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Victoria College
Academic Programs / Upper-Year Programs / Capstone Courses

About Capstone Courses

Capstone courses provide opportunities for students to work closely with senior faculty on projects that involve substantial research, leadership, and/or interdisciplinary components, so as to consolidate their academic experiences and prepare to move beyond undergraduate studies.

Program Contacts

Wanda Thorne
Upper-Year Programs Liaison Officer
vic.academics@utoronto.ca

Course Information

VIC451H1Y | Capstone: Learning Communities and Higher Education

VIC451H1Y
Capstone: Learning Communities and Higher Education
Professor Ira Wells
M 3-5

This Vic Capstone Colloquium is a half-course taught over the full academic year. The Colloquium provides instruction, support, and practical experience for developing and increasing leadership  and mentorship skills, with in-course feedback and a final roundtable presentation. Students gain practical mentorship experience through placement in first-year Victoria College courses. Part of the course will focus on a theoretical orientation of mentorship, and will prepare you with strategies and skills for your practicum experience which will allow you to meet and work with a group of first-year students assigned to you (the students will be enrolled in the VIC One Hundred series of courses or similar). In this course, students will also examine higher education as a space of appearance, a place of belonging, and a system shaped by discursive practice.  

Prerequisite: A minimum CGPA of 3.0, completion of 15.0 credits, and an application are required
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

Application Deadline: Applications considered on a rolling basis.

VIC493H1Y | Capstone Research Colloquium

VIC493H1Y
Capstone Research Colloquium | Humanities & Social Sciences
Professor Shaun Ross
W 5-7

The Vic Capstone Research Colloquium is intended for students undertaking Independent Studies, research projects, or senior essay courses in Humanities or Social Science subjects. It meets every two weeks throughout the academic year, and is open to students doing year-long or single term projects. The Colloquium provides instruction, support, and practical experience through the various stages of your research project, from the project proposal to work-in-progress feedback to presentation of results. Since the Colloquium includes students working in a variety of Humanities and Social Science disciplines, the emphasis is on interdisciplinarity. You will learn to communicate your research to a multidisciplinary audience and gain insight into how data, theory, case studies, literature reviews, and methodology vary by discipline. The course will include a number of writing workshops, providing detailed guidance on how to distill research compellingly in a longer format, as well as on how to compose effective grant proposals and graduate school applications. It will also provide the opportunity to learn from current graduate students, to explore the publication process, and to reflect on the undergraduate experience with accomplished peers in a range of fields. As part of the class, each student will lead a work-in-progress session and prepare responses to the work presented by other students. In the final session, participants will present their research in a student-organized symposium.

Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

Prerequisite: A minimum CGPA of 3.0, completion of 15.0 credits, and an application are required
Corequisite: Registration in an Independent / Individual Studies or Senior Essay course
Exclusion: POL499Y1, RLG404H1/ RLG405H1, UNI460H1, thesis seminars in other programs
Distribution Requirements: Humanities, Science, Social Science

Application Deadline: August 15, 2024