Bachelor of Arts in Translation

at York University - School of Continuing Studies Canada

Study in one of the largest Geography programs in any university in Canada. Whether you're pursuing your Bachelor of Science and focusing on physical geography or gaining expertise about human geography through a Bachelor of Arts, York's program offers you the world at your doorstep.

Geography is the science of place and space. Geographers ask where things are located on the surface of the earth, why they are located where they are, how places differ from one another, and how people interact with the environment. There are two main branches of geography: human geography and physical geography.

Geographers also study the linkages between human activity and natural systems. Geographers were, in fact, among the first scientists to sound the alarm that human-induced changes to the environment were beginning to threaten the balance of life itself. They are active in the study of global warming, desertification, deforestation, loss of biodiversity, groundwater pollution, and flooding.

In the Faculty of Science, the Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree emphasizes physical geography, which examines the physical, chemical and biological processes that occur in the immediate vicinity of the Earth's surface. Physical geographers study patterns of climates, land forms, vegetation, soils, and water. They forecast the weather, manage land and water resources, and analyze and plan for forests, rangelands, and wetlands. Many human and physical geographers have skills in cartography and geographic information systems. Field work is also emphasized, including outdoor laboratory sessions, field trips and periodic field courses in Southern Ontario as well as to remote and exotic regions.

As 21st century medicine and health care becomes increasingly sophisticated, the demand grows for highly skilled people with a biomedical science background.

Biomedical scientists study biological processes and diseases with the ultimate goal of developing effective treatments and cures. Biomedical research requires careful experimentation by many scientists, including biologists and chemists. Discovery of new medicines and therapies requires careful scientific experimentation, development, and evaluation.

York's Biomedical Science program provides a comprehensive curriculum taught by the leading researchers in the field, including Samuel Benchimol, Canada Research Chair in Biomedical Health Research. The Biomedical Science program focuses emerging areas of biomedicine including physiology, microbiology, immunology, endocrinology, molecular genetics, and development.

This four-year Honours program also allows you the option to do a minor in another related discipline such as Chemistry, Psychology, or Kinesiology & Health Science.

The Biomedical Science stream is designed to help you:

• understand and explain the basic structures and fundamental processes of life at the molecular, cellular and population levels;
• effectively apply the scientific method for problem solving and experimental design;
• collect, organize, analyze, interpret and present quantitative and qualitative data;
• identify and describe current issues and challenges within the field of biomedical science;
• demonstrate and apply fundamental biological laboratory techniques and skills; and
• communicate effectively in written and oral forms.

The program will be particularly valuable if you're planning a career in biomedical research, and will also be a good choice if you're preparing for medical school.

Do you know that Spanish is spoken by more than 400 million people in over twenty-one countries? Of the 56 million people who speak languages on the Internet other than English, Spanish speakers represent almost a quarter.

Spanish is the fourth most spoken language in the world. Both globally and locally, fluency in Spanish is a valuable asset in any career.. University graduates with a knowledge of Spanish and the Spanish-speaking world are in demand not only in the international business community, diplomatic circles, and international agencies and Non-governmental organizations such as the World Bank, the World Health Organization and the United Nations, but also throughout Canada and the United States. Spanish is a common home language in urban Canada and is the de facto second language of the United States.  Spanish is useful in careers from Social services and medical fields, to media and the arts: any fields that engage with the public.

The Spanish program introduces you to the language and literature of Spain and the Spanish-American world. Spanish represents many cultures and countries. The rich cultural heritage and ethnic diversity of the language is discovered through literature and linguistics and you can develop a strong command of the language itself through intensive training in listening, reading writing and speaking.

• Our professors are experts in their respective fields, dynamic and responsive teachers who look forward to sharing their perspectives on the Spanish-speaking world. 
• Our courses explore a range of topics from the development of the Spanish language to an examination of Renaissance and Baroque literature when Spain's prolific playwrights rivaled Shakespeare; from the literature of the Spanish Civil War to the vast, innovative work of Latin America's writers.
• Our program offers opportunities for experiential education and co-curricular activities, including opportunities to edit and publish creative work in Spanish and experience working with professors to conduct primary research. You will benefit from our respected Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean on the economic development, political and social organization and cultural contributions of the region.

Whether you are treating a patient, formulating a new drug, unravelling a sub-atomic mystery or modelling climate change, the ability to think and reason at the nexus of disciplines is essential to success. Develop your interdisciplinary mind-set in Integrated Science.  

Integrated Science is an enriched first-year program offering a cohesive set of courses in biology, chemistry, physics and mathematics that can be taken as the first year of any York Science program. Integrated Science is designed around the connections between disciplines, allowing you to experience both the depth and breadth of scientific theory and practice. Some of these connections are inherent to the specific disciplines — like enzymes in biology and reaction rates in chemistry, or Newtonian mechanics in physics and derivatives in mathematics. Other connections are driven by larger questions that you will explore through integrated projects. In Integrated Science, you will learn to approach problems and develop solutions from an interdisciplinary perspective, applying the knowledge and skills that you gain within and across disciplines.

Integrated Science offers a number of benefits for first-year science students:

• Small class size: With limited enrolment, class sizes are about a tenth of that of some of the larger first-year science courses. You will quickly feel part of a cohesive and caring community.
• Strong faculty connections: You will get to know your professors very well, so you can begin building your professional network from day one.
• Block scheduling: Integrated Science classes and labs are scheduled in blocks during the week. You will be in the Integrated Science classroom on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 9am to 1pm, leaving your afternoons free for studying or other commitments. In any given week, you will normally have two three-hour labs on Tuesdays and/or Thursdays. This type of schedule is especially well suited for students who commute to York or have additional commitments outside of school.
• Innovative teaching and learning methods: As an Integrated Science student, you will progress through four carefully designed stages of learning — Prepare, Apply, Solidify and Integrate — to deepen your understanding of scientific concepts. Professors use innovative teaching practices such as peer instruction in the classroom to further enhance your learning process.
• Depth and breadth in the sciences: If you enjoy all the sciences and aren’t yet sure exactly what you want to focus on, Integrated Science offers you the opportunity to explore across biology, chemistry, physics, and math before entering the second year of any of our York Science programs.
• Preparation for health-professional exams: If you are considering writing your MCAT, PCAT or DAT in the future, then Integrated Science can help you acquire a strong and necessary background in introductory biology, chemistry and physics, as well as teaching you critical-thinking and reasoning skills.

Foster the skills of teaching and learning

Education is future-oriented — it's about development and growth even when we are studying the past. Education is giving or receiving knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgement, using inspiration, tapping into creativity, taking risks and developing emotional and intellectual resilience. In our society, education implies school and whether you teach others or are in the process of learning yourself, education focuses on knowledge and on the intellect. Through the fine art of bringing out what is latent in a person, we learn as we teach.

To foster the skills of teaching and learning, York offers several Education programs. Click on the program name below to learn more about the program.

The Bachelor of Education (BEd), Technological Education is a full-time, professional degree program held at York University's Keele campus. Graduates will be qualified to teach one of the following technological subjects at the Intermediate-Senior (grades 9 to 12) certification levels:

• Communication Technology
• Computer Technology
• Construction Technology
• Green Industries
• Hairstyling & Aesthetics
• Health Care
• Hospitality and Tourism
• Manufacturing Technology
• Technological Design
• Transportation Technology

Statistics is a field that provides the foundations and techniques to collect, analyze, and present information in an effective and efficient manner. Recent trends involve a resurgence of interest in methods for informal exploratory analysis of data. This relies increasingly on friendly computing environments supported by efficient algorithms. York's Statistics program is an exploration of the nature of measurement, chance variation, probability, uncertainty, inductive logic and inference, and combines naturally with studies in the life and social sciences.

An increasingly important aspect of modern statistics is the design of experiments and surveys — as well as analyzing the resulting data — in areas of application ranging scientific studies to the insurance industry. Statisticians use surveys to predict the patterns of behaviour of large groups based on relatively small samples.

Through its applications in almost every branch of modern professional life and research, statistics is a fast-growing discipline that provides a statistician with a variety of career opportunities. Statistics is offered as both a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science options. Why take one instead of the other? All Mathematics students (Mathematics, Applied Math, Statistics, Math for Commerce) take common first- and second-year courses. It is in the third and fourth years that the programs begin to differentiate.

For a Bachelor of Science (BSc) math degree, you will combine your math courses with other science courses such as physics, earth and atmospheric science, biology or computer science.

Informed global citizens understand the history behind current policies or media headlines. How do you support fair trade? How to overcome the North-South divide? This program will challenge you to analyze colonialism and the developing world, the gap between rich and poor nations and the social, cultural, economic and political elements of international development case studies.

York's International Development Studies program will help you develop a deep and sophisticated understanding of the dimensions of world poverty, its causes and the processes of development aimed at eliminating poverty by promoting human fulfillment and achievement.

You will emerge from the program with a thorough grounding in the history, debates, dimensions, institutional approaches and critiques of the field, but also able to read World Bank documents, talk the institutional language of development professionals and know how to put together and implement a development research or delivery proposal.

• Participate in the events and workshops offered by York's International Secretariat for Human Development and Democratic Governance.
• Complement your study with overseas internships, volunteer positions or study abroad programs to develop awareness and respect for diverse cultures and to become familiar with the dynamics of poverty and development.
• Join the International Development Studies Student Association to develop and support the advancement of international development.

York offers one of the largest, most productive and innovative communities of scholars engaged in interdisciplinary research and undergraduate and graduate teaching in sociology.

Sociology looks at social relations, interactions and power dynamics to gain insight into how society works. Sociology is the study of societies and the way that they shape people's behaviour; beliefs, and identity. Probably the most important thing about sociology is that it enables us to make sense of the rapidly changing world that we live in. Perhaps most fundamentally of all, sociology enables us to understand ourselves. The way that we think, behave, and feel, indeed our very sense of identity, is socially produced.

In York's Sociology program, you'll gain a comprehensive understanding of how human action and consciousness both shape and are shaped by surrounding cultural and social structures. Develop excellent reading, writing and key critical and analytical reasoning skills. Learn research techniques that can be applied to virtually any aspect of social life:

• Criminal justice system and social regulation
• Social class and inequality
• Organization, welfare or education reform
• Health care
• Race and racism
• Discrimination and law
• Gender relations
• Migration and how families differ and flourish

At either campus, you will study with great professors such as Stuart Schoenfeld, a specialist in the sociology of the environment; Françoise Boudreau, the recipient of several awards for outstanding teaching; Donald Carveth, a renowned psychoanalyst frequently featured on CBC and other media; and Brian Singer, a specialist in social and political thought.

To see health in its social context is to look beyond the limits of medicine as we know it.
York’s Health and Society program is an interdisciplinary program bridging critical heath studies, humanities (history, creative writing), and the social sciences (indigenous studies, anthropology, sociology) to consider the social, cultural, political, historical and economic forces that shape health, well-being, and illness in both the Global North (Canada, US, EU, and the UK) and Global South (including nations like Peru, Kenya, Nepal, and many more).

This exciting and innovative program explores a wide range of influences including social media, art and aesthetics, cultural values, capitalist networks, and political ideologies as they shape everyday health and healing. In this program students will consider the scientific controversies surrounding mammograms, female circumcision, vaping, and supervised injection sites; the barriers in providing equitable health care delivery in resource poor and resource developed communities; and structural forces that contribute to poor health like environmental racism (Alberta’s oil sands, Dakota Access Pipeline), the contemporary effects of colonial legislation (like the Indian Act), and exclusionary practices and policies in health care development and delivery.

Computer science blends theoretical knowledge and practical skills to explore intriguing topics –computer systems that mimic human vision or helping design pharmaceutical drugs. Learn the theoretical limitations of computing and methodologies that lead to efficient, accurate computing.

What You’ll Learn
We offer BA and BSc degrees – both providing you with the same computer science and math expertise. In the BA program, you’ll complement your studies with courses from the Liberal Arts (e.g., humanities, social sciences). In the BSc program, the complementary courses will be in the sciences (e.g., biology, chemistry, physics). A degree Minor or Double major will allow you to just sample or deeply explore another discipline.

You may also choose one of our three International Honours degrees – iBA, iBSc or the Dual Specialized degree. In the iBA or iBSc degree, you will add a study abroad component to your learning, with culture and language courses of your exchange destination. The International Dual degree leads to two degrees, one from York and one from the Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University in Germany while completion of your undergraduate thesis at the University of Crete in Greece!

After the third year of your Honours degree, you can take part in our internship program to gain valuable professional experience.