Incoming UTM students should check their emails for an invitation to apply to utmONE Scholars Seminars. Application deadline for 2026-27 is July 2nd, at 11:59 PM ET. A list of commonly-asked application questions can be found in our FAQs.
Overview
utmONE Scholars Seminars are unique first-year seminar courses designed to provide a collaborative classroom experience for high-achieving students interested in developing their university-level research and communication skills.
There are many benefits to taking a utmONE Scholars Seminar including getting a head start on your research career by gaining hands-on academic research skills. The seminars also encourage a greater sense of belonging to the academic community, build confidence and communication skills, and provide an opportunity for students to engage with a theme that is relevant and interdisciplinary allowing for vibrant discussions from multiple perspectives.
Highlights of all utmONE Scholars Seminars
- Strong Academic Foundations: Each seminar is taught around an impactful theme. In addition to developing enhanced academic research skills, communication and writing skills, critical thinking skills, and collaboration skills, students will build global and social awareness by exploring a current topic in a global context.
- Supportive Classroom Experience: The seminar format (maximum 25 students per seminar) allows students to create meaningful relationships with their professor and classmates, and to experience academic dialogue and discussion in a collegial and safe environment.
- Focus on Collaboration: Experiential learning is embedded within the class meetings. Students collaborate on an enriching class project designed to examine multiple perspectives on the course theme. Every seminar is interdisciplinary in nature so students will meet and work with classmates from a variety of backgrounds and academic programs.
- Other Benefits of utmONE Scholars: Students who participate in a utmONE Scholars Seminar report that their experience had a positive impact on their academic success, helped them feel supported in their personal growth, increased their motivation in their other courses and developed their confidence in participating in class discussions.
Application Process
Applications are by invitation only. Incoming students with a CGPA of 90% or higher will receive an invitation to apply via email. Invitations are sent by email on a rolling basis starting in May/June.
Scholars Seminars offered in 2026-27
UTM190H5: Sociolinguistics and Writing for Social Change
LEC0101
- Taught by Dr. Oguzhan Tekin
- Friday 1:00-3:00PM (Winter 2027)
- Distribution requirement for Social Science or Humanities
- Exclusions: All other utmONE Foundations and utmONE Scholars courses
How does language reflect and reproduce social inequalities, and how can writing be used to challenge them? This course introduces students to foundational concepts in sociolinguistics, including language variation, multilingualism, language and identity, standard language ideologies, and attitudes toward language varieties (e.g., accented speech, non-standard grammar or spelling). Students will examine how these issues play out in the speech communities they belong to or are interested in and in society more broadly.
In addition to learning how language works socially, students will strengthen their academic and public writing skills. The course culminates in a research project in which students investigate a sociolinguistic issue they care about, write an argumentative essay, and then transform it into a public genre (e.g., podcast, op-ed, infographic) tailored to a real-world audience.
UTM190H5: Making the Grade: How Grading Works, and Why it Matters
LEC0102
- Taught by Dr. Erin Vearncombe
- Tuesday 3:00-5:00PM (Winter 2027)
- Distribution requirement for Social Science or Humanities
- Exclusions: All other utmONE Foundations and utmONE Scholars courses
Why do universities grade students, and does grading help or hinder learning? This course examines how and why universities assess student work, helping you understand the logic behind different evaluation methods you will encounter throughout university. By exploring the history of grading and investigating alternatives to conventional grading, you will develop metacognitive skills that support your success across your courses.
You will experience multiple assessment methods throughout the course, critically analyzing how each approach shapes learning and motivation. Course topics include testing practices, feedback strategies, decolonizing approaches to assessment, and how generative AI is reshaping conversations about academic integrity and assignment design. Drawing on scholarship from psychology, sociology, and philosophy, you will examine fundamental questions of equity and educational purpose. Understanding how and why instructors assess will empower you to decode assignment expectations, use feedback strategically, and advocate for your own learning.
Throughout the term, you will engage in dialogue with classmates about your shared experiences of evaluation and learning. The course culminates in a collaborative project where you design and defend an alternative assessment system for a hypothetical course, demonstrating how your system serves both learning and institutional accountability while reflecting your own values about education.
UTM192H5 Thinking Badly: Misinformation in the Information Age
LEC0101
- Taught by Dr. Michael deBraga
- Monday 5:00-7:00PM (Winter 2027)
- Distribution requirement for Science or Humanities
- Exclusions: All other utmONE Foundations and utmONE Scholars courses
Information has always been central to human endeavour, but the conditions under which information is produced, circulated, and trusted have changed dramatically. In the 2020s, scientific information now moves through a fragmented global media ecosystem shaped by social platforms, generative AI, algorithmic recommendation systems, political polarization, and shrinking public trust in institutions. While earlier forms of news delivery often moved slowly enough to permit editorial review, expert verification, and public correction, today scientific claims can be translated into viral posts, short videos, memes, chatbot summaries, and partisan talking points almost instantly. The result is not simply “too much information,” but an information environment in which accurate science, uncertainty, speculation, strategic misinformation, and emotionally persuasive narratives often compete on equal terms.
By blending approaches from the sciences and the humanities, this course offers an engaging and interactive way to examine how information is gathered, interpreted, communicated, contested, and sometimes distorted. This multidisciplinary approach allows students to explore the relationship between disciplines that generate and assess evidence, such as science, and disciplines that study meaning, persuasion, ethics, culture, and public communication, such as the humanities. The course will consider not only how science news may be manipulated by those outside scientific communities, but also how scientists, institutions, journals, governments, educators, and media organizations can contribute to confusion when they communicate uncertainty poorly, overstate findings, fail to correct errors, or ignore the social contexts in which public trust is formed.
UTM192H5: AI Ethics
LEC0102
- Taught by Dr. Avery Slater
- Thursday 1:00-3:00PM (Winter 2027)
- Distribution requirement for Science or Humanities
- Exclusions: All other utmONE Foundations and utmONE Scholars courses
This course will examine the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and the development of AI ethics. Using interdisciplinary methods that combine the history and philosophy of science and technology with those of the humanities, this course will explore how computer scientists, philosophers, writers, and AI historians describe and imagine the stakes involved in the development of AI. What ethics of AI will be needed to address the many social, political, and economic issues arising from these technologies?
Watch the "Meet the Profs" Info Session
Questions?
Please direct your questions to isup.advisor@utoronto.ca.