Bachelor of Arts, Major in Jewish Studies

at EduCo - Western University Canada

When you can dive into a many-layered narrative and surface holding the threads of revelation—what it means to be gendered, how love and will can transform hell into heaven, or how simply to go on—those are threads with which you can weave your life.

Studying literature nurtures, strengthens, and matures the skills needed in every profession:

• Communication
• Balancing complexity
• Empathy across differences
• Persuasion
• Storytelling

Not to mention the ability to track, analyze, and critique long collections of words! At Western, we study Canadian, British, American, global, and Indigenous literature. You can start with the earliest classics, like Beowulf. You can follow a contemporary novel, like Room, as it is adapted to stage and screen. English Studies at Western will make you a stronger professional and a clearer citizen, and it will support your humanity throughout your life.

Medical Cell Biology is the study of the cell, the basic building block of life. In Medical Cell Biology, you will learn how cells work together to form tissues, organs and the human body. You will also learn what happens when cells malfunction leading to diseases such as cancer.

Experience the Middle Ages in all its glory through an exciting, Faculty-wide program led by over twenty of Western’s world-renowned medieval experts. Beginning with the foundation course, Medieval Studies 1020, you will then create your own roadmap through this fascinating period in history, resulting in a Minor or Major in Medieval Studies. With opportunities to study Latin at Poitiers or experience an archaeological dig in Europe or the Middle East, medieval studies will truly come to life!

Language is the chief means which members of the human species use to communicate with each other. Its scientific and humanistic study is called linguistics. The history of linguistics goes back to ancient times, and during the 19th and 20th centuries it flourished and came to be associated most strongly with the scientific study of individual languages of the world as well as with the search to identify those traits which are common to all languages.

The study of linguistics is indispensable for anyone interested in a particular language or in a discipline with a focus on language in general. Students in many different fields of study find that linguistics makes an interesting and engaging elective or optional course (when combined with the discipline of language study, it is excellent preparation for law school, for example). In terms of careers, this means that anyone interested in language teaching of any sort (such as a Bachelors of Education, or TESL certification), in communicative disorders (including both Audiology and Speech Pathology), in translation or in interpreting should be sure to include some linguistics courses in their undergraduate preparation. The addition of linguistics, the scientific study of language, further enhances your academic program with critical and analytical skills, while contributing to your better understanding of human language (English, French and others), not simply from a grammatical or spoken perspective but also from a scientific approach.

Geography and Environment at Western centres around the following sub-disciplines; Physical Geography, Geographic Information Science (GIS), Urban Studies and Environment, Development and Health. This broad, integrative perspective makes Western geographers employable in a wide range of occupations.

By studying German at Western, you can gain a solid foundation in the language of Europe’s most influential economy and explore the language and culture in which figures such as Bach, Goethe, Mozart, Nietzsche, Brecht, Kafka, and Benjamin lived and worked and in which recent Nobel Prize winners, Elfriede Jelinek and Herta Müller, are thriving. Investigate and analyze culture through upper year seminars about German literary, visual and performing arts, covering periods from the medieval, classicist, romantic agesto the contemporary culture of unification and integration or about cities such as Vienna and Berlin. Major, Minor or Certificate module options are available and final-year capstone experiences include research seminars or project courses, and completion of an undergraduate honors thesis.

Student learn the German language through a multi-media, communicative approach, that focuses on the cultures of all German-speaking countries and integrates authentic materials such as articles, websites, film and literature. Challenge yourself with study abroad or exchange opportunities and receive credit at Western or engage with hands-on intercultural experience through in-class and community service learning.

An interdisciplinary and dynamic field, Women’s Studies has undergone impressive expansion in recent decades. In the Department of Women’s Studies and Feminist Research at Western, students study gender, and sexuality in terms of cultural norms and their implications from a variety of feminist perspectives. We explore how gender intersects with other axes of identity such as class, race, ethnicity, socio-economic standing, (dis)ability, age, and more. Encouraging the development of critical thinking skills, our discipline asks students to consider how knowledge gets produced and to what effect. We question how gendered understandings shape and shift our world in relation to local experience, historical realities, and the global present.

Are you moved by crisis in Darfur? Do social movements such as the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street interest you? Do you want to work for a public service or a non-profit organisation? Then the Media and the Public Interest (MPI) program might be for you. The MPI program is the only one of its kind in Canada and connects issues of communication and media to social justice issues such as democracy, equity, class, race, and gender. Students in MPI examine social movements and how media can be used to further these causes. Some example courses in the MPI program include Alternative Media, Social Movements and Media, and Activism in Mainstream Media. A primary goal of the program is to connect media theory learned in the classroom to real world experiences. Students are encouraged to put what they learn to use. Many of the courses feature a service learning component or practicum that gives students the opportunity to volunteer in a community organisation.

Are you interested in understanding the universe and our place in it? Consider studying astrophysics at Western! Through the interaction of light and matter, you can access the universe through observatories around the world and in space. Astrophysicists at Western will help you explore black holes, exoplanets, meteors, the atmospheres of Earth and other planets, the dust and gas between the stars, and the evolution of galaxies over cosmic time. With the skills acquired in this module, our graduates stand out with their involvement in cutting-edge research, including the recent discovery of gravitational waves and new planets beyond our solar system.

Don’t you love to dig into an idea until you really understand where it comes from and what it connects with? That’s what we do in Classics. The ancient Mediterranean world lives on in our modern experience. We see it in sports, medicine, sexuality, law, and politics—everywhere, really. We dive into the language, literature, philosophies, and archaeology of the Greek and Roman world.