Program
Application Period is now closed for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Third Year
Year Three course prerequisites: ARTHUM 2220E, ARTHUM 2220F/G or ARTHUM 2240F/G, and ARTHUM 2230F/G
HOW YEAR THREE COURSE OFFERINGS WORK IN SASAH:
The courses offered in Year Three are always cross-listed with the Research Fellow’s home department. However, this does not mean you need to fulfill that department’s prerequisite to take this course. In all cases we ask the department to waive this restriction. These courses are designed to reach an interdisciplinary audience – i.e. you.
Finally, we’ve structured the Year Three courses this way so as to get students out and integrated into learning experiences across campus, in other departments, etc. Also, as some students choose to head abroad in Year Three, the SASAH cohort is smaller for that year.
Courses for 2024-2025
ARTHUM 3380Y: Introduction to Professional and Community Practices
Required course for all year three students
This online course introduces students to the critical and research skills and practical tools required to 1) engage in experiential learning, 2) comport oneself in a professional manner in preparation for the job market and related contexts, and 3) plan an individual fourth-year capstone project, and 4) plan a community-based, fourth-year group capstone project and the presentation of its outcomes.
As part of our support for students as they prepare to enter the working world, the SASAH program emphasizes Experiential Learning (EL) through both integrated projects and required courses. In its first half, this course introduces students to the tools and skills required to engage successfully in EL and develop professionalism. In its second half, this course facilitates the student's research and advanced planning for the individual and group projects they will undertake in their fourth-year capstone seminar.
ARTHUM 3390G: Special Topics in Women's Studies [cross-listed with GSWS 3362G]
TBA
ARTHUM 3391F: Alternative Approaches to Creative Methods [cross-listed with Studio Art 3674A]
A studio course that encourages students to delve deeply into the conceptual potential of materials and methods in contemporary artmaking. Complimentary to discipline specific courses, this course is designed to advance students’ methodological approaches and hone their sense of voice and positionality as artists. Self-reflective engagement is emphasized.
ARTHUM 3391G: Alice Munro Chair in Creativity: Topic TBA [cross-listed with English 2099G]
This course, led by the Alice Munro Chair in Creativity, will allow students to explore creativity and its role in the production and study of literature in English and the Arts and Humanities more broadly.
ARTHUM 3393F: Reading America Now [cross-listed with English 3480F]
Can literature help us confront the most urgent injustices and pressing crises of our time? Can aesthetic responses to racial, colonial, and ecological violence motivate interventionist action? Is there such a thing as “literary activism”? These are some of the questions that will guide our study of art and activist movements in the US. In this course we will examine aesthetic strategies employed by authors, artists, and critics who frame their creative work in activist terms. In particular, we will ask what applicable resources American literary history can offer when confronting structural inequality, systemic racism, and climate upheaval as interconnected humanist failures. Drawing on such resources, we will endeavor to test both the limits and possibilities of literary activism in the context of climate justice.
For their Year Three requirements SASAH students can also qualify to apply for a limited number of spaces in Special Topics courses offered outside of the School. Present and past courses include:
Classical Studies 4580F/G: Vindolanda Field School:
The Vindolanda Field School is an intense and very rewarding five-week study abroad experience for Western students in any discipline. A primary goal of the field school is for students to gain an appreciation for combining historical and archaeological material to further our understanding of past cultures, especially those effected by conquest and imperialism in the Roman provinces. The focus of the archaeological component is at the site of Vindolanda, an important Roman military fort along Hadrian’s Wall, and includes daily participation in all aspects of the project: excavation, survey of buildings and landscape, finds processing (ceramic and bone washing, environmental sampling), and data recording (stratigraphic context sheets, photography, section/plan drawing, etc.). An in-depth understanding of the archaeology at Vindolanda will be supplemented with trips to other sites and visits to active excavations around the north of Britain. The historical component focuses on the history of the Roman period in Britain with particular emphasis on the northern frontier and the role of soldiers and civilians within the province. The historical aspect of the course is achieved through evening lectures, field trips, on-site discussions and student presentations.
Vindolanda Program Information
Vindolanda Archaeological Site Information
French 3140B: Rwanda: Culture, Society and Reconstruction:
This is an interdisciplinary Experiential Learning Course on Rwanda, based in the Department of French Studies. It provides students with an opportunity to learn about Rwandan society, and aboutthemselves by engaging in an international social and cultural setting. The readings for the course will focus on issues related to Community Service Learning and the history and culture of Rwanda. The course will offer an in-depth look at a number of contemporary social issues that are common in the African Great Lakes region. Guest lecturers (Dr. Nanda Dimitrov, Prof. Alain Goldschlager, Prof. Amanda Grzyb, Prof. Jeff Tennant, Stephanie Hayne, Lise Laporte, and former participants, among others) will be invited to speak to the class. Five weeks of active and interactive community service in Rwanda will be required for the completion of the course. Our main community partner in Rwanda is The College of Medicine and Health Sciences (former KHI), located in the capital city of Kigali. We will mainly work with three community partners: Centre Marembo, Les Enfants de Dieu, and Caritas.
As we go so far to serve and learn in these community centres where we have developed extremely solid relationships and excellent work habits for the last six years, we also commit to the integrity and integrality of our team as ambassadors of Western University and Canada.
In celebration of ten years of Community Engaged Learning in Rwanda: The Land of A Thousand Hills, students who have taken part in this course reflect on their experiences working with these organizations in Rwanda.
A Season in Kigali - this video is a reflection of the experiential learning trip taken by Western students in May 2014. SASAH students Nicholas Pincombe and Rachel Goldstein were amongst the group of students that traveled with Prof. Henri Boyi and lived in Rwanda for five weeks. During their stay, the students were immersed in a number of community projects and initiatives while also learning about the culture and history of the country.
Learning trip 2019: Students' blog
International Study Experience in Rondine, Tuscany
UWO Study abroad at Rondine is a program promoted by the University of Western Ontario and the association Rondine Cittadella della. It is addressed to the larger Western Community through the partnership with the affiliated Colleges Huron and King’s. The program is aimed at any student enrolled at Western (Affiliates included) and interested in pursuing the study of Italian language and culture at the beginning and intermediate level; students with interest in international relations, peace building, conflict resolution, intercultural competence.
Study abroad at Rondine information
Theatre Studies 3900G: Destination Theatre
Students will have the opportunity to develop their drama education more deeply through the experience of theatre abroad, in London, England. Attendance at live performances will be complemented with daily lectures, workshops and seminars hosted by artists and scholars from the University of London, the Royal Shakespeare Company, and the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. In addition, students will experience tours of theatres, archives, and do a theatre-themed walking tour of central London.
Destination Theatre Program Information
