Innis College Programs in the Faculty of Arts and Science
Innis students pursuing undergraduate degrees have access to the Faculty of Arts and Science's vast array of courses and programs. Some of these programs are housed within colleges. Innis contributes three interdisciplinary programs to the Faculty: Cinema Studies, Urban Studies, and Writing & Rhetoric. All three programs are open to students across the Faculty, that is, you do not have to be an Innis student to enrol in these programs.
Cinema Studies
Cinema Studies treats film primarily as a unique and powerful twentieth-century art form with its own traditions, history, conventions, and techniques. It embraces in broadcast terms the study of film analysis, history, and theory. Students learn how to understand, analyze, discuss, and explain film, in the same manner that students learn how to read literature in an English course or to discuss painting in a Fine Art History course. The program teaches methods of research particular to the study of film along with the special vocabulary required for scholarly discourse on cinema.
The knowledge acquired through the program is historical and theoretical; the skills are analytical and critical. The program does not prepare students in practical, hands-on terms to become filmmakers, but courses in practical film making are available elsewhere in the Greater Toronto Area.
Since its beginning in 1975, the Cinema Studies program has expanded to include more than 30 courses taught by instructors from various departments and colleges in the Faculty of Arts and Science.
Watch the University of Toronto Alumni Profiles of an alumna of the Cinema Studies Institute, Linda Schuyler, and two friends of the Cinema Studies Institute, Atom Egoyan and Norman Jewison.
Interested in more information? Browse the website or contact 416.978.8571 or cinema.studies@utoronto.ca.
Urban Studies
The Urban Studies program offers an interdisciplinary perspective on Canadian and foreign cities through a diverse selection of courses from such disciplines as sociology, geography, political science, economics, history, fine art, and architecture. The program teaches students to appreciate the fundamental nature of cities and the extent to which they are home to a majority of the world's population, to much of the world's creative activity, and to many of the world's problems.
Urban Studies offers internships in the offices of municipal politicians to enable students to learn through on-the-job training. The program also provides students with opportunities to do field research using the Greater Metropolitan Toronto Area as their laboratory.
Since the best way to study a city is to live in it, students are encouraged to study abroad for one year. The University of Toronto has a number of partnership agreements with universities in some of the world's most interesting cities, including Paris, Berlin, Hong Kong, and Jerusalem. These agreements allow students to take courses at foreign universities and receive credit for them toward a University of Toronto degree.
Interested in more information? Browse the website or contact urbanstudies.innis@utoronto.ca.
Writing & Rhetoric
The Writing & Rhetoric program reflects the belief that the study of critical thinking and written discourse is central to a liberal education. The goals of this program are both to introduce students to the disciplines of writing and rhetoric and to provide students with a powerful tool that will prove useful in graduate schools, professional schools, and the workplace. Students who complete this program can demonstrate that they have highly developed written communication skills.
This Minor program (four courses) builds on a foundation of Innis College courses that cover academic essay writing, rhetoric, creative writing, media analysis, and writing in the workplace. The program also draws on relevant University of Toronto courses in a range of disciplines.
Students who have completed the Writing & Rhetoric program have gone on to study in a variety of fields, including law, medicine, journalism, and management. Graduates can pursue postsecondary degrees in rhetoric, professional writing, communications, creative writing, journalism, and media studies, to name several possibilities.
Interested in more information? Browse the website or contact 416.978.5809 or writingandrhetoric.innis@utoronto.ca.
