Courses

This course describes and explores Canada's physical and human geography focusing on the regional distribution of natural features and resources, population and settlements, economic activities and development, and cultural change. It emphasizes the diversity and interrelationships between the physical and human landscapes which have evolved over time, creating the identifiable regions and subregions within the country.

Explores our understanding of the people, places and events that have influenced Canada’s history. This course examines the narratives of progress and reimagines the nation through a history of relation as informed by Indigenous and newcomer ways of knowing. It interacts with Canada’s past by immersing students in the study of Indigenous/settler encounters, economic exchange, French/English, national identity, minority rights, women’s agency, global movements, and environmental issues.

The history of First Nations, Métis Nations and Inuit Nations in Canada from time immemorial through to the present from various perspectives gained from interactions with Indigenous authors and guest speakers and cultural experiences such as immersion trips to Indigenous territories. Engage broad economic, social and political themes associated with Canada's settler society and gain cultural intelligence by analyzing from an Indigenous perspective how standard narratives of progress shaped early encounters, the fur trade economy, governmental policy, Christianity and culture, residential schools, land reserves and self-government. Considers the ways in which Indigenous nations utilized and reshaped Canada's historical narrative to resist assimilation, paternalism, civilization, marginalisation, and integration. Examines arguments for partnership, cooperation, negotiation and reconciliation in a movement towards peaceful co-existence.

This course is an introduction to the culture, languages, history and enduring presence of Indigenous Peoples in Canada. It will explore a range of indigenous social and cultural formations. Attention will be given to the cultural, economic, political, and religious aspects of Indigenous societies, as well as the changes that have occurred since the arrival of the Europeans.