Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in History (Co-op Optional)

at University of Ottawa Canada

Geology is a modern, dynamic and diverse science that involves investigating the composition and evolution of Earth and other planetary bodies.

Geologists and Earth scientists study the Earth, including its chemical, physical and biological evolution. Our programs teach students how to analyze Earth materials, probe the Earth from surface to core and model the processes that produced and shape its oceans and continents. The Ottawa region is a natural laboratory where students investigate resources (water, metals, minerals, petroleum), hazards (earthquakes, tsunamis, eruptions, landslides) and a variety of geological environments.

The Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences offers programs in geology and, along with the Department of Physics, a program in geology-physics. These programs balance field-based learning with theoretical and analytical investigations directly relevant to the needs of society. The final year involves an independent research project or equivalent units (credits) in advanced courses in the discipline.

The honours requirements meet the professional accreditation requirements of the Association of Professional Geoscientists of Ontario and l’Ordre des géologues du Québec.

Communication
Ours is the communication and information age. Analyzing how information is gathered, produced and distributed today helps us understand the communication processes that drive a variety of settings: social, cultural, political, organizational, economic and legal. In this program, you will develop critical and analytical skills in order to evaluate the nature and impact of technology and media on society, organizations and interpersonal relations. You will have the opportunity to be exposed to the latest developments in the field of communication (communication strategies, digital media, evolution of the media industry, advertising, crisis communications, negotiations, etc.). The Department of Communication offers courses in two main areas: media studies and organizational communication (internal and external communication in public and private organizations, health communication, organizational change, etc.). Combining theory and practice, our programs develop your critical and analytical skills and prepare you either for a professional career or for advanced studies.

Sociology
Sociology involves the study of societies, specifically their institutions, cultures, and transformations. Sociologists seek to uncover the processes, rules, and norms that govern social relations. They seek to understand issues such as the origins and consequences of social inequalities and collective behaviours. In our programs, students have the opportunity to apply theoretical approaches to real-world cases and learn how to use research tools such as interviewing, discourse analysis, surveys, and statistical analyses. The connection between theory and research enables students to understand a range of contemporary social issues, such as poverty, ethnic relations, deviance, gender relations, international development, power, and technology.

Anthropology involves studying the diversity of human societies through comparative analyses. Anthropologists develop tools that contribute to identifying and exploring a variety of social, cultural, political, economic, environmental and other important issues. Anthropology is unique among disciplines because of its methodological approach, which involves in-depth qualitative field work. Our specialized programs in social and cultural anthropology enable students to better understand and analyze cultural changes and intercultural relations in the context of globalization, development, migration and new technologies.

Mathematics
Mathematics and statistics are not only powerful problem-solving tools, but also highly creative fields of studies that combine imagination with logic, and precision with intuition. 

Mathematics is much more than numbers! Its basic goal is to reveal and model general patterns to help explain our world, whether they be found in electrical impulses in the human nervous system, the evolution of animal populations in their habitats, fluctuations in stock-market prices, or electronic communications. Mathematics reaches far beyond science and engineering into medicine, business and the social sciences. 

Advances in mathematics and statistics lie behind many discoveries that are now part of our daily lives, such as MRI scanners, digital compression of music and video, secure electronic communications, data mining, genomic algorithms, futures pricing, and many other innovations. 

The Department of Mathematics and Statistics offers Honours, majors and minors both in mathematics and in statistics. Our Honours program in statistics is accredited by the Statistical Society of Canada, allowing graduates to earn the A.Stat. professional designation. Moreover, the Department offers a joint honours program in mathematics and economics, a joint honours program in mathematics and computer science, as well as a multidisciplinary program in financial mathematics and economics. All our honours programs also include the co-operative education option.

Economics
Ever wonder why some countries are richer than others? Ever question why income inequality has been growing? Ever wonder why Canadian politicians worry when other countries may be going bankrupt? Economics can answer all these questions. 

Economics examines how individuals and society make choices in a world where resources are limited. It focuses on the production, distribution and consumption of goods and services. Two important themes are efficiency (the absence of waste in the use of resources) and fairness. Since making choices is central to all human activities, studying economics often helps explain why people and governments behave in certain ways.

Psychology
Psychology is the science that studies human behaviour and mental processes, and it is one of the richest fields of scholarly and scientific research. The BA in psychology deals with the fundamentals of psychology with a particular focus on how we learn, communicate and interact with one another, preparing you for graduate studies in experimental psychology, clinical psychology, in health sciences, in education or in administration. 

Linguistics
Where does language come from? How does language work? What is the nature of language structure and how is meaning encoded into language? Advances in research and new technologies are revolutionizing the way we try to answer these questions. Using the latest equipment and investigative approaches, our research laboratories make it possible for you to analyze spoken sounds, track eye movement and brain activity during language processing, explore language variation and acquisition, and probe dozens of other theoretical and empirical aspects of language including unfamiliar languages. 

These programs can serve as an entry point for a master's degree in either speech-language pathology or audiology, as well as for subsequent graduate study in theoretical and empirical linguistics.

In the three-year Bachelor of Social Sciences program, students cover the fundamentals of the social sciences while studying three specific areas of their choice, including at least two from the following areas: anthropology, criminology, economics, political science, psychology, public administration, sociology and women’s studies. In addition, the Bachelor of Social Sciences is an excellent springboard to studies in law or education.

The option in international management is designed to help students develop an understanding of the distinctive problems that arise in international business and to develop strategic decision-making skills in relation to those problems. Students also have the opportunity to broaden their knowledge in a particular area of international management.

Compulsory courses study the global business environment, including general concepts and international institutional framework, as well as the development and implementation of policies and strategies by multinational corporations. Students should note that these concepts are examined from the perspective of Canadian corporations. Students also have the opportunity to begin learning a third language (other than English and French). 

Students in the International Management option must complete at least 12 of the 120-unit program requirement abroad as part of an international exchange with one of the Telfer School of Management's international partner institutions. 

Public Administration
The study of public administration seeks to advance our understanding of how governments work and of their role in contemporary societies. It examines public management principles from various perspectives (administration, financial management, human resources, ethics, administrative reforms, governance, etc.) and the processes involved in designing public policies (policy cycle, roles of various stakeholders, ideologies, contextual factors, etc.). The program offers a high-quality education to students seeking a career in the public or para-public sectors, as well as those who seek to work in the private or non-profit sectors, or in government relations.

Political Science
Politics is omnipresent in our lives. Political science seeks to describe, analyze, understand and assess the principles and power relations that govern social life. It revolves as much around the structures and institutions that define these relations and principles as around the ideas and practices that drive them. It studies everything that influences political life and institutions (ideologies, groups, social movements, etc.) on a local, regional, national and international scale.

Our programs offer in-depth training in political science and encourage critical reflection on pivotal issues like citizenship, identity, political participation, globalization and development, governance and the state, and ethics and democracy. A discipline open to many theoretical and methodological approaches, political science constantly exchanges and shares with other fields. At the University of Ottawa's School of Political Studies, you build your knowledge in four subfields of political science: political thought, Canadian and Quebec politics, comparative politics, and international relations and global politics.

Investigate Earth as a professional environmental geoscientist to understand environmental interactions between geology, biology and hydrology.

The Environmental Geoscience program integrates the Environmental Science and Geology programs in one stream that balances biology and chemistry-oriented courses with solid Earth-based courses. Environmental geoscience requires multidisciplinary study — students acquires a wide range of expertise to understand the environmental interactions between solid Earth, the biosphere, the atmosphere and the oceans.

The combination of analytical courses and frequent field trips gives students hands-on exposure to all aspects of environmental geoscience. The final year involves an independent research project or equivalent units (credits) in advanced environmental geoscience courses in the specialization.

Students who follow the suggested course sequence can meet professional accreditation requirements of the Association of Professional Geoscientists of Ontario and the Ordre des géologues du Québec.

The MHA program has close links to other faculties including the Faculty of Health Sciences and the Faculty of Medicine to assure relevance to clinical practice for health service administration.

The MHA program also has close links with hospitals, long-term care institutions, community health agencies, psychiatric institutions, federal and provincial governments, and international, national, and provincial health organizations to assure curricular relevance and excellence.

Moreover, the program maintains close ties with the Canadian College of Health Service Executives, the American College of Health Service Executives, and other professional bodies across North America. The emphasis in this program is on proactive management with a vision of humanistic leadership and public service in a period of intense change in health care systems around the world.

The MHA aims to prepare students for the managerial and leadership responsibilities faced in rapidly changing health care environments.

The MHA program was designed with working professionals in mind. Spread over a period of 24 months, students can expect to complete 9 units per semester. All courses are taught in English. The MHA requires that students complete either an administrative residency of at least 16 weeks or a consulting project of approximately 200h. The goal of these experiential learning activities is to expand the students' experience in health care or health policy and awareness of the applicability of the material covered in the academic portion of the program to the practical world of management of health care. Students can do their administrative residency or their business consulting project, in English or in French, at any recognized and approved health agency.