University College

University College Programs | University College Courses

Faculty List

Professors
E. Gilbert, MA, PhD (Vice-Principal)
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 Workshop)
S. Rayter, MA, PhD (Sexual Diversity Studies)
J. Vervaeke, MA, PhD (Cognitive Science)

Assistant Professors
C. Mekik, MCog, PhD (Cognitive Science)
J. Moreau, MA, PhD (Sexual Diversity Studies)

Assistant Professors, Teaching Stream
M. Grigorouglou, PhD (Cognitive Science)
N. Minai, PhD (Sexual Diversity Studies)
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 UC One and programs and courses in Asian Canadian Studies, Canadian Studies, Cognitive Science, Drama, Health Studies, including the new Public Health Major, and Sexual Diversity Studies, in addition to First-Year Foundation Seminars. The overall aims of the College Programs are to foster interdisciplinary work in significant areas of study and to encourage intellectual breadth. Many program courses are open to students not enrolled in the programs themselves.

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.

UC One is a 0.5 credit course, one of four courses typically taken by a first-year Faculty of Arts and Science student. Enrolment in each course is limited to up to 30 students. Students enrol in one of the following four 0.5 credit courses:

UNI101H1: Citizenship in the Canadian City
UNI102H1: Performing the City I
UNI103H1: Gradients of Health in an Urban Mosaic
UNI104H1: Sex in the City

In UC One, you can choose a course that complements your own interests.

Weekly lectures and seminars will be supplemented with prominent guest speakers, including political and business leaders, activists from non-governmental organizations, theatre directors, artists, and health practitioners. Students will have the opportunity to meet with the speakers and socialize with their fellow students after each guest lecture. Students will also participate in a range of field trips across the city.

Students enrol to the specific course during the Enrolment period. 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 at: https://www.uc.utoronto.ca/uc-one.

The Asian Canadian Studies program (Minor)

The minor in Asian Canadian Studies program focuses on community-engaged learning that explores how to understand the historical, social, cultural, economic, and political forces that affect people of Asian heritage in Canada. 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 about Asian Canadians.

The Canadian Studies Program (Specialist, Major, Minor)

The Canadian Studies program offers opportunities to study contemporary Canada in an interdisciplinary manner and to explore cultural, social, economical and political developments in this complex and diverse country. Students are encouraged to consider additional courses in Indigenous Studies in completing the requirements of the Program.

The 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.

The Cognitive Science Program (Major)

The Cognitive Science Program introduces students to the field of cognitive science: the interdisciplinary study of mind in humans and machines. Our students gain an understanding of such mental phenomena as perception, language, reasoning, and consciousness, and they integrate this understanding with an account of how the human brain works.

The Cognitive Science Arts Major has three course streams: Perception and Attention; Thinking and Reasoning; and Language and Cognition. The Cognitive Science Science Major has two course streams: Computational Cognition and Cognition and the Brain. Courses include: COG250Y1 Introduction to Cognitive Science; COG341H1 and COG342H1 Issues in Cognitive Science; COG401H1, COG402H1, and COG403H1 Seminar in Cognitive Science; COG498H1/ COG499H1/ COG497Y1 Independent Study; as well as courses drawn from offerings in Computer Science, Linguistics, Philosophy, and Psychology.

The Centre for Drama, Theatre & Performance Studies (Specialist, Major, Minor)

The Centre for Drama, Theatre & Performance Studies is described elsewhere in this Calendar.

Health Studies

Health Studies (now offering a new Public Health Major – see note below) is specifically tailored to provide a rigorous academic core curriculum while maintaining an interdisciplinary breadth to accommodate your interests. Majors may explore many areas of study including public health, health policy, health practices, research methods, and socio-cultural determinants of health. The Public Health Major is specifically tailored to provide students with a strong foundation in public health. Our variety of elective courses allow students to investigate the intersection between human health and other variables such as sexuality, ethics, and economics.

Note Regarding Changes to the Completion Requirements and Program Name for the Health Studies Major (ASMAJ2085)

Effective for program enrolment beginning in March 2025, the Health Studies Major (ASMAJ2085) will no longer be available for enrolment and students can instead request enrolment in the Public Health Major (ASMAJ2086). The enrolment and completion requirements for this Major are listed in the University College Programs section below.

Students who have enrolled in the Health Studies Major (ASMAJ2085) by September 16, 2024 will be able to complete the requirements as published in the archived 2023-24 Arts & Science Academic Calendar. Consult University College for more information.

The Sexual Diversity Studies Program (Specialist, Major, Minor)

The Sexual Diversity Studies Program allows students to focus on questions of sexual identity, difference, and dissidence across disciplinary lines and cultural frameworks. By examining sexual diversity across time and place, students will learn about the ways different cultures have separated the sexual from the nonsexual, the normal from the abnormal, and what the regulation of sexuality can tell us about how power operates along the lines of gender and race, for example. Students will gain an understanding of how and why certain sexual practices have come under scrutiny, and the significance of the various labels and identities that we have attached to them.