Liberal Arts and Professional Studies – School and Department Contact Information |
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School of Administrative Studies
| Location: | 282 Atkinson Building, Tel.: 416-736-5210, Fax: 416-736-5963 |
| Website: | http://www.yorku.ca/laps/sas |
| Director: | Peggy Ng |
| Associate Director: | Thaddeus Hwong |
| Undergraduate Program Director: | Nelson Waweru |
| Coordinators of Administrative Studies: | Auditing and Management Information Systems and Tax: Ingrid Splettstoesser Financial Accounting, Law and Governance: Liona Lai Emergency Management: Ali Asgary Finance: Nabil Tahani Introduction to Administrative Studies: Len Karakowsky Management and Ethics: Julia Richardson Management Accounting: John Parkinson Management Science: Adriano Solis Marketing: Lee Li |
The School of Administrative Studies is home to a full range of business and management programs and courses taught by leading experts in a variety of fields. We provide the knowledge and skills that you want and employers demand.
Whether you are planning to pursue a career in business and management, or are already working and want to expand your knowledge of business concepts and practices, the bachelor’s and master’s programs (BAS, Honours BAS, BDEM, Honours BDEM, MDEM, MFACC) will prepare you to meet the challenges and opportunities ahead.
Department of Anthropology
| Location: | 2054 Vari Hall, Tel.: 416-736-5261 |
| Website: | http://www.yorku.ca/laps/anth |
| Chair: | Albert Schrauwers |
Anthropology is a social science that examines who and what we are, how we came to be, and where we might be going in the future. The discipline of anthropology explores diverse ways of knowing, forms of action and expression. Anthropologists study the social, cultural, political, economic and religious forces that shape our lives, our relationships with one another and our environments. The breadth of anthropology becomes apparent when looking at the range of courses this department offers. Our courses offer dynamic environments where you will learn about global diversity and the complex forces that shape our world. Our courses explore a wide variety of topics such as: development and the environment, media and popular culture, health, illness and disability, gender and sexualities, tourism, religion and science, diasporic communities and displaced peoples, violence and conflict, and the colonial process. Other courses focus on processes of change in the prehistoric and historic past.
Department of Communication Studies
| Location: | 3004 Technology Enhanced Learning Building, Tel.: 416-736-5057 |
| Website: | http://www.yorku.ca/laps/comn/ |
| Chair: | Kevin Dowler |
| Undergraduate Program Director: | Mary-Louise Craven |
The Department of Communication Studies provides students with a comprehensive understanding of traditional forms of mass communication: print, radio, film and television, while also examining the interactive telecommunications networks and computer systems that have introduced new media and new modes of communication.
The emphasis is academic rather than technical or professional. We aim to produce graduates who have acquired skills in communications analysis, who understand the increasingly complex fields of communications and who can clearly communicate their knowledge.
The courses offered by this program encompass four thematic areas: Media, Culture and Society; Politics and Policy; and Critical Technology Studies.
Students may be interested in augmenting their Honours undergraduate degree in communication studies with graduate studies or media-specific training at an Ontario community college (for details visit http://www.yorku.ca/laps/comn).
Selected course offerings: Communications and Development; Politics, Policy and the Media; Media Culture and Society; Advertising and Society and a fourth-year field experience course which provides students with an internship in the for-profit or not-for-profit communications fields.
Department of Economics
| Location: | 1144 Vari Hall, Tel.: 416-736-5322, Fax: 416-736-5987 |
| Website: | http://www.yorku.ca/laps/econ |
| Chair: | M.Anam |
| Undergraduate Program Director: | Neil Buckley |
The Department of Economics within the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies offers an academic program leading to degrees in economics at the BA, Honours BA and Specialized Honours BA levels, business economics at the BA level, and financial and business economics at the Specialized Honours BA level.
Through a unique teaching approach that blends theory and application, students in our program are introduced to the analytical and quantitative tools of economic analysis and learn to apply them to a wide range of individual and social problems which arise out of the conflict between unlimited wants and limited resources to satisfy them. They may focus on management issues in applied business fields or on financial markets and instruments or, more generally, on those aspects of social behaviour and those institutions which are involved in the allocation of scarce resources among alternative uses. In an intellectually stimulating environment, our students become skilled at identifying economic problems, at developing and applying economic theory to improve upon their understanding of the problems and their ability to solve them, and at evaluating the adequacy of their theoretical understanding through the use of data and empirical testing.
Our graduates are well prepared to begin or advance in a variety of careers in business, government and the not-for-profit sector and to pursue graduate studies in economics or professional training in business, law, public administration, and other disciplines.
Department of English
| Location: | 208 Stong College, Tel.: 416-736-5166 |
| Website: | http://www.yorku.ca/laps/en |
| Chair: | Jonathan Warren |
| Undergraduate Program Director: | Lily Cho |
The Department of English offers a variety of courses in the literature of the English language. There are courses in historical periods ranging from medieval to contemporary, in the literature of several nations (Canadian and post-colonial as well as English and American), in various literary genres such as poetry, fiction, drama, non-fictional prose and criticism and in literary theory. In addition, during their final 36 credits, Honours English majors may propose their own thesis (AP/EN 4099 6.00).
The department also offers a Specialized Honours BA in English.
Department of Equity Studies
| Location: | 302 Atkinson Building, Tel.: 416-736-5235, Fax: 416-650-3876 |
| Website: | http://www.yorku.ca/laps/des |
| Chair: | Minoo Derayeh |
| Undergraduate Program Director: | Tania Das Gupta |
The Department of Equity Studies (DES) offers a learning environment that values diversity and supports social equality. It provides students with an understanding of the social environments that shape their interests, opportunities, and identities. Students gain a solid and critical grounding in research methods and theories in ways that allow them to link their education with various types of degrees and certificates.
Graduates of the Department of Equity Studies will be well positioned to work in a wide range of areas with organizations, government, industry and communities that have programs, policies and procedures around the equitable treatment and experiences of Indigenous peoples, racialized peoples, immigrants and refugees, as well as in the area of human rights advocacy and redress.
The department offers two undergraduate degree programs.
- The Human Rights and Equity Studies (HREQ) degree program addresses the full range of human rights and equities issues: children’s rights, women’s rights, language rights, the rights of persons with disabilities and persons facing discrimination, economic and political rights and the rights of working people. Students explore the ethical principles of human rights as well as the roots and impact of human rights violations and efforts at redress.
- The Multicultural and Indigenous Studies (MIST) degree program represents the “cutting edge” in social justice studies, diaspora and globalization studies, bringing together established strengths in anti-racism and social justice with the growing development of Indigenous studies at York University.
The Department of Equity Studies also provides:
- General education six-credit courses.
- Certificate in Anti-Racist Research and Practice (CARRP) addresses racism and racial issues in the workplace, schools, healthcare, immigration, law enforcement, media and the expressive arts. Students who complete the certificate and are accepted into the Social Work program will be eligible to count up to 12 certificate credits.
- Certificate in Indigenous Studies addresses the experiences of Indigenous people including issues in language, history and culture. This certificate offers a range of courses that provide a unique focus on the history of the relationship between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in Canada.
- Certificate in Refugee and Migration Studies (in conjunction with the Centre for Refugee Studies) addresses issues concerning ethnic communities, gender, racism, migration, policy, cultural identity and international relations, augmenting the student’s work in the field or professional life. This certificate participation in the Centre for Refugee Studies seminar series is required.
Department of French Studies
| Location: | N727 Ross Building, Tel.: 416-736-5086, e-mail: lapsfren@yorku.ca |
| Website: | http://www.yorku.ca/laps/fr |
| Chair: | Monique Adriaen |
| Undergraduate Program Director: | Janusz Przychodzen |
The Department of French Studies offers an interdisciplinary set of courses in the three curricular areas of French language, linguistics and literature. A sequence of language-skills courses with cultural content allows students to develop their proficiency in oral and written French. The core curriculum includes as well courses in French linguistics (syntax, semantics, phonetics and sociolinguistics), and courses in literature of the francophone world with a special emphasis on French and French-Canadian literature. In addition to Honours BA, international BA and BA degree programs, the Department of French Studies offers Certificates of Language Proficiency in Basic French, Intermediate French and Advanced French, either in general French language proficiency or with a focus on business.
Le département d'études françaises (DÉF) offre au niveau du B.A et iBA un programme interdisciplinaire de cours dans trois domaines d'étude: langue, linguistique et littérature.
Dans le programme de langue, les cours visent à développer chez les étudiant-e-s l'expression orale et écrite et la compréhension orale et écrite tout en leur donnant l'occasion d'explorer les aspects multiples de la culture francophone dans le monde.
Le programme de linguistique familiarise les étudiant-e-s avec les différentes branches de la linguistique (syntaxe, sémantique, phonétique, sociolinguistique etc.) et les expose à un pluralisme théorique et méthodologique.
Le programme de littérature offre des cours axés sur les littératures et les cultures du monde francophone avec une concentration sur les littératures française et canadienne-française. Il permet aux étudiant-e-s d'acquérir des compétences en analyse et en interprétation de textes tout en leur présentant diverses approches théoriques et méthodologiques.
Le département offre aussi des certificats de compétence en français, général ou avec concentration sur le commerce, aux niveaux élémentaire, intermédiaire et avancé.
School of Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies
| Location: | 206 Founders College, Tel.: 416-650-8144 |
| Website: | http://www.yorku.ca/laps/wmst |
| Chair: | Gertrude Mianda |
| Director of Undergraduate Programs | Bobby Noble |
The School of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies offers interdisciplinary courses on women, gender and sexuality that encourage students to develop the practical, theoretical, communications, and organizational skills to think, write and act critically and creatively. Students will gain the skills necessary to conduct research and transform the knowledge gained into any future career they may choose, including continuing as a graduate student. Our interdisciplinary courses explore relations of power in the lives of individuals, groups and cultures in a multiplicity of settings and sites locally and transnationally. The rich, interdisciplinary feminist scholarship in both the Gender and Women’s Studies degree program and the Sexuality Studies degree program pushes students to interrogate constructions and intersections of gender, race, class, age, ability and sexuality in daily life, popular culture, the arts, the sciences, politics, society, the economy etc. We encourage students to engage individually and collectively in the transformative processes of feminist interdisciplinary scholarship, practices and politics.
The School of Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies unites academic resources at York University in gender and women's studies, and sexuality studies, bringing together the undergraduate programs, the Graduate Program in Gender, Feminist and Women’s Studies, the non-credit Bridging Program for women and the Centre for Feminist Research. Courses may be taken in English in the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies or in English or in French at Glendon College.
Department of Geography
| Location: | N430 Ross Building, Tel.: 416-736-5107 |
| Website: | http://www.yorku.ca/laps/geog |
| Chair: | Steven Tufts |
| Undergraduate Program Director: | A. Robert |
Geography is a unique discipline in that it rests on all the three pillars of intellectual life: physical sciences, social sciences and humanities. The discipline is concerned with the interrelationships among the earth’s physical and human environments. Geographers at York study climate change, resource depletion, human migration, globalization, geopolitics, poverty, inequality and vulnerability-their causes, consequences and implications on urban and regional development. We ask questions about how environmental, economic, social, political and cultural processes shape how the world functions or fails to function. These concerns take us from the local neighbourhoods in Toronto to Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Canadian Arctic and the Arizona desert. They offer students opportunities to understand and explore different dimensions of the world in which we live and offers a synthetic approach to understanding landscapes, people, places and environments. Our courses are divided into seven themes, each of which includes regional and systematic courses:
- The City;
- Globalization, Environment and Development;
- Production and the Politics of Difference;
- State, Empire and Power;
- Extreme Environments;
- Biophysical Processes and
- Geoinformatics.
Students are exposed to the breadth of geography in Years 1 and 2 and encouraged to specialize in one or more of these themes in Years 3 and 4.
Department of History
| Location: | 2140 Vari Hall, Tel.: 416-736-5123 |
| Website: | http://www.yorku.ca/laps/hist |
| Chair: | Marcel Martel |
| Undergraduate Program Director: | Myra Rutherdale |
History is an exciting and dynamic discipline that is always asking fascinating new questions about the past and answering important old questions in new ways. The study of history teaches us to think critically about how the past is fundamentally similar to the present, how the past is utterly different from the present, how the past is profoundly influential in shaping the present and how the past is recalled and remembered in the present.
The Department of History offers courses covering thousands of years of history in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas. At the 1000 level, students are introduced to the discipline of history through courses that emphasize theory, method and historiography, and that concentrate on fundamental reading, writing, research and analytic skills. At the 2000 level, students are introduced to major chronological and geographic fields of history. More specialized courses are offered at the 3000 level, while 4000-level seminars and colloquia enable small groups of Honours students to focus on specific historical topics.
Courses at the 1000 level have either a lecture/tutorial or seminar format. Courses at the 2000 level normally have two lecture hours and one tutorial hour. Courses at the 3000 level are taught as colloquia, lecture/tutorial or lecture courses. 4000-level courses will be offered as two- or three-hour seminars or colloquia. All courses are open to students studying in other units, unless otherwise indicated.
All history courses are numbered and grouped according to field. The thousands digit indicates the level at which the course is offered, the hundreds digit indicates the field (general 000, ancient 100, medieval and early modern Europe 200, modern Europe 300, Great Britain 400, Canada 500, United States 600, Africa, Asia, Latin America and Caribbean 700, comparative and interdisciplinary 800), and the remaining two digits indicate the number of the course within the field.
Department of Humanities
| Location: | 262 Vanier College, Tel.: 416-736-5158 |
| Website: | http://www.yorku.ca/laps/huma |
| Chair: | Martin Lockshin |
| Undergraduate Program Director: | S. Warwick |
The Department of Humanities offers a broadly-based program of interdisciplinary study emphasizing the different ways in which human cultures and their multiple forms of expression have developed historically and continue to develop today. Humanities courses devote particular attention to the cultural practices of peoples in various times and places and the ways they have expressed cultural values and ideas of a philosophical, religious, moral, political and aesthetic nature. They foster a critical approach to reading and research that, in helping students learn to identify and question preconceived assumptions and values, allows them to engage and appreciate the interrelationship between diverse value systems and thereby to develop an analysis of the human and of human community. Courses offered in the Department of Humanities stress careful scrutiny of texts and cultural artefacts, critical thinking, reading, writing, seminar discussion and close contact between teacher and student.
The Department of Humanities offers Honours BA, Honours iBA and BA degrees in humanities which allow students to take advantage of a wide range of courses addressing important themes in the liberal arts. The department also offers Honours BA, Honours iBA and BA degrees in Canadian studies, children's studies, classics, classical and Hellenic studies, culture and expression, East Asian studies, European studies, individualized studies, Jewish studies and Religious studies. The department also participates in the Latin American and Caribbean Studies and Science and Technology Studies programs. Many humanities courses reflect these areas of concentration, thereby ensuring that humanities students have a wide range of course options to select from. For details, please consult the Programs of Study section.
Most first- and second-year courses offered through the Department of Humanities count towards the general education requirements of the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies (see General Education Requirements). In addition to six-credit general education courses, the Department of Humanities offers nine-credit foundations courses that place additional emphasis on developing critical thinking, reading and writing skills, and modes of reasoning courses that build critical reasoning skills.
School of Human Resource Management
| Location: | 123 Atkinson Building, Tel.: 416-736-5806, Fax: 416-736-5188 |
| Website: | http://www.yorku.ca/laps/shrm |
| Director: | Marie-Hélène Budworth |
| Undergraduate Program Director: | Chris Chan |
Established in 2009, the School of Human Resource Management is the only HR School in Canada with full-time faculty dedicated to the study of HRM. The School offers two undergraduate (BHRM and BHRM Honours) streams and two innovative graduate programs: masters of human resource management and a PhD in HRM. It also offers a Professional Certificate in Human Resources Management.
School of Information Technology
| Location: | 3068 Technology Enhanced Learning Building, Tel.: 416-736-2100 (ext. 22647 or 40797), Fax: 416-736-5287 |
| Website: | http://www.yorku.ca/laps/itec |
| Director: | Jimmy Huang |
| Undergraduate Program Director: | Marshall Walker |
The School of Information Technology prepares IT professionals for various career paths that require superior core technical and non-technical skills as well as organizational, communication, problem solving and critical thinking skills. The graduates of the Information Technology programs are uniquely positioned to plan, analyze, design, build, administer and audit information systems. They are familiar with the latest technologies and are capable of customizing and integrating them according to the users’ needs.
Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics
| Location: | S561 Ross Building, Tel.: 416-736-5016 |
| Website: | http://www.yorku.ca/laps/dlll |
| Chair: | Pietro Giordan |
| Undergraduate Program Director (Languages and Literatures): | Roberta Iannacito-Provenzano |
| Undergraduate Program Director (Linguistics): | Susan Ehrlich |
The Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics offers one of the widest selections of languages of any Canadian university: American Sign Language, Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), German, Greek (both Classical and Modern), Hebrew, Hindi-Urdu, Jamaican Creole, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swahili and Yiddish. The ESL section fosters the developing abilities of domestic and international students to use English for academic purposes, allowing them to engage more fully in their programs. The study of foreign languages and literatures makes communication possible among people of different linguistic and cultural backgrounds and fosters intercultural understanding. This enables our students to engage the global community thoughtfully and creatively.
The department also offers courses in linguistics, the discipline concerned with discovering the organizing principles of human language and applying these principles to the description of individual languages. Linguistics attempts to answer questions about the structure of languages, about how languages are alike and how they differ, about how children acquire language, about the relation between language and thought, language perception and production, as well as language and society. As a result, the study of linguistics can provide new perspectives on almost every aspect of the humanities and social sciences.
The department offers courses leading to Honours BA and BA degrees in German Studies, Italian Culture, Italian studies, linguistics, Portuguese studies and Spanish, as well as graduate MA and PhD degrees in linguistics and applied linguistics. The department also offers Certificates of Language Proficiency in Chinese, German, Italian, Japanese, Modern Greek, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish, as well as a Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). Students may also take courses in Hebrew towards an Advanced Certificate in Hebrew and Jewish Studies, offered by the Department of Humanities. The department’s language programs, through their various courses and language proficiency certificates, contribute to a variety of area studies and interdisciplinary programs: African Studies, Business and Society, Classical Studies, East Asian Studies, Environmental Studies, European Studies, Hellenic Studies, International Development Studies, Jewish Studies, Latin American and Caribbean Studies, South Asian Studies, Religious Studies and Women’s Studies. The department's language programs may also contribute to a variety of graduate program such as Development Studies. For specific program requirements, certificate requirements and course listings, please consult the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies Programs of Study section.
Languages and Literatures
| Section | Language Coordinator | Location | Ext. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese | X. Xu | S506 Ross | 66300 | xueqingx@yorku.ca |
| ESL | B. McComb | S505 Ross | 88733 | bmccomb@yorku.ca |
| German studies | D. Spokiene | S522 Ross | 88745 | spokiene@yorku.ca |
| Hebrew | A. Shulman | S573 Ross | 88727 | sahouva@yorku.ca |
| Italian studies | G. Colussi Arthur | FC 235 | 23094 | gcolussi@yorku.ca |
| Japanese/Korean | N. Ota | S532 Ross | 88750 | nota@yorku.ca |
| Spanish/Portuguese studies | E. Anderson | S503 Ross | 88729 | eandersn@yorku.ca |
Department of Philosophy
| Location: | S448 Ross Building, Tel.: 416-736-5113, Fax: 416-736-5114 |
| Website: | http://www.yorku.ca/laps/phil |
| Chair: | Robert Myers |
| Undergraduate Program Director: | Michael Giudice |
The Department of Philosophy offers a wide range of undergraduate courses which examine contemporary problems and issues in applied ethics, social and political philosophy, feminism, cognitive science, philosophy of mind and argumentation theory. In addition, courses are offered in the history of philosophy, continental thought, and other traditional areas such as metaphysics and epistemology, logic and the philosophy of language, moral philosophy, and the philosophy of law.
The department is open to many avenues of thought and to diverse ways of doing philosophy. Efforts are made to blend contemporary and historical perspectives, and our faculty draws its inspiration from widely separated philosophical approaches. In keeping with this, there is a great deal of interdisciplinary work, and philosophy is involved in numerous cross-disciplinary programs.
The 24 full-time department members, among whom are some highly praised and very well-known scholars, are supplemented by visiting and contract faculty who offer further diversity and breadth.
Department of Political Science
| Location: | S672 Ross Building, Tel.: 416-736-5265 |
| Website: | http://www.yorku.ca/laps/pols |
| Chair: | TBA |
| Undergraduate Program Director: | Dennis Pilon |
The Department of Political Science is a vibrant community of scholars, practitioners, dedicated teachers and engaged citizens. With our large faculty (over 50 full-time members) leading at many frontiers of research, we offer political science with the kind of depth and breadth that few departments in the world can match. Our graduates have made distinctive and successful careers in law, policy and government, international organizations, media, education (elementary and secondary), academia and in the private sector. Visit our website to see where our graduates are today.
Our courses offer an exciting breadth of areas – including global politics, law and politics, political economy, political theory, women and politics, Canadian politics, public policy and politics of specific areas such as the Middle East, Europe, India, China, Russia, Africa, and Latin America.
The first two years of our program will give you a thorough grounding in the ideas, concepts, and skills you need for your upper year courses. Our most distinguished teachers teach our first- and second-year classes. They will prepare you for an exciting array of elective courses in the following years. Depending on your interests and future plans, you can acquire specialized knowledge in many different issues/areas. We also offer a specialized Honors degree in global political studies.
With our location in one of the most diverse places in the globe, we attract a student body that is also as diverse. Our students bring with them a wealth of experience and worldviews that create a unique learning environment. Here you will learn not only from books, but also from the society in which we live. With this exposure, you will be ready to excel in any profession as a skilled global citizen.
Our goal is to bring to our students a political science that is living, relevant, and dynamic – something that profoundly shapes the lives we live – but that can also be shaped by us – with our knowledge and our actions.
School of Public Policy and Administration
| Location: | 119 McLaughlin College, Tel.: 416-736-5384, Fax: 416-736-5384 |
| Website: | http://www.yorku.ca/laps/sppa |
| Director: | James Simeon |
| Undergraduate Program Director: | Alena Kimakova |
The School of Public Policy and Administration brings together the interdisciplinary research and teaching experience of its highly regarded faculty to offer both degree and certificate programs. The School’s mission is “Education for Good Governance”. The Bachelor or Public Administration (BPA) offers both an interdisciplinary and balanced education. The program provides students the opportunity to learn essential analytic skills and managerial skills, combined with a suitable breadth of education, so that they cannot only identify challenges, but also effectively act on them. The graduate degree program of the school is the executive-style master’s degree in Public Policy, Administration and Law (MPPAL). The school also offers a graduate Diploma in Justice System Administration and two undergraduate professional certificates: Professional Certificate in Public Administration and Law and a Professional Certificate in Public Policy Analysis.
The school prepares graduates for careers ranging from the private to the not-for-profit and public sectors as well as for post-graduate studies in the social sciences and professional programs.
Department of Social Science
| Location: | S748 Ross Building, Tel.: 416-736-5054 |
| Website: | http://www.yorku.ca/laps/sosc |
| Chair: | Kimberley White |
| Undergraduate Program Director: | Peggy Keall |
Traditionally, the social sciences are understood to be those academic fields of study that employ a scientific method to explore social phenomenon. Social Science at York breaks from this narrow tradition to provide students with a progressive, innovative and truly interdisciplinary learning environment.
The Department of Social Science is part of the larger Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies and is currently home to 11 distinctive interdisciplinary degree programs. In line with the general mandate of York University, the Department of Social Science is strongly orientated, both in teaching and research, toward issues of social justice and sustainability.
All programs offered through the Department of Social Science reflect a sustained dedication to critical, interdisciplinary approaches to the study of social relations, social structures, social identities and social phenomena. That is to say, our courses and programs ground their analysis of social practices and relations in and across a range of disciplines and fields of study. Offering a variety of degree and certificate options, our interdisciplinary programs include:
| African Studies | Law and Society |
| Business and Society | Interdisciplinary Social Science |
| Criminology | South Asian Studies |
| Health and Society | Urban Studies |
| International Development Studies | Work and Labour Studies |
| Latin American, Caribbean Studies |
While enrolment in some of our courses is restricted to program majors, the Department of Social Science is also committed to the development and delivery of general education courses in the social sciences that all students can take as partial fulfilment of their general education requirements. The interdisciplinary general education curriculum offered through the Department of Social Science provides students with a breadth of knowledge with an interdisciplinary orientation, assists in acculturating students to the scholarly life of the university and offers critical learning skills for successful study in liberal arts and professional programs. Students may choose between nine-credit or six-credit social science foundation courses offered at the 1000-level. The nine-credit courses in the Department of Social Science feature two-hour tutorials that place special emphasis on developing critical thinking, reading and writing skills that provide students with a firm basis for success in their academic careers.
School of Social Work
| Location: | South 880 Ross Building, Tel.: 416-736-5226, Fax: 416-650-3861 |
| Website: | http://www.yorku.ca/laps/sowk |
| Director: | Barbara Heron |
| Undergraduate Program Directors: | Atsuko Matsuoka |
The School of Social Work is committed to providing professional social work education, characterized by the development of practice strategies that promote human rights and social justice. Recognized as one of the most progressive and socially responsive social work programs in Canada, the school’s unique curriculum explores how critical social work practice, critical theories, research, advocacy and social policies can account for and challenge oppression and marginalization. York students are equipped for professional practice in a number social work arenas, from work with individuals and families to practice with communities, policy, research and international settings.
Department of Sociology
| Location: | 2060 Vari Hall, Tel.: 416-736-5015 |
| Website: | http://www.yorku.ca/laps/soci |
| Chair: | Philip Walsh |
| Undergraduate Program Director: | TBA |
Sociology majors learn a methodology to study people and the roles they adopt in society as individuals and in groups, through exploration of social relations, interactions and power dynamics, thereby gaining a comprehensive understanding of how human action and consciousness shape and are shaped by surrounding cultural and social structures. Among the vast range of topics that sociology explores, a few taught by faculty in our department are: race and racism, crime and social regulation, social policy, work and labour, gender, Canadian society, immigration, education, health and healthcare, social organizations, culture, poverty, social interaction, socialization and criminal justice systems.
Writing Department
| Location: | S311 Ross Building, Tel.: 416-736-5134 |
| Website: | http://www.yorku.ca/laps/writ |
| Chair: | John Spencer |
| Undergraduate Program Director: | Ron Sheese |
The Writing Department offers courses within a professional writing degree program as well as a variety of other credit courses which may be taken to help students develop their research and writing skills, both academic and professional. The department is also the home of the Writing Centre, which provides one-to-one and non-credit group instruction as described below.
Writing Centre
The Writing Department’s Writing Centre provides students with one-to-one instruction designed to assist students to become effective independent writers both in their academic life and beyond. Instruction is based on students' course assignments, usually on the draft of an essay, or other writing assignment, in progress. All Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies students, at any stage of a particular course assignment, are welcome to make appointments and take advantage of the opportunity to work on their writing with one of the centre's experienced faculty. Some students in other Faculties also may use the centre (information available on the Writing Department website). Appointments are for 50 minutes and are available in the day Monday through Saturday as well as evenings Monday through Thursday. The centre also regularly offers group workshops on various issues and skills related to writing effectively in university.