COLLABORATIVE PROGRAMS


Book History & Print Culture Program

Histoire du livre, History of the Book, Textual Studies, Print Culture, Sociology of the Text—all these names have been used to describe a growing international academic movement. University of Toronto graduate departments in conjunction with Massey College sponsor an interdisciplinary program in Book History and Print Culture (BHPC) in which the rich physical and human resources of the University of Toronto are brought to bear on multiple aspects of the creation, transmission, and reception of the written word. Students register first for a master’s or doctoral degree in their home unit and then apply to the Collaborative Program. If they satisfy the requirements of both programs they receive their degree with a notation on the transcript “Collaborative Program in Book History and Print Culture”. Read more.

Diaspora and Transnational Studies  GSCOLDTSPH: PhD | GSCOLDTSMA: MA

The Collaborative Master’s and Doctoral Program in Diaspora and Transnational Studies is designed to bring together social science and humanities perspectives at the graduate level. It is being set up in response to popular demand by advanced students of the current DTS undergraduate program as well as the many expressions of interest from students keen on thorough graduate training in the field from within Canada and well beyond. The Collaborative Program will be distinctive by being interdisciplinary as well as comparative. While it will raise questions about diasporic communities in Canada, this will not be the primary focus of the Collaborative Program.  Rather, the Canadian example will be a means towards understanding the nature of diaspora and transnationalism elsewhere in North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Global South.  Students must apply to and be admitted to both the Collaborative Program and a graduate degree program of a collaborating unit.  Students who complete the program at the Master’s level will not be eligible for the program at the Doctoral level.

Jewish Studies  GSCOLJSPPH:PhD | GSCOLJSMA: MA

The Centre for Jewish Studies offers collaborative graduate degrees at the M.A. and Ph.D. levels.  These degrees seek to strike an effective balance between the need for disciplinary depth and the need for interdisciplinary breadth within a graduate training program in Jewish Studies.  On the one hand, future scholars and teachers in the field of Jewish Studies must be grounded in a particular discipline and master its methods, theoretical frameworks, and body of knowledge.  On the other hand, students of any particular aspect of Jewish Studies, e.g., modern Jewish philosophy or medieval Jewish history, would suffer both intellectually and professionally without exposure to the breadth of Jewish civilization.  They would suffer intellectually because sophisticated understanding of any one of the major subfields of Jewish Studies – the study of texts (biblical, rabbinic, philosophical, theological, literary, etc.), the study of contexts (historical, social, political, etc.), and the study of concepts (creation, covenant, messianism, etc.) – requires some knowledge of the others.  They would suffer professionally because academic positions in Jewish Studies programs throughout North America assume that job candidates are familiar with many aspects of Jewish civilization outside of their particular discipline and area of specialization.

South Asian Studies  GSCOLSASMA: MA

The Collaborative Doctoral Program in South Asian Studies is offered by the Centre for South Asian Studies, in collaboration with the graduate departments of Anthropology, English, History, Geography, Political Science, the Centre for Comparative Literature, the Centre for the Study of Religion and the Faculty of Social Work. Students applying to one of these home graduate units listed above may be eligible to also enroll in the Collaborative Program in South Asian Studies. The Collaborative Program is designed for students who wish to acquire a nuanced understanding of this region as a secondary area of specialization in addition to pursuing graduate studies in their home graduate unit. Upon completion, students will receive a degree from their home unit and a notation on their transcript indicating that they have completed the Collaborative Program in South Asian Studies.

The focus of this program is necessarily broad in that it provides students with an understanding of ancient and modern history, social change, economic development, contemporary politics, religious traditions, literary culture, and a spectrum of related topics. In addition, both Master’s and Doctoral students will have the opportunity to interact with a number of specialists in the field and also participate in several academic seminars.

Women & Gender Studies Program GSCOLWOMMA: MA | GSCOLWOMPH: PhD

The Graduate Collaborative Program in Women and Gender Studies (CWGS) provides a formal educational context for the purpose of interdisciplinary research in women and gender studies and advanced feminist scholarship. The program, offered at the master’s and doctoral levels, provides a central coordinating structure to facilitate and disseminate women and gender studies research through graduate student research symposia, lectures, circulation and discussion of work in progress, conferences, and publications. CWGS contributes to the development of an integrated research community in women and gender studies at the University of Toronto. Applicants to the program are expected to meet the admission and degree requirements of both the home department and CWGS.