The Department of Political Science is pleased to award the 2021 UTSC Political Science Student Achievement Award to Faizan Malik. Read more below about his experience here at UTSC.
"My experience at UTSC was incredibly transformative and something that will continue to shape who I am far into the future. I not only learned who I want to be in as an academic but also as a person. The friends and faculty that I met formed a core part of my intellectual and personal journey, and I cannot trace back who I am today without encountering their influence and support at every turn. The professors especially constantly encouraged me in my academic interests and inspired me to take my education seriously. Since UTSC is smaller than most Universities, you have more of an opportunity to run into classmates and even Professors on campus which can lead to forming friendships with people really fast, and is one of the more subtle aspects of the UTSC experience which I appreciate.
My favorite Political Science courses were any that had to do with Political Theory. Two that immediately stand out would be POLC74H3 with Professor Shoikedbrod and POLD70 with Professor Hurl. In POLC74H3 we traced the most influential political philosophers and thinkers of the 20th century with a particular focus on very contemporary political thought, as opposed to more classical or modern traditions. This course provided the foundations which I believe are necessary for any serious engagement with contemporary political analysis and theory. POLD70 with Professor Hurl was an application of such serious engagement, as we traced the particular role of technology in shaping political theory and society and the implications this has for our hyper-technologized situation today. I believe any student in Political Science would have a wonderful time in taking these courses or ones similar to them.
My advice to first-year students would be to read as much as possible from a wide variety of disciplines. The amount of free-time you have only decreases as you get past first year, and drops to almost none when you enter the working world or any form of post-graduate education. The best opportunity for you to make the most of your free-time is right now, and you can very quickly expand your intellectual foundations and horizons. This to me is the primary purpose of university to begin with and one of my biggest regrets is not reading enough when I had more free-time to do so. Something you learn in Political Science will expand your ability to examine English Literature and vice versa. This ability to be an interdisciplinary thinker is a key reward for anyone fortunate enough to pursue post-secondary education, and something I think first-year students especially can take advantage of. Best of luck at UTSC! These will be some of the best years of your life by the time you graduate".
- Faizan Malik