Celebrating first-year Arts & Science Capstone Projects

The level one Global Challenges Inquiry course (ARTSSCI 1C06), invites Arts & Science students to explore the causes, implications and intersections of some of the most pressing sociopolitical challenges and injustices affecting the world today. The course also considers ways of responding to these challenges, analyzing strategies deployed by individuals, organizations, and institutions to attempt to rectify and redress social problems.

In line with the Inquiry-based approach to learning that guides the Arts & Science program, students are encouraged to engage in scholarly exploration of their own questions relevant to the course themes and topics. One of the ways this is done is through Capstone projects that ask students to develop, investigate, and respond to a researchable question of relevance to contemporary global challenges.

First year Arts & Science students have the unique opportunity to explore their interests through two Capstone projects in this year-long course. Last month, students presented their Winter 2024 Capstone projects, and we caught up with some of these bright young scholars to learn about their work.

Rameesha Ahmad
Capstone Project Title: A Never Ending Game of Tug-of-War: Artifact Repatriation and the British Museum
“Writing this paper has taught me… to begin opting for a structure that encourages a nuanced understanding of the topic at hand.”

Noor Alqadhi
Capstone Project Title: Weeding Out Harm: Examining the Health, Safety, and Well-being Implications of Recreational Cannabis Legalisation and Commercialisation in Canada
“The main takeaways from my capstone project include a profound recognition of the multifaceted nature of social issues and the nuanced perspective required when confronting them.”

Anh Bui
Capstone Project Title: The Social Injustices of Organ Marketification in the United States
“I am grateful for Dr. Sajed, Dr. Savelli, and Dr. Marquis, who have generously given myself and my peers many opportunities to seek their guidance and make valuable progress in both our writing and learning throughout ARTSSCI 1C06.”

Ezra Cento
Capstone Project Title: The Effect of Social Media Upon Suicide Contagion Among Adolescents
“Something that stood out to me in my research as I was attempting to synthesize my own analysis is that there are almost a dozen different theories that attempt to explain the spread of antisocial behaviour; each one provides a useful angle of analysis, and it would have been virtually impossible to understand the topic in a meaningful way without considering all the preexisting theories.”

Sara D’Ambrosio
Capstone Project Title: Expressions of Femininity in 1990s Rock Music
“I wanted to analyze research and write about something I was passionate about, and I found that combining my interests in music with scholarly work on patriarchal social systems was both an interesting and effective way to do this.”

Molly Gomes
Capstone Project Title: Disparities with health insurance in emergency care under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in the United States
“I chose this topic for my capstone project because I recognize that insurance is a significant contributor to social inequalities in accessing timely emergency care and can inform more patient-centred policies in the future.”

Rushan Jeyakumar
Capstone Project Title: The Liberalization of the Indian Economy: The Interplay of Capital, Labour, and the State in the Agrarian Crisis
“I am passionate about issues impacting South Asia, as well as farming! I find farming to be an inspiring profession and I wanted to combine these two interests in my capstone.”

Nimrat Kalirai
Capstone Project Title: Private Patents vs. Public Health: A Critical Examination of Patent Abuse in the United States Pharmaceutical Industry
“Working on my Capstone has been rewarding and fulfilling. It’s been exciting to focus on a topic I’m passionate about, and I’ve appreciated the opportunity of researching, analyzing, and writing about it. I feel like I’ve grown in my research and writing skills and learned a great deal in the process!”

Kate Linardic
Capstone Project Title: A Return to COMMONity
“Being in Artsci taught me that the best way to understand your own thoughts is sharing them with others. Being able to articulate what I was working on to my peers through the capstone poster helped me collect my arguments and figure out how to best present them in the final essay.”

April Louie
Capstone Project Title: The Commodification of the Womb
“The [Capstone] poster discussions helped me dive into a more nuanced understanding through my peers asking me questions that I would have never thought of on my own.”

Natasha Manroy
Capstone Project Title: The AKP’s Neoliberal Populism; Building a Competitive Authoritarian Regime
“It was definitely an interesting study and interesting to compare it to other cases of populism like in the U.S or other parts of the world.”

Airo Marsh
Capstone Project Title: The Right to Die; Should Mentally Unwell Individuals Have Access to Canada’s MAiD?
“The process of writing Capstones for ARTSSCI 1C06 has helped me develop and gain confidence in my researching and academic writing skills! Everyone should be forced to write a capstone at least once in their life; it was an invaluable experience!”

Sophia Moosa
Capstone Project Title: Industrialization and Wilderness Protection: An Unlikely Partnership
“Before doing this project, I was already beginning to question the separation between nature and human activity that the idea of wilderness promotes. Working on this Capstone has really helped me clarify my ideas on what I believe the human relationship with nature should be.”

Lucy Moreira
Capstone Project Title: Disparities in Universal Healthcare: Socioeconomic Factors Impacting Ovarian Cancer Care
“I found the process of researching this topic incredibly interesting and informative, and enjoyed learning about a range of topics in capstone poster discussions with my peers.”

Kiran Oberai
Capstone Project Title: Reassessing Human Rights Dichotomies: Achieving a More Justiciable Future for the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights
“The Global Challenges Inquiry course was the first time I got to write such an involved and lengthy research project, where I had completely free reign from start to finish about what I wanted to write and how I wanted to write it. The entire process has helped me build some really essential research skills that I know I’ll be using for the rest of my undergrad.”

Jonathan Rosenhek
Capstone Project Title: Competing Forces: Resource Nationalism, Neoliberalism and the Nature of the WTO.
“Reading widely is key, as you may have an idea of the finished outcome going in that can certainly be changed after finding scholarly perspectives. Working in little chunks at a time, I had a great and engaging time piecing together this story.”

Aarani Selvaganesh
Capstone Project Title: ‘Carbon Neutralitree’: A Critical Evaluation of Forestation Carbon Offsetting Initiatives
“Through the capstone process, I learned how to craft a research question and respond to it, while also considering the complexities of the challenge. It was important for me to recognize that our response to climate change extends beyond its environmental impacts to include its social and economic effects as well.”

Safiya Sivjee
Capstone Project Title: The Polarization of Zanzibari Identity for Political Legitimacy
“I decided to write about Zanzibar because that’s where my family is from. I saw this Capstone topic as an opportunity for me to know more about where my grandparents were born and raised.”

Laila Somani
Capstone Project Title: Women Suicide Bombers: A Spectrum Analysis of Patriarchal Implications
“I found the capstone not to be an intimidating task but an exciting opportunity to explore something really niche with a lot of depth. A big takeaway of mine is that there are always gaps in academic literature to fill.”

Jing Yi Xie
Capstone Project Title: Influence of Neoliberalism on Views of the Pursuit of Health Span
“The capstone paper gave me a chance to research about any subject I wanted, so I took what might be the only chance I have to write about longevity in a school paper.”

Olli Zelek
Capstone Project Title: The Culture of Cetaceans: Rethinking Human Uniqueness
“This project truly reestablished my belief that science is a field about asking questions that may seem odd or impossible. The culture of cetaceans was once scoffed at as a theory, but now presents many new and exciting opportunities for study.