<Undergraduate Courses and Programs<College Courses

Founders College Courses

Academic Program Office:

217 Founders College, 416-736-5148

Web Address:

http://www.yorku.ca/founders/

College Master:

M. Gewurtz

Listed below are the 1000-level and 2000-level nine-credit foundations courses which are part of the Faculty of Arts general education requirement. These courses introduce students to interdisciplinary study and emphasize critical thinking, reading and writing skills at the university level, and reflect the academic mandate of the college.

AS/HUMA 1300 9.00 The Cultures of Resistance in the Americas: The African American Experience

This course examines oppression and the ways in which Afro-American, Amerindian and racially-mixed communities in the Caribbean, Latin America, Canada and the United States use cultural patterns - the oral tradition, religion and ethics - both to comment on that oppression and to express alternatives. (This course is affiliated with Founders College.) Degree credit exclusion: AS/HUMA 1300 6.00.

AS/HUMA 1400 9.00 Culture and Society in East Asia

Introduction to traditional East Asian civilization by examining daily life in 18th-century Peking and Edo (Tokyo), and their rural hinterland. Topics include the physical setting, social distinctions and occupations, arts and crafts, religion, literature and entertainment. (This course is affiliated with Founders College.) Corequisite: AS/HUMA 1401 0.00. Degree credit exclusion: AS/HUMA 1400 6.00.

AS/HUMA 1625 9.00 Fantasy and Topographies of Imagination

This course utilizes a variety of materials to explore fantasy in the West, not as the opposite of reality, but as how people imagine/give meaning to their experiences, thereby both shaping and resisting the realities of Western cultures. (This course is affiliated with Founders College.) Degree credit exclusions: AS/HUMA 1630 6.00, AS/HUMA 1630 9.00.

AS/HUMA 1630 9.00 Forms Of Fantasy

This course explores the development of fantasy in the Western imagination through a variety of interdisciplinary materials, with special emphasis given to the links between fantasy and culture, politics, marginality, and the articulation of unconscious desires. (This course is affiliated with Founders College.) Degree credit exclusions: AS/HUMA 1625 9.0, AS/HUMA 1630 6.0.

AS/HUMA 1980 9.00 Professional Writing: Process and Practice

This course considers a wide range of written expression including fiction, nonfiction, poetry and technical/business writing, with an emphasis on the theory and practice of writing. (This course is affiliated with Founders College.)

Cross-listed to: AS/EN 1980 9.00, AS/HUMA 1980 9.00, AS/WRIT 1980 9.00

AS/HUMA 2310 9.00 An Introduction to Caribbean Studies

This course introduces students to the major cultural characteristics of the contemporary Caribbean through an examination of the writers, artists and scholars of the region. (This course is affiliated with Founders College.) Degree credit exclusion: AS/HUMA 2310 6.00.

AS/HUMA 2420 9.00 Introduction to Korean Culture

This course offers an introduction to the study of Korean culture through a historical survey of literary, social, religious and political trends from ancient times to the present. (This course is affiliated with Founders College.) Degree credit exclusion: AS/HUMA 2000D 6.00.

AS/HUMA 2430 9.00 The Asian Canadian Experience: Historical and Contemporary

This course examines the Asian Canadian experience as a lived reality and as constructed in works of the imagination. Issues such as community, otherness and boundary crossing are explored. Comparisons are made to the US experience. (This course is affiliated with Founders College.) Degree credit exclusion: AS/HUUMA 2000B 6.00 (2000-2001 to 2001-2002).

AS/HUMA 2440 9.00 India: Life, Culture and the Arts

This course examines contemporary life and society in India as it is going through a process of all round development, reintegrating traditions and responding to new influences. (This course is affiliated with Founders College.) Degree credit exclusion: AS/HUMA 2000A 6.00.

AS/HUMA 2640 9.00 Modes of Fantasy

In this 2000-level foundations course students study some of the principle modes and models of fantasy. In the first term three major modes of fantasy - literary, historical and psychological - are examined in detail, drawing on appropriate theoretical materials and fantasy texts. In the second term, four major models of fantasy are examined: Romance and Horror, and Utopias and Dystopias. (This course is affiliated with Founders College.) Degree credit exclusion: AS/HUMA 2640 6.00.

AS/HUMA 2751 9.00 Aspects of Italian Culture

This course aims to present and analyze some of the most interesting themes underlying the development of Italian intellectual life from the 14th century to the 19th century. (This course is affiliated with Founders College.) Degree credit exclusions: AS/HUMA 2990A 6.00, AS/IT 2750 6.00, AS/IT 2751 6.00, AS/HUMA 2990A 9.00.

Cross-listed to: AS/HUMA 2751 9.00, AS/IT 2751 9.00

AS/HUMA 2761 9.00 Italian Cinema, Literature and Society

The course focuses on 12 of the most significant films since the Second World War in the context of the radical changes that have taken place in Italy from the fall of Fascism to the present, and as critical statements on the phenomena connected with the rapid transformation of Italian society: industrialization and the economic miracle, urbanization, the crisis of traditional values, and postmodern fragmentation. (This course is affiliated with Founders College.)

Cross-listed to: AS/HUMA 2761 9.00, AS/IT 2761 9.00

AS/HUMA 2930 9.00 On Women: An Introduction to Women's Studies

This course explores the social, political and economic institutions which shape women's lives, and introduces key theoretical approaches within feminist scholarship to investigate specific feminist issues in areas such as women's writing, visual representations, family, race, sexuality, women and work. (This course is affiliated with Founders College.) Degree credit exclusions: AS/HUMA 2930 6.00, AS/SOSC 2180 6.00, AK/WMST 2000 6.00, AK/AS/GL/WMST 2500 6.00, GL/SOSC 2950 6.00, GL/WMST 2950 6.00.

Cross-listed to: AK/WMST 2510 9.00, AS/HUMA 2930 9.00, AS/SOSC 2180 9.00, AS/WMST 2510 9.00, GL/WMST 2510 9.00

AS/SOSC 1210 9.00 Human Rights and Canadian Minorities

This interdisciplinary course examines Canadian attitudes, institutional practices, and government policies affecting opportunities for full participation in Canadian society for various Canadian minorities, ethnic and religious groups, homosexuals, women, the aged, disabled and poor. Strategies for change are critically analyzed. (This course is affiliated with Founders College.) Degree credit exclusions: AS/SOSC 1210 6.00 and AS/SOSC 1210 9.00.

AS/SOSC 1430 9.00 Introduction to International Development Studies

This course introduces students to the field of international development studies, which has emerged as a result of efforts to bring about development in Third World countries. It uses a critical and historical approach drawing on concrete case studies, to examine the assumptions, practices and consequences of development. (This course is affiliated with Founders College.) Degree credit exclusions: AS/SOSC 1439 9.00, AK/SOSC 1910 6.00.

AS/SOSC 1440 9.00 Introduction to Cross-Cultural Studies: The Family, Production and Social Groups

The course introduces basic issues in social science. We examine various methods and approaches designed to help understand, analyze and predict human behaviour. In particular we will focus on families and work in a variety of different cultures. (This course is affiliated with Founders College.) Degree credit exclusions: AS/SOSC 1000 6.00, AS/SOSC 1000 9.00 Section B.

AS/SOSC 2180 9.00 On Women: An Introduction to Women's Studies

This course explores the social, political and economic institutions which shape women's lives, and introduces key theoretical approaches within feminist scholarship to investigate specific feminist issues in areas such as women's writing, visual representations, family, race, sexuality, women and work. (This course is affiliated with Founders College.) Degree credit exclusions: AS/HUMA 2930 6.00, AS/SOSC 2180 6.00, AK/WMST 2000 6.00, AK/AS/GL/WMST 2500 6.00, GL/SOSC 2950 6.00, GL/WMST 2950 6.00.

Cross-listed to: AK/WMST 2510 9.00, AS/HUMA 2930 9.00, AS/SOSC 2180 9.00, AS/WMST 2510 9.00, GL/WMST 2510 9.00

AS/SOSC 2480 9.00 Introduction to African Studies

The course explores common themes in the social organization, history and cultural heritage of Africa's diverse peoples. It then moves to examine the impact of colonialism, and the struggle to develop politically and economically viable nation-states in the post-colonial era. The work of African writers, artists and statesmen furnishes an important contribution to the course's understanding of Africa, past and present. (This course is affiliated with Founders College.) Degree credit exclusion: AS/SOSC 2480 6.00.