Victoria College Courses
Vic One Consult Vic One Liaison Officer, Michelle Mitrovich, Victoria College m.mitrovich@utoronto.ca
The following courses are available to students admitted to Vic One: Egerton Ryerson Stream VIC 150Y1 This course will be about the history of school and will examine
the philosophical questions about the nature and purpose of
learning, and also the economic
or “human capital” value
of education with respect to both the student and the state. VIC 151Y1 The course studies the history and philosophy of teaching with
a view to having students develop their personal understanding
of teaching.
Students
will be involved in a practicum. Frye Stream VIC 162H1 A study of culture with a view to developing basic concepts
with examples drawn from the visual arts, music, film, architecture,
and/or local
urban artifacts. We will emphasize evolving perceptions of
time
and space. VIC 163H1 A study of culture with a view to developing basic concepts
with examples drawn from the visual arts, music, film, architecture,
and/or local
urban artifacts. We will emphasize how contemporary thought
has
affected the
practice of everyday life. VIC 164H1 A study of the ideas and concerns of creative thinkers and
their impact upon cultures. The course will include scientific
thinkers
as well
as religious figures from the major traditions. Attention
will be given to modes of
reasoning, cultural definition and expression. We will emphasize
philosophical and artistic concepts. VIC 165H1 A study of the ideas and concerns of creative thinkers and
their impact upon cultures. The course will include scientific
thinkers
as well
as religious figures from the major traditions. Attention
will be given to modes of
reasoning, cultural definition and expression. We will emphasize
literary and philosophical concepts in the rise of modernism. Stowe-Gullen Stream VIC 170Y1 How rhetoric and statistical analysis are used to communicate
scientific observations and theories will be examined in
seminars. Problems
including the nature of evidence, risk assessment, random
error and systematic
error (bias) will be discussed using examples drawn from
the physical, life and
social sciences.
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VIC171Y1 An examination of scientific theories and their logic, the role in life sciences of models and mathematics, and issues in experimental design and data analysis. Particular emphasis will be placed on evolutionary theory, genomics, contemporary scientific controversies and ethical issues. VIC181H1 A seminar course that examines a specific event or events in relation to the public sphere. The course will use events or an event as an entry point to discuss the nature of society including topics such as major revolutions, economic crises, the impact of the appearance of significant artistic or cultural works, and the impact of technological changes. We will emphasize recent political developments in world affairs. VIC183H1 A seminar course that examines the contribution of an individual or individuals to the public sphere. The course will explore how public service and citizenship are developed in the context of studying the social, philosophical, cultural and scientific context of the period. Topics could include the role of law and government, civil liberties, rights and responsibilities, the role of protest. We will examine individuals who have shaped the processes by which modern memory is formed. VIC184H1 A seminar course that examines the contribution of an individual or individuals to the public sphere. The course will explore how public service and citizenship are developed in the context of studying the social, philosophical, cultural and scientific context of the period. Topics could include the role of law and government, civil liberties, rights and responsibilities, the role of protest. We will examine our evolving role in developing cultural memory. VIC 185H1 The course uses events or an event to discuss the nature of society including
major revolutions, economic crises, and the impact of significant artistic,
cultural and technological developments. Emphasis on social justice. Vic First: Pathways for First Year VIC101H1 The course is a general orientation toward conflict, and develops a basic understanding of essential conflict resolution principles that will complement the study of conflict theory. The course will examine the differences between conflicts and disputes, the functions and desirability of conflict, and the conditions that facilitate conversion of conflicts from destructive to constructive. VIC102Y1 This course examines a specific event, or events, in relation to the public sphere. The course will use events or an event as an entry point to discuss the nature of society including topics such as major revolutions, economic crises, the impact of the appearance of significant artistic or cultural works, and the impact of technological changes. We will emphasize case studies of recent social issues. VIC 103Y1 This course examines how political ideas are formed and developed
through literature, art, plays, essays and philosophical works in the twentieth
century.
Vice is popular: a prestigious university press has brought out a
series of seven books on the Seven Deadly Sins. This course examines such
questions
as the following. Are greed, lust and gluttony just bad names for necessary
and otherwise acceptable instincts? What is the place, in a good human
life, of such qualities as honesty, trust, civility and the like? Are
vices and virtues culturally determined or a matter of individual preference?
Can character be taught, or is it rather a matter of genes and luck?
The course focuses on the various aspects of a culture as exhibited
through the media of images, music and texts. VIC106H1 This course explores central developments and ongoing controversies in the scientific study of the human mind, brain and behavior. It examines topics such as: psychoanalysis, behaviourism, humanistic psychology, evolutionary psychology, intelligence testing, and feminist perspectives. Goals include understanding the historical evolution and social relevance of scientific psychology. VIC107H1 A course examining the history of research and knowledge on evolution, heredity and behaviour. Topics include Darwinian evolution, the rise and development of the Mendelian theory of the gene and of molecular biology, views about instincts, and sociobiology. VIC108H1/Y1 This course will examine a number of questions related to the origins of national identities and the sustainability of nation-states. Topics covered will include: language, ethnicity, religion, politics, war, symbols, the arts, sport and public spectacle, and cuisine.
Objects and artifacts provide an interesting way to study culture.
The presentation of objects in museums and galleries transmits cultural meaning
to society. This course introduces students to material culture using
the
ROM, the Gardiner Museum and other established resources.
There has never been a period of time, nor has there ever been a
culture, without some kind of puzzle tradition. Are puzzles just playful
artifacts,
intended merely to entertain? Or are they mirrors of something much
more fundamental in human life? The course will take a close look at what
puzzles tell us about the human mind and human culture.
This course explores the depiction of the Renaissance in a wide range
of plays, films and novels. The focus is on the exchange between
film, fiction,
and ‘fact’, and on how the values and concerns of the present shape creative recreations of the past in popular culture. VIC115Y1 In this course we will study a number of literary and cinematic works that take up questions of power, duty, rights, responsibility, and freedom. Our texts will be drawn from a long history, and from many parts of the world. The sequence however will not be chronological. VIC116Y1 A philosophical consideration through literature, articles and film as well as medical case studies to consider ethical elements of medical decision-making. VIC117H1 This course examines two key issues about the performing arts that
concern both artists and theorists: the nature of interpretation and of
expression. What might we mean when we say that a work, a piece of music
or a dance for example expresses something? What is it to express? And
what is the nature of interpretation? Are there any constraints or
boundaries on interpretation? We will draw on both philosophers and
non-philosophers to explore these sorts of questions. For Distribution Requirement purposes,
all VIC Literary Studies courses are classified as HUMANITIES courses. VIC201Y1 Selected forms (such as epic, romance, satire, tragedy, lyric, utopia, autobiography, confession), with special attention to their roots in the Ancient and Medieval period. Texts may include selections from Aboriginal, Asian, Hebrew and Babylonian creation myths, epic narratives; history and law; drama; lyric poetry, songs and spells; philosophy and theology. VIC210Y1 The rise of modern European literatures in various contexts - colonialism, humanism, literacy, nation-states, democracy, ideology, individualism - that prompted development of new literary genres, figures, personae and filiations. VIC300H1/Y1 Interdisciplinary seminar on an author or extensive work (eg. Proust’s, Remembrance of Things Past, Joyce’s, Finnegans Wake) or on a genre. Emphasis on literature and its relation to fine arts, philosophy, politics, history
Interdisciplinary seminar on a historical period (eg. Late Antiquity,
Romanticism, the Harlem Renaissance) or critical event. Emphasis on literature
and its
relation to fine arts, philosophy, politics, history. VIC309H1 Detailed study of a major modernist text or author(s), some of the surrounding theoretical debates, and other forms of cultural expression such as cinema, photography, collage, mass advertising, music, etc, that may be relevant. VIC310H1 Texts from the second half of the 20th century and after, to foreground the reaction to modernism, and to consider the challenges to memory and representation that accompany historical crisis. Questions of language, representation, aesthetics and politics, interpretation. VIC311H1 An introduction to the main questions raised by translation studies, and an examination of the relationships it has established with other disciplines such as linguistics, film studies, literary theory, philosophy, anthropology, political-economy, psychoanalysis, the hard sciences. VIC 352Y1 This course will examine how a variety of international authors, both
nineteenth century and modern, handle the themes of mortality, sexual passion
and love in their short fiction. Particular emphasis will be placed on the
artistry of the writer's presentation, the role of dialogue, the economy
of narrative, etc, etc. Students will read Chekhov (The Kiss, Lady with a
Dog) and Tolstoy (Master and Man) but will also be exposed to such contemporary
popular authors as Elmore Leonard
VIC401H1/Y1 This course offers senior students in Literary Studies the opportunity to take part in a graduate seminar in Comparative Literature. Topics change annually. VIC410H1/Y1 For senior students enrolled in the Literary Studies program, although other students are welcome. Intensive study of general issues of poetics and critical theory, including representative literary and philosophical texts. VIC411H1/Y1 Study of current filmic and literary theories, with emphasis on the rhetoric of film: the concept of the trope, metaphor, metonymy, allegory, irony, repetition, and specific thematic tropes like the eye, the face, the death mask, the mirror, the dream, etc. JNV300H1 The study of a selected group of creative writers from at least two national literatures whose texts raise issues regarding gender as either an historically or culturally variable construct. Texts will be chosen on the basis of a shared historical era, a literary genre, experience, institutional categorization, or project. For Distribution Requirement purposes,
all VIC Renaissance Studies courses are classified as HUMANITIES courses. VIC240Y1 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. VIC341H1 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. VIC342H1 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. VIC343Y1 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. VIC344H1 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. VIC345H1 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.
A study of Orpheus as portrayed in art, music, poetry, and philosophy of the Italian Renaissance.
Studies in the development of new musical and/or dramatic forms in the
Renaissance. The course will combine seminars and lectures with a series of
musical
and/or dramatic performances taking place in Toronto over the course of
an academic
year.
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.
Studies in an aspect of the Renaissance based around lectures, seminars,
and readings. See annual course listing for the year’s theme. VIC440Y1 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.
For Distribution Requirement purposes,
all VIC Semiotics courses are classified as SOCIAL SCIENCE courses. VIC220Y1 Studies the international culture emerging in media and literature and examines recent communication theory as it applies to literary, social and cultural issues.
This course will introduce the main elements of semiotic theory,
applying it to the study of human culture, from language, myth, and art to
popular
forms of culture such as pop music and cinema. It will deal with primary
texts in the development of semiotics, and cover a broad range of cultural
applications of semiotic theory. VIC320Y1 Theories and models of applied semiotics: analysis of sign systems as articulated in various forms of artistic and cultural production.
An in-depth examination of some aspect of Semiotic theory or practice.
Content in any given year depends on instructor. Not offered every year. JFV323H1 The study of readings from major French literary semioticians will be combined with the practical application of theory to the analysis of selected literary texts. (Given by the Department of French and Victoria College)
For Distribution Requirement purposes,
VIC CTEP courses are classified in various ways; see individual course
descriptions for classification. VIC260H1 This course examines how children and adolescents develop and explores how best to facilitate their growth and learning in the area of education. Major topics include cognitive, emotional, social, moral, physical and language development.Themes addressed include interpersonal relationships such as pro-social and aggressive behaviour, as well as the influence of schooling, family life and culture. This course includes a 20-hour field experience located in a school and entails observation of development across the various age groups.This may be satisfied by participation in Vic Reach or in another organization with the approval of the CTEP Vic Coordinator. VIC261H1 This course focusses on raising awareness and sensitivity to equity and diversity issues facing teachers and students in diverse schools and cultural communities. It builds knowledge of how oppression works and how cultural resources and educational practices may be brought to bear on reducing oppression and improving equity.This course’s field experience entails observation of and participation in equity and diversity efforts in a culturally-rooted school and/or community organization. JSV262H1 The purpose of this course is to provide knowledge and skill acquisition in the areas of interpersonal conflict resolution and communication. VIC360H1 Students are required to complete an internship in an educational or community source environment.This may be satisfied by participation in Vic Reach or in another organization with the approval of the CTEP Vic Coordinator. Written assessment of the internship will be required.
VIC299Y1 Credit course for supervised participation in faculty research project. See page 47 for details. VIC350Y1 Practice and instruction in writing poetry and fiction, paired with study of literature and theory introducing the multicultural richness of contemporary English writing. Approximately three-quarters of class periods are workshops, one-quarter lecture discussions. Work by many writers from contemporary and traditional literatures are read in English translation.
This course examines the evolution of higher education in Canada.
Using Victoria University and Victoria’s affiliates as a case study, the course explores the intersection of gender, race, class and religion. Comparisons are made with other denominational and secular institutions in the context of late nineteenth and early twentieth century education. International contexts of education through student service and missions are discussed. VIC390Y1/391H1 VIC490Y1/491H1 These courses provide an opportunity to design an interdisciplinary course of study not otherwise available within the Faculty. Written application (detailed proposal, reading list and a letter of support from a Victoria College faculty member who is prepared to supervise) must be made through the Program Director for approval by Victoria College Council’s Academic Advisory Committee by April 30 for a Fall course or by November 30 for a Spring course. Students should have a minimum CGPA of 3. |
