Ruiqi's Page 1B

**Five Majors at the**
**University of Toronto**

Anthropology( Archaeology branch)

Anthropology is an interdisciplinary
venture that spans natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities, while the Archaeology
branch focuses on finding material evidence of human activities. Since it’s
important to make data meaningful after excavation or survey, statistics
skills, such as database design and sampling, is essential to this discipline. With
the development of technology, the studies of the virtual world and new methods
to digitizing objects, like surface scanning and 3D printing, are becoming the
new trend of researches.

East Asian Studies

This program draws together the approaches
from art, literature, philosophy, religion, history and sociology. Therefore,
to have an in-depth knowledge of one or more of those disciplines will help
with further studies and researches. The Department of East Asian Studies of U
of T has been redirecting its studies from philosophical approaches to critical
theory and more problem-based, often transnational studies, so it
becomes increasingly important to think critically in a global context. I am interested in Chinese culture and literature and I found in the researches done by Prof Linda Feng that new
approaches, such as mapping, have been introduced to this area of studies.

Human Geography

Human Geography is a combination of social
sciences, physical sciences and humanities. It looks at how culture, economy
and politics shape the ways people make use of the environment. A key strength
of the Geography and Planning Department of U of T is that it utilizes advanced
geospatial approaches to characterize patterns over time and space. Above from
the knowledge of sociology, economics and pubic polices, the knowledge of quantitative
and qualitative research methods, including GIS and Remote Sensing, is also
necessary for the study of this field.

Linguistics

Linguistics is the scientific study of
language, which applies scientific methods by making observations, testing hypotheses,
and developing theories. It is highly dependent on the manipulation and
analysis of data, so the ability of interpreting data is of great importance. The
researches of linguistics focus on the basic elements of languages (phonology,
semantics and syntax), as well as the variation and change of languages.
Therefore, an understanding of different languages is core to this discipline.
Students are also expected to have knowledge in other fields of studies, such
as like anthropology and psychology.

Psychology

Psychology has two main branches, one is
about development, personality and social interaction, the other is about
cognition and neurology. I looked at the researches done by the Social Perception
and Cognition Lab, which focuses on people’s abilities of categorizing and
judging. The results of past researches revealed that some common mistakes in
quick judgment can lead to serious real-world implications. Conducting this
kind of researches needs creative and unique approaches in order to achieve a
better understanding of people’s behavior and help improve our life.

Similar to linguistics, psychology is a
discipline highly relied on statistical methods and the interpretation of data.
It’s crucial to have the knowledge of data processing software and the ability
to organizing and analyzing data. Experiment design and observation skills are
also important to psychology.

In a nutshell, the five disciplines all
need knowledge from other fields to support the studies and researches. As a science student, I looked at the science knowledge needed in these disciplines and found that quantitative methods are employed in order to get a broader
view of existing information. We need to think critically of the results generated
by data processing software and interpret them meaningfully in the social context.

References

Faculty of Arts and Sciences 2017-2018
Calendar. (n.d.). Archaeology. Retrieved November 19, 2017, from https://fas.calendar.utoronto.ca/section/Archaeology

Faculty of Arts and Sciences 2017-2018
Calendar. (n.d.). ARH312Y1-Archaeological Laboratory. Retrieved November 19,
2017, from https://fas.calendar.utoronto.ca/course/ARH312Y1

Faculty of Arts and Sciences 2017-2018
Calendar. (n.d.). ANT437H1-Introduction to Virtual Anthropology. Retrieved
November 19, 2017, from https://fas.calendar.utoronto.ca/course/ANT437H1

Department of East Asian Studies. (n.d.). Profile.
Retrieved November 19, 2017, from http://www.eas.utoronto.ca/about/departmental-profile/

Department of East Asian Studies. (n.d.). Linda
Rui Feng. Retrieved November 19, 2017, from http://www.eas.utoronto.ca/people/faculty-members/linda-rui-feng/

Faculty of Arts and Sciences 2017-2018
Calendar. (n.d.). Human Geography. Retrieved November 19, 2017, from https://fas.calendar.utoronto.ca/human-geography-specialist

Department of Geography. (n.d.). Graduate
Geography. Retrieved November 19, 2017, from http://geography.utoronto.ca/graduate-geography/

Department of Geography. (n.d.). GIS in
Geography at U of T. Retrieved November 19, 2017, from http://geography.utoronto.ca/department/gis/

Department of Geography. (n.d.). Michael Widener.
Retrieved November 19, 2017, from http://geography.utoronto.ca/profiles/michael-widener/

Department of Geography. (n.d.). Ron
Buliung. Retrieved November 19, 2017, from http://geography.utoronto.ca/profiles/ron-buliung/

Department of Linguistics. (n.d.). Research.
Retrieved November 19, 2017, from https://linguistics.utoronto.ca/research/index.html

University of Toronto. (n.d.). Corpora in
the Classroom. Retrieved November 19, 2017, from https://corpora.chass.utoronto.ca/login.php

Department of Psychology. (n.d.). Homepage.
Retrieved November 19, 2017, from http://home.psych.utoronto.ca/

Department of Psychology. (n.d.).
 Volunteer Research Opportunties. Retrieved November
19, 2017, from http://home.psych.utoronto.ca/research/RAvolunteer.htm

Department of Psychology. (n.d.). Social
Perception and Cognition Labortary. Retrieved November 19, 2017, from http://psych.utoronto.ca/users/rule/research.html

Faculty of Arts and Sciences 2017-2018
Calendar. (n.d.). PSY201H1-Statistics I. Retrieved November 19, 2017, from https://fas.calendar.utoronto.ca/course/PSY201H1