- Faculty List
Professors
E. Gilbert, MA, PhD (Vice-Principal, Canadian Studies)
L. Lai, MA, PhD (Canadian Studies)Associate Professor
Y. Xu, PhD (Cognitive Science)Associate Professors, Teaching Stream
J. John, BA, PhD (Cognitive Science)
J. Plotnick, MA, MSc (Writing Centre)
S. Rayter, MA, PhD (Sexual Diversity Studies)
J. Vervaeke, MA, PhD (Cognitive Science)Assistant Professors
M. Grigoroglou, MA, PhD (Cognitive Science)
C. Mekik, MCog, PhD (Cognitive Science)
J. Moreau, MA, PhD (Sexual Diversity Studies)Assistant Professors, Teaching Stream
T. Adefarakan, MA, PhD (Canadian Studies)
L. De Souza-Kenney, MSc, PhD (Public Health)
S. O'Flynn, MA, PhD (Canadian Studies)Senior Lecturer
R. Salutin, MA (Canadian Studies)
Introduction
University College offers a number of programs and courses outside the areas traditionally covered by departments. These include our First Year Foundations seminars and UC One, a special suite of courses specially designed for first year students. We also offer courses and programs in Asian Canadian Studies, Black Canadian Studies, Canadian Studies, Cognitive Science, and a new Public Health Major. Each of these fosters interdisciplinary work in innovative areas and encourages intellectual breadth. Many program courses are open to students not enrolled in the programs themselves. Two other programs are also affiliated with University College and are described elsewhere in the Calendar: the Centre for Drama, Theatre & Performance Studies and the Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies.
UC One: Engaging Toronto
UC One is an exciting initiative that provides first-year students with a special university experience. Students choose from one of four courses, each of which is designed to engage with the city from a different perspective. Classroom learning is directly linked to real life experience. Weekly lectures and seminars are supplemented with prominent guest speakers, including political and business leaders, activists, artists, and more. Students also participate in a range of field trips across the city.
Students enrol in one of the following 0.5 credit courses:
UNI101H1: Citizenship in the Canadian City
UNI102H1: Performing the City
UNI103H1: Gradients of Health in an Urban Mosaic
UNI104H1: Sex in the City
Enrolment in each course is limited to up to 30 students. All first-year students in the Faculty of Arts and Science (St. George campus) are eligible to enrol. For more information visit the UC One website.
Asian Canadian Studies (Minor)
The Minor in Asian Canadian Studies is an interdisciplinary program focused on understanding and productively engaging with the social, political, historical, economic and cultural conditions that lead Asian Canadians to come to understand themselves as such, and thus what it means to be Asian Canadian. The program addresses how Asian Canadians have participated in the making of their own communities and contributed to the building of contemporary Canadian society. It is concerned with issues of social, political and ecological justice, especially with regards to historical and contemporary exclusion, violence and rupture. In addition, the program addresses Asian migration, hybridity, globality, movement, displacement and diaspora, particularly as they unfold in Canadian and Turtle Island contexts. Conversations about cultural and political agency and responsibility are key, as are conversations about relationships, especially with Indigenous and Black communities and individuals. Some of our interdisciplinary courses connect students with local communities, and every course provides opportunities for students to pursue a choice of research interests. Together we critically investigate and add to knowledge for and about Asian Canadians.
Canadian Studies (Specialist, Major, Minor)
The Canadian Studies program offers opportunities to study contemporary Canada from multidisciplinary perspectives across cultural, social, economic and political frameworks. A wide variety of courses examine community- and identity-formation to better understand structural and systemic forms of discrimination, as well as resistance and empowerment. Students gain a critical understanding of contemporary issues and opportunities to make lasting, constructive contributions to the communities in which we live.
Students will be encouraged to take full advantage of the extra-curricular offerings available through the Canadian Studies Program, including its journal, ImagiNATIONs, produced by and for undergraduate students as well as the annual undergraduate student conference. The Canadian Studies Student Union is a focal point for social as well as academic pursuits.
Certificate in Black Canadian Studies
The Certificate in Black Canadian Studies will provide students with an opportunity to study and research the social construction of race in Canada, with a focus on Black Canada and Black Canadians, past and present. This will include attending to structural and systemic discrimination in areas including politics, judicial systems, and the arts, as well as considering counter-narratives and forms of resistance and empowerment enacted by Black Canadian communities. This certificate also offers a specialization that considers the historical roots and contemporary implications of anti-Black racism, as well as movements that are building towards social equity, and future imaginings. While this certificate addresses local and national contexts, it also situates diasporic and transnational frameworks for understanding Blackness in Canada. As a result, the certificate also examines a comparative approach to meaning-making and belonging in solidarity with other forms of racism and oppression.
Cognitive Science (Major)
The Cognitive Science Program introduces students to the field of cognitive science: the interdisciplinary study of the mind in humans and machines. Our students learn about such mental phenomena as perception, language, reasoning, and consciousness, and they integrate this knowledge with an account of how the human brain works. Based on this foundation, students develop an understanding of natural and artificial intelligence.
There is both an Arts Major and a Science Major in Cognitive Science. The Arts Major has three course streams: Perception and Attention; Thinking and Reasoning; and Language and Cognition. The Science Major has two course streams: Computational Cognition and Cognition and the Brain. In their upper years of study, students have opportunities to be engaged in research and/or independent studies.
Public Health (Major)
The Major in Public Health explores how health is shaped by the circumstances in which people are born, grow up, live, work, and age, and how these in turn connect to a wider set of environmental, social, cultural, economic, and political forces. Understanding health requires knowledge from a range of disciplines and sectors. Public Health thus offers a stimulating interdisciplinary environment that challenges students to think about health – both locally and globally – in new ways. Our variety of elective courses allow students to investigate the intersection between human health and other variables such as sexuality, ethics, and economics.
The Major in Public Health has replaced the Health Studies Major (ASMAJ2085). Students who were enrolled in Health Studies before September 16, 2024 will be able to complete the requirements as published in the archived 2023-24 Arts & Science Academic Calendar. Consult the Public Health program for more information (health.studies@utoronto.ca).
University College (UNI) Courses
University College hosts several 100-level UNI courses that are part of the First-Year Foundations courses offered by the Faculty of Arts & Science. They are designed to provide students with a small, seminar-based experience in their first year. At the 300+ level, there are several UNI courses available for students to pursue independent studies. These courses are open to students enrolled in a UC program or affiliated program (Asian Canadian Studies; Black Canadian Studies; Canadian Studies; Cognitive Science; Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies; Public Health; and Sexual Diversity Studies) or to UC students not enrolled in a UC program. For more information, please consult the UC independent study web page.
Enquiries
- Canadian Studies, Room UC173 – canadian.studies@utoronto.ca
- Cognitive Science, Room UC173 – cognitive.science@utoronto.ca
- Public Health, Room UC173 – health.studies@utoronto.ca
- UC One, Room UC173 – uc.one@utoronto.ca
- Centre for Drama, Theatre & Performance Studies (416-978-8099) – undergrad.cdtps@utoronto.ca
- Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies (416-978-6276) – sexual.diversity@utoronto.ca
Note About Program Completion
Students can complete only one program type – Specialist, Major, or Minor – in an individual area referenced with the same four-digit program code.
The University College programs impacted by this policy: ASSPE0728, ASMAJ0728, and ASMIN0728