Registration for First-Year Seminars is limited to newly admitted students in U0 or U1. These courses are designed to provide closer interaction with professors and peers than is available in large introductory courses. These seminars focus on the latest scholarly developments in the field and expose students to advanced research methods. Registration is on a first-come, first-served basis. The maximum number of students in any seminar is 25, although some have lower enrollment caps.
Arts students may take only one First-Year Seminar from either the Faculty of Arts or the Faculty of Science listings. Students who register for more than one will be obliged to withdraw from all but one.
Below is a complete listing of First Year Seminars for Arts Students. Click on the course link to verify whether it is being offered this academic year.
Arts FYS
ARTH 199. FYS: Themes in Art History.
Credits: 3
Offered by: Art History & Communications (Faculty of Arts)
This course is not offered this catalogue year.
Description
An introduction to a selected theme in art history.
- Topics will vary from year to year.
- Restriction: Open only to students in U0 or U1. Students may take only one First Year Seminar.
Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.
EAST 199. FYS: East Asian Culture.
Credits: 3
Offered by: East Asian Studies (Faculty of Arts)
This course is not offered this catalogue year.
Description
An introduction to East Asian culture based on close examination of primary and secondary texts as well as visual materials.
- Restriction: Open only to newly admitted students in U0 or U1, who may take only one FYS.
- Note: Enrolment limit 25. Students who register for more than one FYS will be obliged to withdraw from all but one of them
- Note: Language of instruction is English.
Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.
ECON 199. First Year Seminar: Economics Seminar: A Reflection.
Credits: 3
Offered by: Economics (Faculty of Arts)
This course is not offered this catalogue year.
Description
Research, economic data, and analysis of current issues from an economic perspective. Basic economic concepts and models on one or more current economic issues.
- Restriction: Open only to newly admitted students in U0 or U1, who may take only one FYS. Students who register for more than one will be obliged to withdraw from all but one of them.
- Maximum cap 25.
- Register for AFYR 101/102 and a foundation seminar OR a writing seminar (not both).
Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.
Credits: 3
Offered by: English (Faculty of Arts)
This course is not offered this catalogue year.
Description
Introduction to major modes of literary and cultural representation in English, including
poetry, drama, film, the novel, and other forms.
- For the most detailed and up-to-date descriptions of course and seminar offerings please see the Department of English website at .
- Restriction: Open only to newly admitted students in U0 or U1. Students may take only one First Year Seminar. Students who register for more than one will be removed from all but one of them.
- Maximum enrolment: 25
- Register for AFYR 101/102 and a foundation seminar OR a writing seminar (not both).
- Available only to registered participants in the Bachelor of Arts Foundation Year Program Pilot (/arts-foundation-pilot/).
Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.
GERM 197. FYS: Images of Otherness.
Credits: 3
Offered by: Languages,Literatures,Cultures (Faculty of Arts)
This course is not offered this catalogue year.
Description
The seminar examines images and narratives of the foreign, alien, and uncanny Other in major works of German literature, film, music, and art from Romanticism to the present. Works discussed include Wagner's Lohengrin, expressionist art, and texts by authors such as ETA Hoffmann, Kleist, Freud, Nietzsche, Kafka, and Thomas Mann.
- Restriction: Open only to newly admitted students in U0 or U1, who may take only one FYS. Students who register for more than one will be obliged to withdraw from all but one of them.
- Maximum 25
- Given in English
- Register for AFYR 101/102 and a foundation seminar OR a writing seminar (not both).
Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.
HIST 194. FYS: Jewish Concepts of Others.
Credits: 3
Offered by: History and Classical Studies (Faculty of Arts)
This course is not offered this catalogue year.
Description
A survey, using translated primary and selected secondary sources, of the ways in which Jews represented Christians from late antiquity to the present. Legal, liturgical, literary and other sources are examined with the focus on the Medieval and Early Modern periods.
- Restriction: Open only to newly admitted students in U0 or U1, who may take only one FYS. Students who register for more than one will be obliged to withdraw from all but one of them.
- Maximum 25 students.
- For first year students only.
Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.
HIST 199. FYS: History.
Credits: 3
Offered by: History and Classical Studies (Faculty of Arts)
This course is not offered this catalogue year.
Description
An introduction to the discipline of history through an in-depth look at a selected topic.
- Restriction: Open only to newly admitted students in U0 and U1 who may take only one FYS.
- Students who register for more than one FYS will be obliged to withdraw from all but one. Maximum of 25 students.
- Register for AFYR 101/102 and a foundation seminar OR a writing seminar (not both).
Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.
ISLA 199. FYS: Narrations of the Middle East.
Credits: 3
Offered by: Islamic Studies (Faculty of Arts)
This course is not offered this catalogue year.
Description
An introduction to competing narratives about crucial moments in the history and culture of the Middle East. Reading and discussion of texts drawn from a variety of perspectives and genres, including historical accounts, poetry, fiction, memoir and others.
- Fall
- Restriction(s): Only open to newly-admitted students in U0 or U1, who may take only one FYS.
- Note: Enrollment limit 25. Students who register for more than one FYS will be obliged to withdraw from all but one of them.
- Note: Language of instruction is English.
Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.
ITAL 199. FYS: Italy's Literature in Context.
Credits: 3
Offered by: Languages,Literatures,Cultures (Faculty of Arts)
This course is not offered this catalogue year.
Description
The purpose of this seminar is to re-visit, problematically, the commonsense notion that literature "reflects" reality (or society). Classics of twentieth-century Italian writing shall be analyzed as the response of that nation's literary imagination to the contradictions of its turbulent political and social history.
- Winter
- Given in English
- Restriction: Open only to newly admitted students in U0 or U1, who may take only one FYS. Students who register for more than one will be obliged to withdraw from all but one of them.
- Maximum 25
Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.
JWST 199. FYS: Images - Jewish Identities.
Credits: 3
Offered by: Jewish Studies (Faculty of Arts)
This course is not offered this catalogue year.
Description
A seminar devoted to literary portrayals of Jews by Jews and non-Jews from Biblical times to the present. Both positive and negative understandings of Jewish identity and Judaism will be studied.
- For detailed course content go to .
- Restriction: Open only to newly admitted students in U0 or U1, who may take only one FYS. Students who register for more than one will be obliged to withdraw from all but one of them.
- Maximum enrolment 25
- Register for AFYR 101/102 and a foundation seminar OR a writing seminar (not both).
- Available only to registered participants in the Bachelor of Arts Foundation Year Program Pilot (/arts-foundation-pilot/).
Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.
LING 199. First Year Seminar: Language and Mind.
Credits: 3
Offered by: Linguistics (Faculty of Arts)
This course is not offered this catalogue year.
Description
This fast paced course introduces students to challenges faced by scientists who study how language is represented in the human brain.
- Available only to registered participants in the Bachelor of Arts Foundation Year Program Pilot (/arts-foundation-pilot/).
- Restriction: Open only to newly admitted students in U0 or U1, who may take only one FYS.
- Note: Students who register for more than one FYS will be obliged to withdraw from all but one of them.
- Register for AFYR 101/102 and a foundation seminar OR a writing seminar (not both).
Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.
LLCU 199. FYS: Literary Animals.
Credits: 3
Offered by: Languages,Literatures,Cultures (Faculty of Arts)
This course is not offered this catalogue year.
Description
Study of the representation of animals in different European literary texts from both a thematic and a theoretical perspective. Questions about narrative voice, alternate worlds, and the human/animal binary will be raised within the larger political context of animals as Other in today's contemporary society.
- Restriction: Open only to newly admitted students in U0 or U1 who may take only one FYS. Students who register for more than one will be obliged to withdraw from all but one of them.
Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.