Bachelor of Fine Arts in Visual Arts

at York University - School of Continuing Studies Canada

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.

York has Canada’s largest and most renowned team of scholars in labour relations, work and global political economy.

Work and Labour Studies explores the complex nature of work and employment, the impact of globalization and the role of trade unions. Work occupies much of our lives and it informs how we live and how we think about the world. Work & Labour Studies explores what work is, who decides who does what, how workers respond to the conditions of the workplace, and the relationship of capital, the state and labour.

Key factors include:

• The economy
• Globalization
• The changing nature of work and the workplace
• Industrial relations
• Gender
• Class
• Inequality
• How labour is portrayed by the media
• How politics is shaped by mass media and how workers' culture both informs and diverts class struggle

Our program's strengths include labour law and labour policy, the future of work and employment, women and work, globalization and its impact on work and workers, and our unique fourth year placement course. Labour Studies also offers courses in collective bargaining that will prepare you for contemporary and relevant workplace situations.

You will be well prepared for employment in the labour movement, private industry, government service, journalism, public or private administration, social work, law or teaching. Many students go on to graduate work in political science, industrial relations and labour law.

Our innovative BA in Educational Studies program provides students with a broad understanding of how and why people learn, and the role education plays in society today.
Courses are clustered into three topical areas, which explore the understanding of education.

• Engagements — focus on the development of professional skills
• Values — focus on who and why we educate
• Representations — focus on understanding the idea of education

Students in this program develop the essential skills necessary to succeed in educational work outside of the traditional classroom and  benefit from the Faculty of Education’s strength in the study of education and York University’s strengths in the arts, humanities and social sciences.
There are highly skilled educators at work anywhere human beings share knowledge, contributing to their communities and succeeding in their chosen fields.. Upon graduation, you’ll have the skills and knowledge needed to educate outside of the classroom.

Experiential Education
During years 3 and 4 of the program, you will have an opportunity to experience your education through learning placements within the community or in related organizations. You’ll develop workplace-specific skills and enhance your professional networks. Our unique community-partnerships will provide you with opportunities to put theory into practice and to gain insight into the kinds of learning and advocacy that contribute to the well-being of society.
The BA in Educational Studies does not lead to teacher certification. Students accepted into the Bachelor of Arts, Educational Studies program may also apply for entry to the Concurrent Bachelor of Education program.

The School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design (AMPD) is pleased to announce a new degree stream, the Bachelor of Fine Arts in Media Arts in the Department of Cinema and Media Arts.

The cultural effects on technology mean that cinema is no longer a stand-alone art form. It increasingly overlaps with other evolving areas, such as video games, mobile media, social media, streaming media distribution, 3D graphics and computer generated imaging, and digital archiving.

In AMPD’s new Media Arts program, students are invited to become critical thinkers by doing, making and collaborating. In this program, for example, students will have the opportunity to create multimedia digital publications, practice social justice by using social media to engage with a community, write a trans-media story meant to cross film and game platforms, render 3D for animation, virtual reality or a gaming environment, and produce interactive documentary. Drawing on the powerful legacy of cinema history, criticism and theory, students will actively create in the expanded field of media studies, media culture and media industries, in which cinema is an integrated element.

This new program is framed around a series of flexible media practice courses taken concurrently with media history, theory and criticism, culminating in a capstone project and a media industry placement.

The resulting BFA will offer students a broad, expansive view on multiple types of contemporary practice including television, Internet practices, mobile media, gaming, interactive media, and cutting edge digital technologies such as 3D and virtual reality. Students will graduate with the ability to blend curatorial, producing, and media-making abilities with the historical investigation of contemporary media, especially screen-based and social media.

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.

New frontiers offer new challenges. Combine unique technical skills to design solutions to Earth’s problems using space-based assets while utilizing the principles of systems engineering. Look at the interface of engineering and science through payload and instrument design. Learn from real space missions, starting with initial concept design to hardware and software design, manufacturing, testing and in-orbit operations.  

Our Space Engineering program is accredited by the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board (CEAB).

What You’ll Learn
Lassonde’s Space Engineering program will equip you with the technical skills required to design solutions to Earth’s problems using space-based assets while utilizing the principles of systems engineering.
Delve into systems ranging from orbit control and space-based optics, to ground station communications and robotics. As a student, you will learn and practice the design and management of complex multidisciplinary projects that enable missions to the far reaches of the solar system.
The co-op program after second year, allows you to gain professional experience within space agencies and related fields that require the design of complex systems.

Some Courses You'll Take  

• Introduction to Space Communications
• Physics of the Space Applications
• Materials for Space Applications
• Payload Design
• Space Mission Design
• Finite Element Methods in Engineering Design
• Control Systems
• Dynamics of Space Vehicles

The School of Kinesiology & Health Science at York University is an integrated unit which offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs and is responsible for co-curricular (practica) and service programming in Athletics & Recreation for all students of the University.

Kinesiology & Health Science is the study of human movement and the relationship between physical activity and health. Most students enter the Kinesiology and Health Science Program because they have a keen interest in physical activity and health and plan to work in an applied health or education field.

York has one of the largest course offerings in Kinesiology in Canada, including more than 50 professionally focused practicum courses that let you apply your studies to everything from game strategy and injury assessment to event management.

Biology was the pioneer science at York, offering the first undergraduate and graduate programs in the 1960s.
Biology studies living things and the discipline defines a living creature, technically called a living "organism", as one that has a metabolism and reproduces. Biologists study living organisms from many different angles, including behaviour, evolution and ecology as well as cell and molecular biology and genetics. They study all different kinds of species from plants to insects, viruses to humans. Biology can also be combined with other fields. For example, biochemistry, biophysics, biotechnology and biopsychology are all important fields related to biology.

Biologists can be found working everywhere — on and off the planet:

• In a variety of environments to investigate ecosystems;
• In the laboratory to examine how organisms work;
• In the microscopic world to explore cells and the submicroscopic to explore molecules in cells;
• In space to study the effect of space travel on organisms;
• Back in time to investigate the history of life.

The Biology program, York’s longest-established scientific program, is home to internationally recognized teaching and research faculty. It offers you a diversity of courses from across the discipline, providing you with the flexibility to choose courses from many different areas or to specialize in a particular field of life science. In your upper years, you can choose to specialize in such areas as:

• Biotechnology
• Biochemistry
• Biomedical Science
• Biophysics
• Environmental Biology

Passionate about the environment? Gain the scientific acumen required to have an impact on environmental issues. Environmental Science is the application of a combination of scientific disciplines to issues and questions regarding environmental problems.

Gain extensive hands-on experience
Environmental Science at York includes a compulsory Research Design & Field Study course that gets you out using the equipment of the profession. This involves a long weekend at Algonquin Park at The Frost Centre working on a project. You'll learn to use water, soil and climate monitoring equipment and geographic information systems that can be put to use immediately and directly on the job with organizations like the Meteorological Service of Canada and Environment Canada.

Our professors are conducting research on such areas as the survival of plant life in the High Arctic, the Oak Ridges Moraine and the contribution of peat lands to the Greenhouse Effect. York is home to one of Canada's most sophisticated indoor flumes to predict water flows and the structure of rivers.

What's the difference between Environmental Science and Environmental Studies?

• Environmental Science is the scientific study of the environment and the effects of humans on environmental systems. You will acquire knowledge from many academic disciplines including biology, chemistry, engineering, geology, economics, political science and physics. You will also undertake specialized courses in the study of the environment. The program emphasizes field experiences, undergraduate research, and environmental problem-solving.
• Environmental Studies focuses on the complex issues regarding the sustainability of the global environment in the face of human development. The program integrates humanities, natural and social science, environmental policy and planning perspectives. You will gain a broad educational background needed to assist in developing sustainable development policies to create positive social change within the environmental context. Real world links to practical environmental issues are developed through internships, study abroad programs, environmental problem-solving at the local and regional levels and participation in campus environmental planning.

An optimal learning environment. Quality professors, small program size, group tutorials, help sessions, peer mentoring, laboratory experience and regular feedback helps you to get the most out of the program.

German Studies encompasses subjects ranging from language, literature and film studies to intellectual and cultural history, urban studies, political science, museum studies, art history and women's studies.

German is a major language of business, diplomacy and tourism in the European Union and Eastern Europe. It is also the language of the Federal Republic of Germany, Austria, and the largest portion of Switzerland, as well as Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, areas of Northern Italy, Eastern Belgium and Eastern France. Knowledge of German is vital for Canadians who want to compete in the emerging Eastern European market.

This program is divided into two streams:

• German Language, Literature and Culture — all courses but one are offered in German.
• German Culture and Society — you'll select courses that deal with the German-speaking world (e.g. history, political science, humanities). Language requirement applies.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE GERMAN STUDIES PROGRAM AT YORK:

• Students majoring in German are encouraged to study in Germany for one year. York has Canada's best array of exchange programs with partner institutions in German-speaking Europe in conjunction with the Ontario/Baden-Württemberg program.
• Take advantage of the Multimedia Language Centre (MLC) of York University, located in S117 Ross, is a resource centre dedicated to supporting students who are enrolled in programs of study of language, literature and linguistics.