Graduate

Nutrition Communication (MHSc)

Courses

Major Research Paper/Project
The major research paper/project is an opportunity for students to investigate independently a particular issue or application in nutrition communication. It may be a development/testing of a nutrition communication technique or a multi-media product; an analytic project, such as a comprehensive literature review, policy or secondary data analysis. Students are required to develop a project plan for approval early in the Winter term and submit their final report at the end of the Spring/Summer term.

NC8001 Practicum
Students spend twelve weeks in a professional practice setting working with individuals/groups OR within a Nutrition
Communication-related organization. They are required to undertake a specific project in consultation with the Practicum Supervisor and Faculty Supervisor and develop a written report. Students initially prepare a set of goals and objectives (Learning Agreement) and at term conclusion submit and share a reflexive analysis of their experience.

NC8101 Epidemiology for Nutrition Research and Interpretation
This course provides a survey of the most frequently used elements of biostatistics (odds ratios, relative risk, meta analysis, etc.), demography, informatics, methodology (study design elements), and epidemiology (classical as well as clinical) used to establish nutrition practice and policy. Emphasis is placed on tools used to convey information about dietary risk, risk management. This course provides opportunity for students to critically evaluate and interpret epidemiologic reports in nutrition literature for methodological and analytical soundness.

NC8102 Nutrition and Health Behaviour
Using an interdisciplinary framework, current theories and concepts of health, nutrition, health behaviour and behavioural change in individuals, practitioners, and organizations will be explored. An understanding of the social psychological processes that may facilitate or impede health maintenance in individuals and populations will be developed. Behavioural change practice and research will be critically examined within a systemic, ethical and personal context.

NC8103 Social Dimensions of Nutrition Communication
This course begins by establishing the social contexts and constructions within which nutrition communication occurs through
seminar discussions, writing, and readings on identity, diversity, and ethics. We examine the evolution of and challenges inherent in nutrition communication as well as the dynamics of interpersonal communication through relational, biographic, and narrative models. We conclude by acknowledging critical social justice issues inherent in nutrition communication and their application to professional practice.

NC8104 Graduate Seminar
This course builds upon the concepts and skills introduced during orientation to enhance students’ critical thinking, written and oral communication skills. Students will present and discuss their major research project and practicum plans.

NC8201 Food and Nutrition Policy
This course provides an overview of contemporary food and nutrition policy issues and debates. It discusses criteria for effective policy and the role of institutions and stakeholders in the policy development process. Students will develop an analytic framework for evaluating policy decision-making, outcomes and impacts.

NC8202 Interpersonal Nutrition Communication
Using various interactive techniques and theoretic frameworks, this course provides opportunities to enhance interpersonal
communication skills. Specifically, the narrative medicine model is studied, practiced and appraised as applicable to interpersonal health and nutrition practice. Students engage in self-reflective practices to connect experiential and theoretical applications. Health, illness and nutrition communication are acknowledged as occurring in a range of contexts and readings will be drawn from various disciplines to elaborate on these contexts.

NC8203 Advanced Approaches to Health Research
This course examines transdisciplinarity as a framework for contemporary health research and practice. Methodological challenges and benefits arising from epistemological traditions and competing agendas will be analyzed from discipline-specific and transdisciplinary perspectives. Issues such as food choice and access, body weight, and disease prevention will be examined with an emphasis on communicating meaningful outcomes. The evolution, politics, and future of the urban health movement will be explored through the perspectives of leading Canadian scholars.

NC8204 Risk/Benefit Analysis: Assessment, Perception & Communication
This course focuses on risk analysis, assessment and communication in nutrition and food. Students will discuss the risks and
benefits of themes in public health with implications in Canada and internationally, such as the use of food additives; links between diet and chronic diseases; foodborne illnesses and environmental contaminants. Students will examine risk assessment methodologies; risk perception by individuals, groups and the public-at-large; communication strategies and methodologies used by stakeholders: industry, government, and nutrition/food professionals.

NC8205 Directed Studies
Students arrange to work with an individual faculty member on a course designed to pursue readings in a specific area that is relevant to nutrition communication.

NC8206 Special Topics: Nut Comm
This course examines selected topics in areas related to the program that are not covered by existing courses. The topic(s) will vary depending on the needs and interests of the students and the instructor. The course description will be announced prior to scheduling the course.

NC8207 Food Security Concepts
The continuing reality of hunger and the unsustainable nature of current social, economic and food systems, both locally and
globally, make food security an esential concern. This course introduces students to the concepts, programs and policies of food security, in Canada and internationally, with emphasis on the contribution of income, employment, social assistance, urban planning, and food production and distribution systems to finding solutions to food insecurity.

NC8208 Gender and Food Security
This course explores the links between gender and fod security. A discussion of the concept of gender and a critical histroical review of the Women’s Movement are followed by theoretical views of labour market discrimination and issues in Gender and Development. Topics for discussion include the role of women in agriculture and food production, HIV/AIDS and food security, and proposals for public policies and social action.

ELECTIVE COURSES FROM OTHER PROGRAMS

In addition to the above courses that are specifically developed for the program, the following courses are made available to students in the MHSc program through existing graduate programs at Ryerson University, where space permits.

Changing Multicultural Mosaic of the GTA

Toronto is, without question, one of the world's most multicultural cities. According to the latest census information it is home to people from about 170 different countries of origin, and its citizens speak more than 100 languages. The purpose of this course is to explore this diversity from a spatial or geographic perspective by asking who lives where in the GTA and why? The answers to such questions have important policy implications in relation to the equitable and efficient provision of a variety of services to immigrants who choose to settle in the Toronto area. Students will be introduced to the use of data, in combination with Geographic Information Systems, to identify, display, and analyze recent socio-cultural trends in the Toronto region.

The Body and the Culture of Modernity

In the later half of the twentieth century, the body emerged as a topic that attracted the efforts of many artists who were committed to some form of cultural critique. Many recent artists have revolted against the modern body – the mechanized, regimented, controlled and profoundly unfree body. They have strived to move beyond the culture of modernity by creating a Dionysian body culture that is life-affirming, a culture that expresses bodily energies and passions, a culture that will bind people together in shared cultural experiences of ecstasy and intoxication. They have strived to dissolve the individual ego in collective ecstasy and sensual surrender. In this course we will survey some themes that arise in recent body art and assess their political/cultural implications.

Social Theory and Communication Processes

Theories of communication processes, the mass media, and symbolic behaviour. The mass media and the controversies about popular culture; criteria for evaluating the media; research methodology; and content analysis. Exclusion SPT 6032 6.0 (York University), SOCI 6560 6.0 (York University).

Media Languages: Forms and Approaches This interdisciplinary course will investigate both common elements (visual and auditory narratives, methods of presentation/distribution, cultural roles) and specific attributes (individual characteristics and technologies) of contemporary media forms. Key developments in the evolution of media types and media languages will be explored in the larger context of understanding critical and theoretical issues associated with these forms and languages.

Topics in Cross-Cultural Communication The term cross-cultural competence denotes a vast complex of competencies, which educators, politicians and business leaders around the world have identified as one of the most crucial of the 21st century. The purpose of this course will be to foster such “competence” through a wide-ranging examination of the major social issues that affect communication across national and cultural boundaries.

Audiences and the Public This course will begin with the work of Jurgen Habermas and his influential notion that “the public” is not something that can be taken for granted, but a very specific historical development that first emerged in the 17th century in the bourgeois societies of western Europe. The course will examine how the idea of “the public” or “the audience” has taken shape at different times; for example, the “imagined communities” that are the foundations of modern nations could not have taken shape in the absence of mass media. Different conceptions of the audience that arise from the different disciplines offered across the Faculty of Communication & Design will be examined.

Health Policy: A Comparative Analysis This course will allow learners to examine the development of health policy in Canada. Public policy analysis will be introduced in a way that provides an overview of techniques and issues that are applicable to an understanding of how health policy evolves. Learners will use these techniques to critically analyze current issues and trends in Canada’s health care system as well as other selected countries. The action of key interest groups who influence public policies will ultimately shape health priorities and goals will be examined with a particular focus on the role of the nursing profession, other professions and consumers.

Population Health and Health Promotion: Community and Global Perspectives

Drawing upon critical theory, the social determinants of health, and social justice frameworks, learners will engage in an analysis of major primary health care, health promotion and population health initiatives locally, nationally and globally. Links to social, cultural, environmental, political, and economic contexts that impact on health, equity and health disparities will be analyzed critically. Evidence-based research and ethical considerations central to community health and advanced community health nursing practice will be examined. Emphasis throughout will be placed on upstream, participatory and collaborative approaches to the development of health public policy locally and globally.

Individuals and Families Experience with Health and Illness: Theoretical Perspectives

Learners will examine broad conceptualizations of health and illness to provide a foundation for critical analysis of specific conceptual models (such as health beliefs, loss, quality of life, and recovery) relevant to the experience of individuals and families across a variety of illness groups. This will enable learners to develop an advanced understanding of current theoretical perspectives and research related to biopsychosocial and cultural determinants of health and illness. Learners will also examine models of psychosocial intervention applicable to their professional practice that support health for individuals and families.