England: Oxford (August)

CIN378Y0 Aspects of a National Cinema: Britain (TBD)

This year’s focus will be announced soon. The course will explore key aspects of British cinema within its cultural and historical contexts.

Prerequisites: 
Cinema Studies OR humanities-based academic preparation: Book and Media Studies, Art History, Visual Studies, History, English, Critical Studies in Equity and Solidarity, Women and Gender Studies, Sexual Diversity Studies, Philosophy, or Sociology. First-year students, those currently enrolled in CIN 105Y, or Introductory Film courses offered at UTM and UTSC, are eligible to apply.

Due to the course’s compressed nature, and the requirement to write assignments within a short time frame, students in applied programs (such as Art Management) seeking to fulfill a humanities requirement will most likely find the course challenging.

Breadth Requirement = Creative and Cultural Representations (category 1)

2026 Draft Course Outline

Field Trips

Field trip details coming soon.

Note: Field trip schedule may change based on availability and cost considerations.

Instructor

Questions of “difference” have inspired Professor Kass Banning’s teaching and research for decades at the Cinema Studies Institute, University of Toronto.  She has taught undergraduate and graduate courses on race, global screen cultures, black diasporic visual culture, film theory, oceanic imaginaries, moving images in the gallery, and interventions in British, Canadian, Irish, and African cinemas. She has published extensively on minor cinemas of Britain and Canada, with a current focus on experimental documentary media and artists’ moving image installation. Publishing on and organizing symposia on renowned Black British filmmakers also indicate Professor Banning’s long-standing engagement with Black British visual culture. Most recently, she co-authored “A Grand Panorama: Isaac Julien, Frederick Douglass and Lessons of the Hour,” in Isaac Julien. Lessons of the Hour. Frederick Douglass, eds. Isaac Julien and Cora Gilroy-Ware, with Vladimir Seput. London: Memorial Art Gallery of Rochester & Delmonico Books, 2022, winner of the 2023 Krazna-Kraus Book Award.

CRI389Y0 Topics in Criminology: Rights, Freedoms and Responsibilities in Criminal Law: Historical Origins and New Directions in England and Canada

This course traces shifts in the rights, freedoms and responsibilities of legal subjects, as they have been defined in criminal law in England and Canada, beginning with the gradual emergence of the common law in England during the Medieval period, right up to the present day, including the history of approaches to political violence in England. Close attention will be paid to recent developments that challenge traditional doctrines. The English legal system has recently adopted a number of innovations and proposals that have not been tried in Canada, including new doctrines regarding police administration, antisocial behaviour, community policing, speech supporting terrorism and jury trials. In all these cases, there is significant modification of established legal doctrines regarding the relationship between the state and its subjects. The new Conservative government has modified some of these policies, partly in light of fiscal challenges. Canada has been at the forefront of other developments that modify that relationship, most notably regarding dangerousness assessment with a view to preventive detention, and the punishment of women offenders, where feminist theories have been influential. Students will have the opportunity to evaluate these developments in light of the history of legal rights, freedoms and responsibilities in the common law tradition. They will present their views of the nature, causes and validity of the developments in the written assignments. The course will be of special interest to students of Criminology, Political Science and History.

Prerequisites: none
Breadth Requirement = Society and Its Institutions (category 3)
Exclusion: WDW389Y

2025 Draft Course Outline

Field Trips (Tentative)

Excursions will include two trips to London. For one, students will visit the Foundling Museum, the British Museum, and the Tower of London, and will be taken on a guided “Jack the Ripper” walk. For the other London trip, students will visit sites of political violence in the city. Students will also meet with Oxford community policing services. The cost of these trips is to be determined, paid to U of T for all fees and return bus transportation.

Note: Field trip schedule may change based on availability and cost considerations.

Instructor

William Watson received his B.Sc. from the University of Leicester, and his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge. His academic interests include the practice of forensic psychiatry, psychopathy, the provision of services to sub-populations of mentally disordered offenders who are identified, or self-identified, as having special needs, and the place of critical social science in public policy making. His publications include The Mentally Disordered Offender in an Era of Community Care: New Directions in Provision (co-edited with A. Grounds), and articles in Sociology, The International Journal of Comparative Sociology, History of Psychiatry, The Journal of Forensic Psychiatry, and Social and Legal Studies. Dr. Watson has served as a consultant for the Ontario Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of the Solicitor General, Canada.

DHU339Y0 Special Topics in Digital Humanities: Network Technologies, Network Cultures

In this course, we’ll explore how information and communication technologies—the telegraph to the Internet—have shaped London over the past century. We’ll examine how these tools of communication connect to major social changes like colonialism, industrialization, globalization, capitalism, and consumer culture and how they’ve shaped the fabric of the city. The course follows two tracks. First, we’ll draw material from archives housed at Oxford to understand the socio-technical, business, and political systems that helped spread the telegraph and Internet worldwide. Second, via site visits and field trips in London, we will explore how these technologies transformed London into a global center for information, finance, and culture in the twentieth century.

Prerequisites: none

2026 Course Outline (Tentative)

Field Trips (Tentative)

Students will engage with London’s media and technology history through the following visits:

• Oxford History of Science Museum
• National Museum of Computing (Bletchley Park)
• London Museum of Brands
• Digital Surveillance Walk in Notting Hill/Kensington

Note: Field trip schedule may change based on availability and cost considerations.

Instructor

Dan Guadagnolo is an Assistant Professor of Marketing and Media History at the University of Toronto’s Institute of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology. He is a historian of twentieth-century media and technology, focusing on the social and cultural histories of marketing, advertising, and management since 1945. His work has appeared in Modern American History, Feminist Media Studies, American Studies, and Digital Humanities Quarterly. His first book is under contract with the University of Chicago Press. His research has been supported by the Fulbright, SSHRC, and the Mellon Foundation.

ENG296Y0 Topics in English Literature: Shakespeare

This course explores selected works by Shakespeare in the social and theatrical context of his time, and of our own. We will read several plays, covering major dramatic genres (comedy, history, tragedy, romance), and watch theatrical productions to examine interpretation, adaptation, and the material conditions of staging and performance. Field trips will deepen our understanding of Shakespeare’s time and legacy, while we explore how his plays reflect early modern social and political concerns and speak to urgent issues today, including gender and sexuality, race and colonialism, and the early modern global world.

Prerequisite: 1.0 ENG credit or any 4.0 credits

2026 Course Outline (Tentative)

Field Trips (Tentative)

Field trips will complement our study of Shakespeare and early modern theatre. Planned visits include:

• Shakespeare’s Globe (London): Attend a live performance (specific play TBD based on 2026 schedule).
• Stratford-upon-Avon: Visit the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and related sites.
• Additional London theatre visits and walking tours focused on early modern performance culture.

Note: Play schedules for Summer 2026 will be finalized in early 2026; specific productions will be confirmed then. Field trip schedule may change based on availability and cost considerations.

Instructor

Urvashi Chakravarty specializes in Shakespeare and early modern literature and has published extensively on Shakespeare’s plays and early modern culture. Her first book, Fictions of Consent: Slavery, Servitude, and Free Service in Early Modern England (2022), won the Renaissance Society of America’s Gordan Prize and the Shakespeare Association of America First Book Award. She serves as a Trustee of the Shakespeare Association of America and on the editorial board of Shakespeare Quarterly. She is currently completing a second book on early modern literature and slavery and editing A Midsummer Night’s Dream for the Arden Shakespeare Fourth Series.

PSY306Y0 Special Topics in Psychology Abroad: Disability: Culture and Inclusion

An interdisciplinary seminar on the life-long development of individuals with exceptionalities. Topics include controversial social and educational issues (e.g., inclusion vs. segregation), legal, family, and economic issues, disability across the lifespan, communication disorders, hearing and visual impairment, autism, and acquired brain injury. Special emphasis will be placed on the social and historical factors that play a determining role as to whether impairment leads to the psychological experience of disability.

Prerequisite: Enrollment in any Psychology or Social Science Major or Specialist and completion of 8.0 Full Course Equivalents
Exclusions (unofficial): UTM: PSY345H5, 442Y5 (please discuss with instructor)
Breadth Requirement = Thought, Belief, and Behaviour (Category 2) (Distribution: Science - confirm with Summer Abroad team if needed)

2026 Course Outline (Draft)

Field Trips (Tentative)

We will explore disability through historical, cultural, and medical perspectives at the following sites:

• Foundling Museum
• Bethlem Museum of the Mind (combined with a central London visit)
• London Science Museum
• University College London’s Anatomy Collections (new for 2026)
• British Optical Association Museum
• Freud Museum
• UCL Galton Collection
• Accessibility walking tour of the University of Oxford
• Guest presentations from UK experts on Deaf culture and special education

Note: Field trip schedule may change based on availability and cost considerations.

Instructor

Dr. Kamenetsky is a veteran Professor with the Woodsworth College Summer Abroad Program. He has taught this course six times in Oxford, England; twice in Siena, Italy; and once online (during the pandemic) with ten international speakers. A Full Professor in the teaching stream, Dr. Kamenetsky served for many years as the Director of the Psychology Undergraduate Program as well as the Chair of the Academic Appeals Subcommittee of Academic Affairs at the University of Toronto Mississauga. He is cross-appointed with UTM’s Institute for the Study of University Pedagogy. He teaches several courses on disability and childhood social development and publishes on the perception of disability images, student mental health, inclusion, disability accommodation in post-secondary education, and experiential learning. He has spent many years supporting people with disabilities in social service agencies and the child welfare system. He is well connected with school boards, provincial residential schools, and agencies where his students gain practical experience.
Dr. Kamenetsky encourages individuals to accept and share their own lived disability experiences - starting with himself: https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/the-intelligent-divorce/202201/my-gifted-shaky-hands