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Electives

If you are looking for an exciting elective to round out your schedule, consider these course from across FCAT that are open to students outside of these programs. 

SPRING 2025 ELECTIVES

School of Communication

CMNS 313: Critical/Applied Data Studies 

Anthony Burton 
Burnaby Campus | Monday 2:30-5:20pm

How does data shape the social world, its political implications, and how we use data to imagine the future? Students will be introduced to case studies with hands-on data science labs to explore and expand on theory.

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CMNS 353: The Information Age

Stephanie Dick
Burnaby Campus | Thursday 2:30-4:20pm 

How do we understand ourselves, one another, and the world differently through the lens of information technologies? In this course we will explore forms of identity, knowledge, power, and community that have emerged within this information age.

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CMNS 487: Migration and Media 

Siyuan Yin
Burnaby Campus | Tuesday 2:30-5:20pm

Migration, the mass movement of the human population, is deeply interwoven with capitalist development and globalization. Questions to be addressed include, how have mainstream media represented migrant populations in various geopolitical contexts and what is the role of media, culture, and digital technologies in designating migrants’ lives?

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CMNS 488: Photography and Storytelling

Kirsten McAllister 
Vancouver Campus | Thursday 2:30-5:20pm 

This seminar brings together research on storytelling with studies on photography to investigate how photographs tell stories and reproduce scripts. We will focus on different areas of photographic storytelling: from personal and family photographs, to visual stories of war, migration, nationalism, gender norms, the environment, ideas of the future, and more.

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School for the Contemporary Arts

CA 104 - Music Fundamentals (3)

Online
No prerequisites.
Course outline

CA 161 - Introductory Studio in Visual Art II (3)

D100 - Mondays + Wednesdays 9:30 AM – 12:20 PM
D200 - Tuesdays + Thursdays 9:30 AM – 12:20 PM
Location: SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts

Course outline for D100
Course outline for D200

The prerequisite for CA 161 is waived for all students interested in enrolling. If you don't have the prerequisite and would like to enroll, please contact sca_adv@sfu.ca. Make sure to include your student number in your email. 12 seats are reserved in each section for Contemporary Arts students until November 29.

CA 217 - Introduction to Performance Studies (3)

Breadth-Humanities
Mondays 2:30–5:20 PM
Location: SFU Vancouver Campus

Course outline

The prerequisite for CA 217 is waived for all students interested in enrolling. If you don't have the prerequisite and would like to enroll, please email sca_adv@sfu.ca. Make sure to include your student number in the email. 

CA 228W - Dance Aesthetics

Writing
Wednesdays 4:30–7:20 PM
Location: SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts

Course outline

No prerequisites. Seats are reserved for Dance students until November 29.

CA 241 - Creative Coding Lab (3)

Mondays 12:30–2:20 PM
Blended - Online + SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts

Course outline

Prerequisite: CA 143 or permission of instructor.
If you don't have the prerequisite for the course, but are interested in enrolling, please contact the instructor directly (eigenfel@sfu.ca). Prerequisite waiver requests will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

CA 332 - Film Production Seminar (3)

Thursdays 12:30–3:20 PM
Location: SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts

Course outline

Prerequisite: CA 231 or prior approval.
If you don't have the prerequisite for the course, but are interested in enrolling, please contact the instructor directly (ccchong@sfu.ca). Prerequisite waiver requests will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Students must be in at least the second year of their degree to be considered for prerequisite waiver. First year students will not be eligible for prerequisite waivers.

CA 357W - Context II (3)

Writing/Breadth-Humanities
Fridays 9:30 AM –12:20 PM
Location: SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts

Course outline

Prerequisite: CA 257W
If you don't have the prerequisite for the course, but are interested in enrolling, please contact the instructor directly (rtacata@sfu.ca). Prerequisite waiver requests will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

CA 376 - STT-Video Projection for Performance and Installation II (3)

Mondays + Wednesdays 9:30 AM –12:20 PM
Location: SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts

Course outline: https://www.sfu.ca/outlines.html?2025/spring/ca/376/d100

Prerequisite: CA 270, CA 276, or permission of instructor.

We have expanded the prerequisites this Spring:

  • If you have completed IAT 100 or IAT 222 and would like to enroll in this course, please email sca_adv@sfu.ca.
  • If a student has demonstrated knowledge of photoshop, aftereffects, or other video content creation techniques, they are welcome to contact the instructor to ask about a prerequisite waiver (miwa_matreyek@sfu.ca).

School of Interactive Arts & Technology

IAT 110 (B-HUM): Visual Communication Desig

Kenneth Zupan
Burnaby Campus | Tuesday 2:30-5:20pm

Visual communication for art and design in digital media. Students learn the fundamentals of digital raster and vector image creation. Design principles such as form, typography and colour theory as they apply to digital media will be taught. Students will have core projects in digital photography, magazine layout and kinetic typography. Primarily for non-SIAT majors; while SIAT majors may take the course, it does not count for credit for SIAT degree requirements. Breadth-Humanities.

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IAT 210 (B-HUM/B-SOC): Introduction to Game Studies: Theory and Design

Michael Filimowicz
Online

Prerequisite: Completion of 21 units

Reviews the history of games, tracing the evolution of game design from board and card games through the latest electronic products. Examines the medium of games through various lenses: games as rules (game design), games as play (game experience), and games as culture (culture within games, and role of games and game cultures). Breadth-Humanities/Social Sciences.

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IAT 222 (B-HUM): Interactive Arts

Gabriela Aceves-Sepulveda
Surrey Campus | Thursday 12:30-2:20pm

Prerequisite: Completion of 21 units

Introduces key concepts within contemporary digital art practices. Issues surrounding digital art will be explored through readings, the study of artworks, and the creation of their own artistic projects. Breadth-Humanities.

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IAT 233: Spatial Design

Halil Erhan
Surrey Campus | Wednesday 4:30-6:20pm

Prerequisite: Completion of 21 units

Designing and understanding spaces used by people. The iterative process of making and criticizing, experiencing and analyzing spatial form. Compositional ideas for form-making. Critical thinking applied to design. Computers are the principal medium used in this course for form-making and visualization.

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IAT 244: Digital Photography I: Post Photography

Michael Filimowicz
Online

Prerequisite: Completion of 21 units

An introduction to digital photography that is open to beginners in which students will learn comprehensive skills in camera work, studio lighting and image post-processing. The focus of the course is on developing a final portfolio that demonstrates a wide range of technical, aesthetic, stylistic, genre and conceptual approaches to digital photography. Students are encouraged to experiment and develop their own eye and approaches, while learning the fundamentals of digital image production and workflows, including output for web and print.

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IAT 267: Introduction to Technological Systems

Helmine Serban
Surrey Campus | Wednesday 10:30-12:20pm

Prerequisite: Completion of 21 units and IAT 167 with a minimum grade of C- and one of MATH 130, MACM 101, MATH 150, MATH 151, MATH 154, or MATH 157, with a minimum grade of C-. Recommended: IAT 265.

Introduction to the core technologies and systems used in media-rich interactive environments, including computer hardware, operating systems, input and output technologies, networking and media. The concepts will be examined by working in a high-level media programming environment.

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IAT 334: Interface Design

Wolfgang Stuerzlinger
Surrey Campus | Wednesday 8:30-10:20am

Prerequisite: Completion of 48 units, including IAT 235 with a minimum grade of C-.

Provides an introduction to the art and design of human-computer interfaces, design methods, prototyping and evaluation of user interfaces. Examines issues of interactivity and its relation to human contexts and technological systems. The role of aesthetic, symbolic, affective and cultural factors will be assessed in concert with scientific and technological issues. The class is primarily focused on visual interfaces on computer monitors and hand-held devices, but culminates with considerations of increasingly physical interactions in ubiquitous environments.

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IAT 336: Materials in Design

Kenneth Zupan
Surrey Campus | Wednesday 10:30-12:20pm

Prerequisite: IAT 233 with a minimum grade of C-.

Introduces material properties and performance in the context of interactive artifacts. Covers criteria for material selection, including durability, environmental effects, tactile properties, manufacturing processes, compatibility and effects of particular forms of use.

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IAT 443: Senior Project in Creative Media

Susan Clements-Vivian
Surrey Campus | Wednesday 9:30-12:20pm

Prerequisite: Completion of 60 units, including IAT 313, IAT 340, and IAT 344, with a minimum grade of C-.

A senior-level investigation of skills and knowledge learned across Creative Media Concentration. Examines recombinant, computational and compositional structures related to image, sound, video and/or motion capture. Students will explore emergent creative production areas to tackle meaningful problems and tell thoughtful stories. They will design, produce and critically appraise both their own work and the work of others. Students will create a project of significant size and scope that helps to prepare students to be creative producers in our rapidly evolving computer-mediated world.

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IAT 480: Special Topics in Interactive Arts and Technology

Jon Corbett
Surrey Campus | Wednesday 10:30-12:20pm

Prerequisite: Completion of 60 units

This course in critical cultural computing surveys the rich fabric of Indigenous knowledge within computing. More generally, students will critically analyze how computing technologies are shaped by cultural values and how, in turn, computers and digital technologies shape culture.

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Publishing Program

PUB 411: Making Knowledge Public: How Research Makes Its Way into Society

Juan Pablo Alperin
Vancouver Campus | Thursday 10:30-1:20pm

An examination of how research makes its way outside academia. Attention is given to the role that academic publishing plays in defining what happens in the university, including how research is funded, what work is valued, and what is made available to the public. Open to students from all disciplines.

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ELECTIVES BY SCHOOL/PROGRAM

Important Note: Not all courses will be open or offered each semester. For the most current information, please visit the Academic Calendar.

CMNS 110 Online OL01 - Introduction to Communication Studies (3)

Breadth-Social Sciences.

An introduction to selected theories about human communication.

This course is required for a major, honours or minor in communication.

CMNS 130 Online OL01 - Communication and Social Change (3)

An introduction to the forms, theories and institutions of communication as they relate to broader social change, with a focus on the political, economic and regulatory shifts characterizing Canadian and transnational media systems.

This course is required for a major, honours or minor in communication.

CMNS 215 Online OL01 - Media and Identity (3)

Media and identity centers the idea of "social position" and that media are created and interpreted from and through specific perspectives and experiences of the world.

Prerequisite: 9 CMNS units with a minimum grade of C-.

CMNS 221 D100 - Media and Popular Cultures (3)

Harbour Centre on Tuesdays

Focuses on communication for social change; historical and contemporary perspectives in consumer culture; technology, media and popular culture; media and identity; and communication as public education.

Prerequisite: 9 CMNS units with a minimum grade of C-.

CMNS 253W D100 - Introduction to Information Technology: The New Media (3)

Writing.

An introduction to new communication/information technologies, seen as new media of communication: the technologies, their uses, and the social issues arising from them.

Students with credit for CMNS 253 may not take this course for further credit.

CMNS 316 D300 - TOPICS IN POPULAR CULTURES AND PUBLIC COMMUNICATION (4) - Advertising and Promotional Culture

Topics on public and popular cultures with a focus on social, political, and cultural dynamics. Explores audiences, publics, and institutions at a global, national, and/or local level.

Prerequisite: 17 CMNS units with a minimum grade of C- or 45 units with a minimum CGPA of 2.00.

This course can be repeated once for credit (up to a maximum of two times).

CMNS 353 D100 - TOPICS IN SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY (4) - Disruptive Technology & Culture

Examination of the emergence and shaping of information and communication technologies and science in the digital age. Explores new media and social change between everyday life, social institutions, and various enterprises.

Prerequisite: 17 CMNS units with a minimum grade of C- or 45 units with a minimum CGPA of 2.00.

This course can be repeated once for credit if second topic is different (up to a maximum of two times).

IAT 100 - Digital Image Design (3)

Breadth-Humanities.

As the introductory course in IAT, this course teaches the core fundamental principles in 2D visual design, sequential and animation design. Students learn the fundamentals of digital photography and vector image creation.

IAT 102 - Graphic Design (3)

Introduction to fundamental design principles for visual communication. Students will examine historical, philosophical, perceptual and semiotic approaches to understanding graphic design, and will explore principles of form, such as structure and composition, hierarchy, form, color, space, scale, typography, and legibility and readability through hands-on projects.

IAT 110 - Visual Communication Design (3)

Breadth-Humanities.

Students learn the fundamentals of digital raster and vector image creation. Design principles such as form, typography and colour theory as they apply to digital media will be taught.

Primarily for non-SIAT majors; while SIAT majors may take the course, it does not count for credit for SIAT degree requirements.

IAT 210 - Introduction to Game Studies: Theory and Design (3)

Breadth-Humanities/Social Sciences.

Reviews the history of games, tracing the evolution of game design from board and card games through the latest electronic products. Examines the medium of games through various lenses: games as rules (game design), games as play (game experience), and games as culture (culture within games, and role of games and game cultures).

CA 104 OLC– MUSIC FUNDAMENTALS (3)

An introduction to music theory and exposure to the application of music materials in a wide spectrum of music literature will be accompanied by practical exercises. The course is designed for students with no formal music training.

CA 117 – MODERN ART HISTORY (3)

Breadth-humanities.

An introduction to the visual arts of the nineteenth century. formal and thematic approaches to the arts will be introduced, with attention to the social, institutional, national, and international contexts of art.

CA 120 – INTRODUCTION TO DANCE FORMS: CONTEMPORARY AND POPULAR (3) 

A studio course devoted to the development of movement skills through specific styles of dance. The content of the course changes every semester. May repeat for credit. 

CA 127 - History of Dance: From the 20th Century to the Present (3)

Prerequisite: 12 units.
Breadth-Humanities/Social Sciences.

Study of the development of modern dance and the reformation of the ballet from the beginning of the 20th century to the present.

Students with credit for CA 227 may not take this course for further credit. 

CA 135 – INTRODUCTION TO CINEMA (3)

Breadth-humanities.

An introductory course designed to facilitate a fundamental understanding of film technique, style and form in order to develop the skills with which to analyze films of all genres. The course will involve the screening and discussion of several complete feature films and shorts, as well as excerpts from others.

CA 136 – THE HISTORY AND AESTHETICS OF CINEMA I (3)

Breadth-humanities.

This course will examine the early development of cinema from 1890 until about 1945, with particular emphasis on the fundamental principles of film as an art form.

CA 140 OLC– CONTEXTS IN CREATIVE MUSIC AND SOUND PRACTICE (3)

Breadth-humanities.

Looks at the issues involved in being a creative musical artist in the 21st century. Topics include historical context, race and gender, the role and influence of politics, music and identity, appropriation, art music, functional music, and hybrid practices.

CA 142 OLC– MUSIC APPRECIATION IN THE 21ST CENTURY (3) 

Breadth-humanities.

21st century music appreciation aims to develop a critical ear and advanced listening skills. The course will take a post-modern approach to appreciation in that it will present a diversity of music from many cultures, styles, and periods in an effort to discover similarities, differences, and defining characteristics.

CA 149 OL – SOUND (3)

Quantitative.

Introduction to acoustics, psychoacoustics, sound synthesis, audio sampling and signal processing, and sound production in general as relating to music, film sound, radio, new media, art installations and live performance.

Students who have taken CA 184 may not take this course for further credit.

CA 150 – INTRODUCTION TO ACTING (3) 

An approach to the elements of acting for non-theatre performance majors. Work will include development of individual powers of expression - vocal, physical, intellectual, imaginative, and emotional.

CA 160 – INTRODUCTORY STUDIO IN VISUAL ART I (3) 

A hands-on studio course modeled on the progressive development of artistic practice from simple mark-making to full scale installation.

A course materials fee is required.

CA 170 – INTRODUCTION TO PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY (3) 

An introduction to the processes, tools and technology used in the production and presentation of the fine and performing arts. Course requirements will include hands-on assignments in the production of theatre, dance, and music events.

Laboratory fee required.

CA 186 - Art and the Moving Image (3)

Introduces the many ways artists have employed moving images across artistic disciplines. By the completion of the course students should have a good sense of both the historical innovations and traditions in moving-image arts as well as the use of moving images in the contemporary art scene.

CA 235 – EXPERIMENTAL FILM AND VIDEO (3) 

A survey of the key works and ideas that have informed contemporary moving image art practice nationally and internationally, from the early european avant-garde to the lyrical and structural works of the seventies, the issue-based work of the eighties, and finally the gallery-based practices of the present day.

Prerequisite: one of ca 117 (or 167), 118 (or 168), 135, 136, or 137, or 30 units.

CA 341 – MUSIC AND CULTURE (3) 

The relationship of music and culture, with emphasis on traditional and contemporary music in asia, africa, the middle east, latin america and the caribbean, and indigenous cultures of north america.

Prerequisite: 45 units.

CA 357W - Context of Theatre II (3)

Writing/Breadth-Humanities.

The detailed structural analysis of dramatic texts and/or performances, their historical context, their development and production histories.

CA 381 - Thriving as a Cultural Entrepreneur (3)

Focus on skills and knowledge required to thrive as a creator/entrepreneur in contemporary society. Exploration of the life cycle of various creative enterprises and the development of a personal plan to realize the student's goals.

Prerequisite: 45 units.

CA 386 OLC– FILM MUSIC: AN OVERVIEW OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MUSIC AND MOVING PICTURES (3)

This course examines the role of music in the viewer's experience of moving pictures. Beginning with the early 1900s, the lectures will introduce important composers, directors, films, genres and historical periods. Specific films and other works will be analyzed.

Prerequisite: 60 credit hours. Students who have taken this course previously as special topics may not take it again for further credit.

PUB 101 - The Publication of Self in Everyday Life (3) (lecture + lab)

An exploration of how social media have transformed social behaviour (presentation of self) into proto-publishing (publication of self) by encouraging greater public participation in publishing in all forms of publishing in society. Using online tracking to discern practices, attention is given to how social media contribute to the social identities of participants and how they affect social interaction.

PUB 131 - Publication Design Technologies (lecture + lab)

Introduction to the elements and principles of graphic design with a focus on the development of software skills, in design, layout, and production.

PUB 331 - Graphic design in transition: Print and Digital Books (4) (lecture + lab)

An in-depth study of the design methods fundamental to books in print and digital media. Students evaluate, and engage in the design and repurposing of publications, exploring current practices of content delivery online and through mobile devices. Emphasis is placed on innovative methods and design practices for screen-based publishing.

Prerequisite: PUB 231

PUB 480 - Buy the Book: A History of Publication Design (4) (with recent PhD Amanda Lastoria)

Intensive analysis of a particular topic, practice, or technique in publishing.

May repeat for credit a maximum of two times.

Prerequisite: 75 credits.

PUB 480 - Accessible Publishing (4) (Online, with industry expert Laura Brady)

Intensive analysis of a particular topic, practice, or technique in publishing.

May repeat for credit a maximum of two times.

Prerequisite: 75 credits.

PUB 411/611 - Making Knowledge Public: How Reasearch Makes Its Way into Society (4) (with Juan Alperin)

Making Knowledge Public explores how knowledge produced at universities makes its way into society, the public value of this knowledge, and the diminishing attention given to this public mission. The course asks questions such as: how does research shape public policy? how is the public involved in science? and, how is research taken up by the public? The course is premised on the belief that, in today’s climate, it is more important than ever for universities, researchers, and scholars to assert themselves in the public sphere in more purposeful ways. Students will have the opportunity to explore academic publishing and the importance this segment of the publishing industry plays in our society.

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