Toric Varieties. Toric varieties are fundamental examples in algebraic geometry, since their underlying combinatorial structure gives powerful tools for their study that are not available in general. This is a course on toric varieties from the book "Introduction to Toric Varieties" by William Fulton. There will be supplementary readings from "Discriminants, Resultants and Multidimensional Determinants" by Gelfand, Kapranov and Zelevinsky. The latter book is freely available for download through SpringerLing from any Department computer. This course is intended for students who have seen some algebraic geometry. If you have taken: Algebraic Geometry OR Computational Algebraic Geometry OR Commutative and Homological Algebra, you can take this course. If you have not taken any of these, but have taken a full year of graduate algebra, and you are interested in this material, feel free to email me (laura@math) to see whether you can do additional readings to prepare for the course.