Bachelor of Arts in Cognitive Science

at York University - School of Continuing Studies Canada

York's Music program provides an uncommon opportunity to explore the depth and breadth of the art form through a remarkably flexible curriculum that enables students to pursue creative and scholarly work across a wide range of musical genres and traditions, tailored to each individual's unique talents and aspirations.

York's Music program is known for pioneering post-secondary studies in jazz, world, classical and digital music. Students may specialize or generalize according to their interests, developing expertise in a particular area of vocal or instrumental performance or composition, or working in a variety of musical practices and cultural forms. Options include solo, small and large ensemble performance; composition and arranging; education and community arts development; ethnomusicology; and the growing field of musoc media production for cinema, gaming and motion media.

All first-year Music students enter the BFA program. After first year, students whose interests centre on music history, criticism and scholarly research may choose to move to the BA program.

Program Highlights
Courses and workshops in popular music and in non-western performance traditions, such as South Indian, Chinese orchestra, Indonesian gamelan, Caribbean, West African drumming and Celtic Canadian, are a regular feature of the program.

Performance Opportunities
Presenting more than 100 student and faculty conerts a year, as well as master classes with renowned Canadian and international artists, the Department of Music offers countless opportunities to perform and collaborate. In addition to the many student-led ensembles, students can be part of numerous formal ensembles, including:

• Symphony Orchestra
• Jazz Orchestra and Choirs
• West African Drums
• Concert and Chamber Choirs
• Celtic Canadian Folk Ensemble
• New Music Ensemble
• Chinese Classical Ensemble
• Gospel Choir
• Wind Symphony
• Escola de Samba
• Rhythm & Blues Ensemble
• Chamber Strings

York's Portuguese & Luso-Brazilian Studies program covers not only the Portuguese language but also the culture, history and literature of the entire Lusophone (Portuguese-speaking) world across all continents. Learn about and engage with a diversity of cultures – their art, literature, music, history and social and political landscapes through courses such as:

• Luso-Brazilian Cultures and Cinemas
• Cannibal Brazil: Cultural Encounters in Literature and Film
• Language in Context: Portuguese in the Greater Toronto Area
• Mapping Brazilian Identity Through Fiction: History, Race and Gender

The Portuguese language is the fourth most widely used language in the world, spoken daily by over 250 million people.

Its study will prepare you for work both nationally and internationally, offering you instant entry to Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, São Tomé e Príncipe, East Timor as well as numerous Lusophone communities around the world - Canada, USA, Germany, France, Switzerland, Australia, South Africa, Venezuela, Luxemburg  - and the territories of Macau and Goa.

We are the only university in Canada that offers a course solely dedicated to the region of the Azores. The Culture and Literature of the Azores delves into the uniqueness of this North Atlantic archipelago, whose natives make up the majority of the Portuguese immigrants in Canada.
Our program offers many opportunities for you to move beyond academics, exploring experiential education opportunities, and engaging in cultural events that will enliven your learning.

Health care is undergoing fundamental change from solely treating acute illness to focusing on a person’s whole needs for wellness—where physical health, mental health and social supports are explored—involving a team of health care professionals, including doctors, nurses, social workers, mental health specialists and others. In this new model, health managers, information specialists and policy experts are fundamentally important to leading the change and York’s Health Studies program prepares students for careers in these dynamic fields.

Not sure if you want to focus on Health Management, Informatics or Policy in your first year? Then choose Health Studies and explore all three. In addition to taking courses in management, informatics and policy, students study the breadth and depth of health and health care through a wide variety of issues and social contexts (e.g. status and disability, homelessness), including case studies in health care in the community. Societal factors that determine why some people stay healthy and others become ill are also examined such as income, stress, early life, social exclusion, work conditions, unemployment, social support, addiction, food and transportation.

Health Studies offers students the flexibility to attain a double major or do a minor in other Faculty of Health or York programs. The program also provides students with the prerequisites for postgraduate study in a professional program (e.g. medicine, law) or graduate school.

In Health studies you have different degree options. i.e Health Policy, Health Management. Health Informatics, and Health Studies. For more information please click here.

In AMPD's Department of Cinema and Media Arts students experientially learn to understand, think and work in the language of the moving image across all media. From idea to screenplay, camera to screen, screen to critical inquiry, our integrated curriculum offers exceptional training across the spectrum.

The BFA in Production offers a comprehensive curriculum in all aspects of filmmaking. Courses in the creative crafts of cinematography, editing and sound are offered alongside studies in the concepts and practices of screenwriting, directing and producing. Students work in a full range of digital and film formats, utilizing industry-standard production and post-production facilities, to produce work of fully professional calibre.

The program combines in-depth technical instruction with a strong emphasis on the creative aspects of film as a medium of storytelling, social engagement, and self-expression.

Small classes, ranging from 25 students in first year to 10 – 15 students in third and fourth year, allow for strong mentoring by the department's internationally recognized faculty.

The rich Cinema and Media Studies component included in the BFA in Production gives students an edge, developing their ability to not only make moving images but to think, talk and write about cinema and other screen-based media, and to understand the historical and theoretical framework in which they are produced.

The French Studies program focuses on the study of language, linguistics and literature while exploring francophone culture around the world. We keep our classes small to give you plenty of opportunity to speak French and interact with professors and classmates. You will be taught oral and written production and comprehension, guided by teaching assistants from France.

The linguistics program exposes you to the many branches of linguistics (syntax, semantics, phonetics, sociolinguistics, etc.) through a variety of practical and theoretical approaches. You will have the opportunity to study linguistics as applied to translation and to second language teaching.

The literature program opens doors to the literatures and cultures of the francophone world with a particular focus on French and French Canadian literature. You will develop analytical skills through the analysis of texts using various theoretical and philosophical approaches.

The School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design (AMPD) is pleased to announce a new Specialized Honours Bachelor of Fine Arts in Intermedia, offered collaboratively by the Departments of Computational Arts and Visual Art and Art History.

Develop awareness and a sense of social responsibility relating to Indigenous issues. Your access to traditional Elders and ceremonies, and your placements with Indigenous or supporting organizations will provide you with cultural and experiential knowledge about Indigenous lands, languages and cultures.

Indigenous Studies at York is a unique program that combines an experiential emphasis on local Indigenous traditions, treaties and languages with the theoretical insights of Indigenous scholars. We also feature courses that enable students to explore Indigenous literatures, cinema and music, or to develop an awareness of interconnections with Indigenous peoples internationally as well as with the racialized communities situated on Indigenous lands across the Americas due to histories of slavery and indentureship.

York's Theatre programs immerse students in all aspects of theatre, fostering the ability to specialize or to assume a wide range of roles and apply various approaches to performance.  Through their creative and scholarly practice, students learn to constantly reassess the meaning of their work in the context of our ever-changing society, and to develop the critical thinking to understand and make a contribution to the world around them.

Program Structure
All Theatre students share a common first foundation year, in which they take courses across the various fields of theatre and performance. At the end of forst year students branch into one of four streams based on their interests and goals.*
Throughout the programs, students work together as actors and as members of creative and production teams in the department's many productions.

Streams
Acting Conservatory
With intensive studies in acting, movement and voice, the Acting Conservatory takes students deep into scene study, script analysis and character development. Upper year Conservatory members are cast in Theatre @ York's mainstage shows, featuring classic and contemporary masterpieces from Canada and around the world, chosen to address some of the big cultural and politacal debates facing society.

Performance Creation
This BFA degree stream places emphasis on studio coursework, such as Stagecraft, Devised Theatre, Scene Study and Directing. In keeping with the broader scope of Performance Creation work, this degree prepares students to move fluidly across artistic disciplines and to assume a range of roles in collaborative performance settings. This degree is ideal for students who want to produce sophisticated, meaningful performance work that engages with larger issues of social justice and sustainability.

Production and Design
Combining hands-on technical skills with creative aspects of theatre as storytelling, this program engages students in all elements of theatrical design and stage production. Courses in sound, lighting, scenery and costume design and construction are complimented by studies in technical direction and management.

Theatre Studies
This BA program focuses on studies in dramatic and performance theory, cristicism and history, and in theatre education. Students may choose to specialize in Playwriting and New Play Dramaturgy learning to write for the stage, or Devised Theatre focusing on collaborative creation of original works, incorporating all elements of playmaking, design and management to performance.

Flooding, terrorism, global warming and hurricanes are all disasters and emergencies that can be effectively managed – and, in some cases even mitigated – through good planning and response. The recent earthquake in Haiti, the H1N1 pandemic and memories of 9/11 are reminders of the pressing need for qualified and trained professionals in the field.

Disaster & Emergency Management is the discipline of dealing with and avoiding risks. In this exciting and rapidly expanding field you’ll explore key concepts, methodologies and technologies used by emergency management professionals while honing your analytical and critical skills. You'll also gain a comprehensive understanding of how emergency management intersects with other disciplines such as psychology and sociology. Discover strategies to help save lives and property, reduce damage and speed a community’s recovery from natural and human-induced disasters and emergencies.

You'll examine a diverse range of topics including:

• Business continuity planning
• Emergency management communications
• Disaster risk management
• Ethics
• Terrorism

In addition to this, you will learn to apply key concepts, methodologies and technologies used by emergency management professionals to complex real-life challenges.

This program prepares you to synthesize large amounts of complex information and make sound decisions in challenging and often difficult circumstances. As a graduate you will be equipped with the skills for a career in emergency preparedness, public safety or consultancy work for a range of opportunities from positions in federal and provincial governments to large multinational companies and non-governmental organizations like the Red Cross/Red Crescent, World Bank, Oxfam or UNICEF.

• Upon graduating, you'll join one of the fastest growing industries in North America.
• You have the option of continuing your education within the disaster and emergency field with York's Master of Disaster & Emergency Management degree — the only graduate program of its kind in Ontario and one of only two in Canada.
• You'll have the opportunity to join The International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM), a non-profit educational organization dedicated to promoting the goals of saving lives and protecting property during emergencies and disasters.
• Take advantage of experiential learning opportunities and interact with leading professionals who will provide you with a deeper insight into the field. You'll have the option to complete a field experience that will help to foster a greater understanding of the complexities and realities emergency management professionals face.
• You are also encouraged to take advantage of the regular events held by the School of Disaster & Emergency Management. These include conferences and symposiums held throughout the school year to help you apply your education to real-life situations.

In AMPD's Department of Cinema and Media Arts students experientially learn to understand, think and work in the language of the moving image across all media. From idea to screenplay, camera to screen, screen to critical inquiry, our integrated curriculum offers exceptional training across the spectrum.

The BFA in Screenwriting, offering Canada’s only undergraduate screenwriting degree, provides intensive training in the art of moving image storytelling across genres, from short films to TV series, feature films to new media. Writing for today’s multi-platform universe, screenwriting students have the opportunity to collaborate with production students to see their work brought to life on screen.

This small program, which accepts a maximum of twenty students, supports intimate, intensive learning and high level of mentorship by the department's internationally recognized faculty.

The rich Cinema and Media Studies component included in the BFA in Screenwriting gives students an edge, developing their ability to not only write for screen-based media, but to think, talk and write about cinema and media, and to understand the historical and theoretical framework in which they are produced.