Art History: An introduction to a selected theme in art history.

Offered by: Art History & Communications

• Topics will vary from year to year.
• Restriction: Open only to students in U0 or U1. Students may take only one First Year Seminar.

• Terms
  • This course is not scheduled for the 2024 academic year
• Instructors
  • There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024 academic year

Asian Language & Literature: An introduction to East Asian culture based on close examination of primary and secondary texts as well as visual materials.

Offered by: East Asian Studies

• 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.

• Terms
  • This course is not scheduled for the 2024 academic year
• Instructors
  • There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024 academic year

Economics (Arts): Research, economic data, and analysis of current issues from an economic perspective. Basic economic concepts and models on one or more current economic issues.

Offered by: Economics

• 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).

• Terms
  • Winter 2025
• Instructors
  • Matthieu Chemin

English (Arts): Introduction to major modes of literary and cultural representation in English, including poetry, drama, film, the novel, and other forms.

Offered by: English

• 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/).

• Terms
  • Fall 2024
• Instructors
  • Peter Gibian

German (Arts): 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.

Offered by: Languages,Literatures,Cultures

• 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).

• Terms
  • Winter 2025
• Instructors
  • Tove K Holmes

History: 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.

Offered by: History and Classical Studies

• 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.

• Terms
  • This course is not scheduled for the 2024 academic year
• Instructors
  • There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024 academic year

History: An introduction to the discipline of history through an in-depth look at a selected topic.

Offered by: History and Classical Studies

• 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).

• Terms
  • Winter 2025
• Instructors
  • Suzanne Morton

Islamic Studies: 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.

Offered by: Islamic Studies

• 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.

• Terms
  • Fall 2024
• Instructors
  • Michelle Laura Hartman

Italian (Arts): 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.

Offered by: Languages,Literatures,Cultures

• 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

• Terms
  • This course is not scheduled for the 2024 academic year
• Instructors
  • There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024 academic year

Jewish Studies: 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.

Offered by: Jewish Studies

• 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/).

• Terms
  • Fall 2024
• Instructors
  • Christopher Silver

Linguistics: This fast paced course introduces students to challenges faced by scientists who study how language is represented in the human brain.

Offered by: Linguistics

• 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).

• Terms
  • Winter 2025
• Instructors
  • Michael Wagner

Languages, Literatures&Culture: 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.

Offered by: Languages,Literatures,Cultures

• 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.

• Terms
  • This course is not scheduled for the 2024 academic year
• Instructors
  • There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024 academic year

Earth & Planetary Sciences: An exploration of how earth and planetary scientists reconstruct the current state, past progress, and initial conditions of the continuously evolving Earth experiment.

Offered by: Earth & Planetary Sciences

• Fall
• 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.

• Terms
  • This course is not scheduled for the 2024 academic year
• Instructors
  • There are no professors associated with this course for the 2024 academic year

Psychiatry: This course will introduce the student to the fundamentals of neuroscience, and then use these principles to illustrate recent advances made on the biological causes of, and treatments for, mental disorders with a strong biological component: schizophrenia, depression, mania, anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases and alcohol and drug abuse.

Offered by: Psychiatry

• 1 hour lecture and 2 hours seminar weekly
• 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. No prerequisites

• Terms
  • Fall 2024
• Instructors
  • Reut Gruber, Katie Lavigne, Linda Booij, Julia Dornik, David A Benrimoh