Politics of Global Challenges stream
Earn your master's degree in just one year while studying important global issues like migration, surveillance and democracy.
Our specialized program in global political challenges (PGC) will give you advanced training in theory and methods. Graduates become researchers, scholars and advocates who find creative solutions to global problems.
The PGC stream is a research project-based degree and offers a focused program of study. The program is centred on four key global challenges:
- Migration and contested borders
- Political economy and development
- (In)security and surveillance
- Democracy, diversity and human rights
You'll specialize in one of these challenges and should have a good grounding in your chosen area. Please see the research interests of associated faculty for the types of questions that might work well with these challenge areas.
The research project-based degree trains students for careers outside academia and prepares them for further education. It is structured to be completed in 1 academic year (September-August).
You can apply for internship opportunities through the Centre for Global Studies, Centre for Asia-Pacific Initiatives or Centre for Studies in Religion and Society.
We encourage applicants from all subfields of political science. See all program requirements in the UVic Academic Calendar.
PGC electives
Please note that not all electives will be offered each year.
Migration and contested borders
512 – Migration, Nationalism and Identity in Asia (Xu)
533 – Migration and Refugees (Schmidtke)
Political economy and development
514 – Politics of the European Union (Verdun)
(In)security and surveillance
533 – Nationalism and Violent Conflict (Watson)
533 – Understanding Global Security (Greaves)
Democracy, diversities and human rights
533 – The Politics of Historical Injustice and Memory (James)
533 – Violence to Indigenous Lands and Bodies (Aguirre)
533 – Democracy and Populism (Schmidtke)
536 – Politics of Human Rights in New Democracies (Bonner)