As a Munk One student, you’ll study problems that are not limited to any one academic field. You’ll learn to recognize the array of tools that can be deployed to develop better insights and solutions to global challenges. Most importantly, you’ll learn to not only ask the right questions, but also to discover innovative answers.
The smallest of the first-year foundation programs at U of T, Munk One offers you the rare opportunity to work closely with professors and distinguished experts at the beginning of your university career and to form a tight-knit, small community within Canada’s largest university.
Your courses
MUN100H1: Global Innovation
Innovation has always been a key driver of economic growth, population health, and societal success. Transformative change has historically been linked to major innovations such as urban sanitation, pasteurization, the printing press and the industrial revolution. Currently, the opportunity to enhance life chances worldwide relies on innovating for the poor, social innovation, and the ability to harness scientific and technological knowledge. What precisely is innovation? When does innovation happen? Who benefits from innovation? How can innovation be fostered, and how do innovations spread? Relying on major global transformations and country-specific case studies (for example, South Korea, Taiwan, Israel and India), this course examines the drivers of innovation, the political, social, economic, and scientific and technological factors that are critical to promoting innovation and addressing current global challenges, and the consequences of innovation. Restricted to first-year students admitted to Munk One. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.
MUN110H1: Changing World Orders
The world order is changing. The Liberal International Order (LIO), also called the rules-based order, was created by the United States and its allies after World War II. Today that order is in crisis. This course explores debates about what constitutes “order,” why orders rise and fall, and how actors in different regions of the world seek security, influence and legitimacy in uncertain times. This is a highly interactive class designed to teach students how to analyze concepts, present them, collectively identify and outline policy problems and solutions, and understand how global structures affect country behaviors and vice-versa.
MUN130H1: Imagining Climate
Extreme weather is one of the most visible metrics of climate change – and yet it’s widely misunderstood. This class will examine how natural disaster is imagined and consider how conceptions of extreme weather shape the ways societies prepare for – or ignore – catastrophe. We'll draw on a deep archive of disaster narratives, connect with community groups working on these issues and consider in
MUN140H1: Design for Social Change and Inclusion
Framed around a design challenge, in this class students work in teams to come up with an innovative, equity-focused approach to a global problem. To this end, the course includes modules on topics such as: collecting primary data (via interviews and/or focus groups); conducting secondary research; identifying beneficiaries’ needs; developing a mindset for social innovation; assessing feasibility and viability; and how to develop culturally responsive and relevant propositions. Restricted to first-year students admitted to Munk One. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.