St. Michael's College, U of T

Designed to acquaint students with the essential notions of media studies, and to promote a conscious utilization of contemporary media. Starting with the preliminary definitions of “media”, “mass”, and “communications”, the student is invited to consider critically the cultural constructs created by modern media, from print to photography, filming, TV, computer and internet.

An historical introduction to book and print culture and readership, from manuscripts to information technologies. Attention is given to topics such as the development of the printing press, censorship, copyright, book clubs, and best-sellers. Visits to rare book collections are an integral part of the course.
Note: This course is not intended as a guide to self-publishing.

Designed to provide for individual half courses not already covered in the listed range of the Book and Media Studies Program offerings.
Prerequisite: Permission of the instructor
Recommended Preparation: SMC 219Y1/SMC 228Y

Various topics are taken up each year, the content of which depends on the instructor. Students should check the program brochure for details.
Prerequisite: Permission of the instructor
Recommended Preparation: SMC 219Y1/SMC 228Y1

A deeper examination of key cases in the development of media, such as the invention of movable type, the mechanization of the printing press, standardization of call number systems (Dewey, LC, etc.), the advent of radio, television and internet. Topics vary from year to year, according to the instructor.
Recommended Preparation: SMC 219Y1/SMC 228Y1

Through lectures, tutorials and field trips, this course examines the origins and development of the English-language newspaper in Canada since the 18th century. Research projects focus on the historical newspaper collections of the University of Toronto libraries, the Toronto reference library, and the Archives of Ontario.
Recommended Preparation: SMC 219Y1/SMC 228Y1

An independent research project to be proposed by the student and supervised by a full-time faculty member affiliated with the Book and Media Studies Program.
Prerequisite: SMC 219Y1; SMC 228Y1; enrolment in the Major program; approval of Program Director

An independent research project to be proposed by the student and supervised by a full-time faculty member affiliated with the Book and Media Studies Program.
Prerequisite: SMC 219Y1; SMC 228Y1; enrolment in the Major program; approval of Program Director

A study of the language and culture of an Aboriginal people of Ontario through exploration of oral history, from creation stories until present times, including the role of oral history and methods for studying oral history through accounts told by elders.
Prerequisite: ABS 201Y1

A survey of historical and contemporary representations of Aboriginal people in the mass media. Introduction to basic techniques for evaluating, analyzing, and understanding the construction of ‘Nativeness’ as it is communicated through film, television, and other media. Examination of racial stereotypes and the role of mass communication in perpetuating and challenging stereotypes, cultural appropriation, Aboriginal media production, impact of media portrayal of Aboriginal peoples.
Prerequisite: ABS 201Y1

Theories of culture and society, with examples from ordinary life and fantasy and their popular expressions.
Prerequisite: ANT 204Y1/ANT 253H1/one other 200+ course in ANT/SOC

An introduction to the varieties of life writing. Issues discussed include the differences between biography and autobiography, the nature of sources, the ethics of life writing, and the aims and biases of the biographer.

A critical and historical study of poetry and fiction written for or appropriated by children, this course may also include drama or non-fiction and will cover works by at least twelve authors such as Bunyan, Stevenson, Carroll, Twain, Alcott, Nesbit, Montgomery, Milne, Norton, and Fitzhugh.

An introduction to book-length sequential art, this course includes fictional and nonfictional comics by artists such as Will Eisner, Art Spiegelman, Frank Miller, Alan Moore, Chris Ware, Daniel Clowes, Julie Doucet, Marjane Satrapi, Chester Brown, and Seth.

This course studies the emergence of prose fiction as a genre recognized in both a literary and a commercial sense. Authors may include Behn, Defoe, Richardson, Fielding, Sterne, Scott, and Austen.

A focused survey of different types of manuscripts and their images from the origins of the book in Late Antiquity to the invention of printing.
Prerequisite: FAH 215H1/216H1/261H1
Recommended Preparation: SMC 358H1

A consideration of individual types of books, their decoration, function, and cultural context. Topics might include, for example, Gospels, Psalters, or Books of Hours.
Prerequisite: FAH 215H1/216H1/261H1
Recommended Preparation: FAH 319H1/SMC 358H1

An examination of the historical, social and cultural status of French comic books ("bandes dessinées" or "BDs"), based on English translations of Asterix, Tintin and other contemporary works. Analysis of thematic and narrative structures compared with traditional genres (folktales, myths, plays, novels).

This seminar is dedicated to specific issues of French literature and culture, in the context of research activities currently taking place at the Joseph Sablé Centre for 19th Century French Studies. (Offered in alternate years)
Prerequisite: FRE 240Y1, one 300+ series FRE Literature course
Recommended Preparation: One additional 300+ series FRE Literature course

This seminar is dedicated to specific issues of French literature and culture, in the context of research activities currently taking place at the Joseph Sablé Centre for 19th Century French Studies.
Prerequisite: FRE 240Y1, one 300+ series FRE Literature course
Recommended Preparation: One additional 300+ series FRE Literature course

An introduction to modern European history from Napoleon to the outbreak of World War I. Important political, economic, social, and intellectual changes in France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy, and other countries are discussed: revolution of 1848, Italian and German unification, racism and imperialism, the evolution of science, art, and culture, labour protest, and the coming of war.
Recommended Preparation: HIS 103Y1/109Y1

The rise of advertising as an economic, moral, and cultural force in the 19th and 20th centuries. Attention to advertising as a form of communication, the role of the mass media, stereotyping and the culture of consumption. Majority of course material deals with the experiences of the United States and Canada, focusing on the period after 1945.
Recommended Preparation: HIS 262Y1/263Y1/271Y1

The comparative intellectual, cultural and social history of western Europe with particular focus on France, England, Scotland and Germany. Examines the impact of Enlightenment ideas on European attitudes to race, gender, politics, economics and religion through the study of the press, the salons, voluntary bodies and consumer culture.
Recommended Preparation: HIS 109Y1/220Y1/238H1/243Y1/244Y1/245Y1/EUR 200Y1

The apparatus, the character, and the significance of an increasing volume of images, in particular of the body, since 1800 in Europe and North America. Introduction to concerns of cultural history: power and knowledge; self and identity; gender and sexuality; class, age, and race; and the pursuit of pleasure.
Recommended Preparation: A course in modern European or American history

This course looks at the early origins of American consumerism. It begins with 17th-century England and the economic imperatives within the Atlantic World, then traces the changing attitudes of 18th-century Americans towards consumer goods, fashion and style that led to the mass consumption of the 19th century.
Prerequisite: HIS 271Y1
Recommended Preparation: At least 6 courses completed

An examination of popular culture and its relationship to society during the first eighty years of the 20th century. By examining popular music, literature, radio, movies, sports, television, and other leisure activities, the course analyses the manner by which groups such as blacks, ethnics, young people, and women used new means of communication to create a new popular culture in America.
Prerequisite: HIS 271Y
Exclusion: HIS 375Y1

The evolution of the tastes, patterns of consumption, and leisure products which together defined the affluent lifestyle that matured in the postwar era. Attention to the effects of technology; gender stereotypes; how people used the mass media; the genres of advertising, mass entertainment, and sports; fads, fashions, and heroes. Focus on the period after 1945.
Prerequisite: a mark of 75% or higher in HIS 262Y1/263Y1
Exclusion: HIS 419Y1

This course explores the history of the Black autobiographical tradition from the eighteenth century to the late twentieth century. It focuses on three slave narratives and two memoirs. Black autobiographies illustrate some of the following themes: slavery and freedom, exodus and migration, war and revolution, family and identity, alienation and neglect, racism and discrimination, the quest for literacy and education, writing as a critical terrain of Black struggle, the political import of Black writing, human rights activism, and feminist justice.
Prerequisite: HIS 263Y1/360Y1/366Y1 or some other background in women’s history, Black history or the literature thereof.

A tour of Soviet history through recently declassified archival documents (in English translation), first-hand accounts, memoirs, and literature. The primary chronological emphasis of the course will be on the years of Stalin. The focus of the course will be on close textual analysis and a critical reading of the sources.
Prerequisite: HIS 351Y1 with a grade of 80% or higher

Examination of the impact of industrialism on Victorian society and values. Concentration on Victorian social critics including Engels, Owen, Maynew, Dickens and Morris.
Recommended Preparation: A course in modern British History/Victorian literature
Exclusion: HIS 477Y1

Technology and its place in our culture from Antiquity to the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution. Relations between technology and science, religion, the arts, social institutions, and political beliefs.

A survey of technical change and its social implications from the Industrial Revolution to the present.
Recommended Preparation: HPS 201H1

This course examines how the language and rhetoric of print media shape social issues. Rhetorical strategies at work in the media reporting of such controversial issues as international crises and military actions are examined. The construction of the columnist’s persona and the role of editorials are also examined.
Prerequisite: Completion of 4.0 full-course equivalents and CGPA of 2.3 or higher.

The rhetorical term Ekphrasis, which refers to writing that is about visual art, is central in the examination of the persuasive power of the “conversation” or discourse that is produced when the written word attempts the evocation of visual images. Course readings will include ekphrastic texts drawn from several disciplines and genres: journalism, informal essays, poetry, and scholarly writing.
Prerequisites: Completion of 4.0 full-course equivalents and CGPA of 2.3 or higher.

The Middle East and Far East are the birthplace of the world’s most important communication revolutions, writing and its mechanization, i.e. printing. However, the modern mass media including journalism, film, radio, and television as well as communication technologies such as telegraphy, telephony, photography, sound recording, photocopying, computers, satellites, facsimile and Internet originated in the West. These media are important actors in the social, cultural, and political life of the Middle East, and its diasporas in the West. This course deals with, among other topics, media, state and empire formation; the social and historical contexts of the rise of modern mass media; the formation of reading, listening and viewing publics; civil society, public spheres and democratisation; media and social movements; media, language and nation; satellite broadcasting; “high” and “popular” cultures; radio wars; the Internet; communication rights.
Exclusion: NMC 357Y1
Prerequisite: NMC 278H1/278Y1; permission of the instructor

Evolution of books and written/printed media in the Slavic world: legends (and forgeries) of ancient letters, mediaeval illuminated manuscripts, baroque visual poetry, pocket books for enlightened ladies and peasant comic strips, futurist painting and writing on faces, hand-written and painted books of the modernist artists and poets. Readings in English.

This course provides an introduction to the thought and culture of the European Middle Ages. Students are introduced to the important monuments of mediaeval History, Thought, Literature, and Art, and follow some of the common threads that run through all these disciplines. The course explores some of the classical antecedents and chief expressions of mediaeval life and thought.

An exploration of connections between a child’s moral development and literature in Christian traditions. We examine literary, historical and philosophical developments appropriate to the child’s imagination. The course will include the study of poems, catechetical materials, novels and other texts written for children.

An examination of Canon Law; the process by which it came into being, and its impact on contemporary culture. Premises and techniques of ecclesial law-making are compared to those of other systems of legislation. Specific sections of the Code of Canon Law are examined.
Recommended Preparation: SMC 203Y1

An examination of both overt and covert representation of Christian ideas in contemporary popular media. We examine the ways in which Christian themes have been appropriated and subverted in mass media, while also examining the innovative ways these themes, such as redemption, sacrifice, vocation, and hope, are presented anew.
Recommended Preparation: SMC 200Y1

This course examines the most salient aspects of mediaeval manuscript culture. We will study how the parchment for books was folded, pricked, ruled and bound, as well as what scripts were employed in the different codices. We will also examine the various types of books made in the Middle Ages, the development of manuscript library collections and how modern technology is changing the study of the mediaeval book.
Recommended Preparation: LAT 100Y1; SMC 210Y1 or a course in mediaeval history

(Formerly SMC 405H1)
Mediaeval jurisprudence combines the high technical quality of Roman law with the requirements of Christianity. The seminar provides an overview of the development of mediaeval learned jurisprudence; select texts from Roman and canon law, with their glosses, are read in order to explore more specifically the methods and concerns of mediaeval jurists.
Recommended Preparation: HIS 220Y1/SMC 210Y1
Exclusion: SMC 405H1

This course examines the various media (printing press, representation art, music, preaching) and social and political forces (family and political networks, censorship, education, etc.) that conditioned the communication of ideas in early modern society.

(Formerly VIS 203H1)
Principles and practices of Relief Printmaking. Projects in single and multiple block edition production. (A studio fee of $120 is payable with tuition.)
Prerequisite: VIS120H1, 130H1
Exclusion: FAS 232H1

Cultural constructions of crime, disorder, dangerousness and risk are integral parts of the criminal justice process. A critical analysis of how police, crown attorneys, judges and the media construct their authority through symbols and images, in order to “explain” and manage crime, and how these representations are regarded in the public discourse.
Prerequisite: WDW200Y1, 220Y1

A critical examination of institutions, representations and practices associated with contemporary popular culture, mass-produced, local and alternative.
Exclusion: NEW 371H1