guilt of the accused, be they individuals, groups, corporations, organizations, or state institutions.  In cases of serious crimes, such as murder, lives are radically changed forever.  In trials dealing with human rights, institutional changes to policy can leave a legacy of change for generations.  In trials dealing with corporate responsibility, organizations and businesses have had to adapt to new legal limits and requirements.  Trials can also lead to heated debate about the justification of the accused’s actions (e.g., mercy killing) or actions of the state (e.g., capital punishment.  And if the accused is found guilty, questions arise over how and to what extent the guilty should be “punished” (e.g., “life” sentences, indigenous healing circles).  Note: This course is not intended to be a survey or prep course on law nor an introduction to law in the usual sense.  It is a course about law as an idea and its social importance.

 

The Making and Unmaking of Monsters

The “Making and Unmaking of Monsters” is a Learning Community of two GNED foundation courses: GNED 1202: Text & Ideas and GNED 1401: Writing for Academic Success. Together, the courses explore iconic cultural notions of monsters and academic writing.  Using the lens of monsters, the course will walk through ancient, classic, and contemporary texts and media that highlight and examine ways that people create monsters, and how they sometimes attempt to “unmake” them.  Notions about monsters also have historical, philosophical, psychological, and scientific roots that relate to academic questions about how we perceive, and sometimes fear, that which is different from ourselves.  Through critical reflection and analysis of monster-making, students will research, reflect, and write to further their academic writing abilities and the many dimensions of the monsters of our world.