This lecture course discusses the role of brain and body in the expression and experience of emotion in humans considered through the experimental, physiological, theoretical, and clinical literatures.

This lecture course explores the scientific literature underlying the concept that female/male, gay/straight, and transgendered behaviours are based on brain differences. Original scientific papers will be read in close detail for design and interpretation of the experiments. The goal is to gain an understanding of the science and psychology underlying sex/gender, popular conceptions of sex, and the sexual brain. Topics include: the making of sex, hormone action, brain-based sexual behaviours, sex and cognition, and sex and sexuality/gender identification.

This lecture course provides an in-depth examination of the cognitive dysfunction found in neurological disorders, including Alzheimer’s Disease, Parkinson’s Disease, and Schizophrenia. The course focuses on how cognitive impairments relate to neuropsychological models of the specific disease (specifically how these models provide insights into the biological mechanisms underlying the cognitive symptoms) and cognition, more broadly.

This is an advanced seminar course that examines the mechanisms and significance of timing and timekeeping at several levels of organization in living organisms. Topics include the roles of clocks and oscillations in physiology and behaviour, and the importance of timing in sensorimotor integration, memory, decision making, and health. Course capacity is limited to 20 students and enrolment priority is given to PSY Specialists and Research Specialists.

An interdisciplinary introduction to the Renaissance in Italy illustrated by a study of the institutions, thought, politics, art, and culture that emerged in the period. Considering key sites of power and creativity like Florence, Venice, Milan, and Rome, this course will examine the dynamic new ways Renaissance Italians understood themselves, others, and the world. Taking into account the full spectrum of Renaissance culture, including constructions of gender and other emerging forms of identity, this course will address broad historical developments and explore the creative works and impact of artists like Michelangelo and Sofonisba Anguissola; architects like Brunelleschi; cultural patrons like the Medici family and Isabella d’Este; and writers like Laura Cereta and Niccolò Machiavelli.

An interdisciplinary introduction to the civilization of the Renaissance illustrated by a study of the institutions, thought, politics, society and culture of both Italy and Northern Europe. Italian city states such as Florence, Urbino and Venice, Papal Rome and despotic Milan are compared with the northern dynastic monarchies of France and England. (Offered as part of the Summer Abroad program)

Focusing on one or more iconic works in literature, music, and the visual arts, this course explores the most celebrated cultural productions of the Renaissance and their subsequent adaptations and appropriations in later and modern popular culture.

An in-depth study of late medieval and early modern scientific worldviews, with a focus on interconnections between natural philosophy, cosmology, theology, astronomy, optics, medicine, natural history, and ethics. Through a consideration of early modern ideas including free will and determinism, the finite and infinite universe, teleology and mechanism, theism and deism, and deduction and intuition, this course investigates some of the period’s key metaphysical and methodological assumptions, and reveals how an evolving scientific understanding informed the Renaissance worldview.

An interdisciplinary introduction to the Renaissance as it spread beyond Italy, both as it took root in Northern Europe and made an impact around the globe. This class will examine how the cultural forms of the Renaissance – art, architecture, philosophy, politics, music, drama, and literature – developed through engagement with ancient Roman and Greek models and expanded across Europe (in such places as the Iberian Peninsula, France, England, Scotland, Germany, the Low Countries, and Poland). It will also explore how Renaissance culture shaped and was shaped by interactions between Europeans and peoples in Africa, the Americas, and Asia. Taking into account the contexts of religious conflict, technological change, colonization, gender dynamics, and cross-cultural exchanges brought about by warfare and global networks of trade, this class will use a variety of disciplinary frameworks to examine the Renaissance as an expansive cultural phenomenon.

This course explores the relationship between race, imperialism, and culture in the Renaissance world. Students investigate the intellectual frameworks through which early modern Europeans made sense of human diversity, with a focus on the enduring influence of these ideologies in the perception and representation of difference today. Course materials may include such examples as portraits of a Black duke in Renaissance Florence, trial records of falsely accused Jewish men, clothes to disguise oneself as an Ottoman princess, and plays featuring Roma fortune-tellers.

An interdisciplinary course exploring the history, art, architecture, literature, and music of the Renaissance in one or more cities from ca. 1400-1650. The course will investigate how local political and social-historical contexts shape ideas and cultural forms, and so illustrate the process and effects of cross-fertilization in the Renaissance period.

The Renaissance is when the world became truly global. In this course, we examine how the production of stories, knowledge, and ideas was affected by early globalization. In particular, we explore cross-cultural encounters and exchanges established between early modern Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Europe along networks of trade, imperialistic expansion, and oppression. We will pay particular attention to how early globalization was shaped by power structures and by the intersection of race, class, religion, and gender.

A study of the changing conception of the human self in the Renaissance, and of its representation by major authors: Erasmus, Rabelais, Marguerite de Navarre, Castiglione, Machiavelli and others.

Focusing on writers from various geographical areas, the course examines a variety of texts by early modern women (for example, treatises, letters, and poetry) so as to explore the female experience in a literate society, with particular attention to how women constructed a gendered identity for themselves against the backdrop of the cultural debates of the time.

An interdisciplinary approach to questions of gender and sexuality in early modern Europe, with special focus on the representations of the sexual drive, the gender roles of men and women, and varieties of sexual experience in the literature and art of the period.

An interdisciplinary approach to questions of gender and sexuality in early modern Europe, with special focus on the representations of the sexual drive, the gender roles of men and women, and varieties of sexual experience in the literature and art of the period. (Offered as part of the Summer Abroad program)

Focuses on analysis of short stories and longer prose works including, in English translation: Boccaccio's stories of love, fortune and human intelligence in the Decameron; Rabelais' humorous parody of high culture in Gargantua; the tragic tale of Romeo and Juliet; and the adventures of picaresque rogues in Lazarillo de Tormes and Nashe's Unfortunate Traveler.

This course examines the various media (printing press, representational art, music, preaching) and social and political forces (family and political networks, censorship, education, etc.) that conditioned the communication of ideas in early modern society.

This course examines the changing views of the Renaissance, from the earliest definitions by poets and painters to the different understandings of contemporary historians. We will pay attention to the interests and biases that have informed the idea of the Renaissance as an aesthetic, social, political, gendered, and Eurocentric phenomenon.

Studies in the development of new forms in music, drama and dance in the Renaissance. The course will consist of seminars and lectures, and may incorporate live performances taking place in Toronto in addition to recordings.

This course will study four Renaissance Italian urban environments, beginning with the medieval city of Siena followed by the construction of Renaissance urban space in republics, principalities, and papal Rome. Field trips and illustrated lectures will introduce students to Renaissance urban, cultural, and political history. (Offered in Siena only)

Studies in an aspect of the Renaissance based around lectures, seminars, and readings. Content varies by instructor and topics are listed on the Victoria College programs website: https://vic.utoronto.ca/academic-programs/special-topics-courses/ren349h. Not offered every year.

Studies in an aspect of the Renaissance based around lectures, seminars, and readings. Content varies by instructor and topics are listed on the Victoria College programs website: https://vic.utoronto.ca/academic-programs/special-topics-courses/ren349y. Not offered every year.

This course provides an opportunity to design an interdisciplinary course of study, not otherwise available within the Faculty, with the intent of addressing specific topics in Renaissance studies. Written application (detailed proposal, reading list and a letter of support from a Victoria College faculty member who is prepared to supervise) must be submitted for approval on behalf of Victoria College. For application procedures visit the Victoria College website. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

This course provides an opportunity to design an interdisciplinary course of study, not otherwise available within the Faculty, with the intent of addressing specific topics in Renaissance studies. Written application (detailed proposal, reading list and a letter of support from a Victoria College faculty member who is prepared to supervise) must be submitted for approval on behalf of Victoria College. For application procedures visit the Victoria College website. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

An interdisciplinary seminar on Florence in the 15th and 16th centuries: humanism, culture and society in the republican period, the rise of the Medici, Florentine Neoplatonism, the establishment of the Medici principate, culture, society and religion.

An interdisciplinary seminar on Florence in the 15th and 16th centuries: humanism, culture and society in the republican period, the rise of the Medici, Florentine Neoplatonism, the establishment of the Medici principate, culture, society and religion. (Offered as part of the Summer Abroad program)

This course explores the intellectual and historical contexts of the Renaissance book and applies a digital humanities approach to its study, focusing on books printed in Western Europe between 1500 and 1700. Through a close examination of early and rare books, students explore three major areas in Renaissance intellectual history: 1) humanist rhetoric, politics, and literature, 2) Reformation studies, and 3) natural history, science, and medicine. Regular guest lectures sponsored by the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies will introduce students to scholars from beyond the UofT; the course also involves experiential learning with digital exhibitions and rare books.

An in-depth study in an aspect of the Renaissance based around lectures, seminars, and readings. Content in any given year depends on the instructor.

An in-depth study in an aspect of the Renaissance based around lectures, seminars, and readings. Content in any given year depends on the instructor.