Graduate Course Listing

This required course is intended to introduce students to a fundamental principle which underlies the Frost Centre MA: that all students critically engage with the fields of Indigenous Studies and Canadian Studies. It will also create a context for developing of the thesis/MRP proposal for MA students and build a strong scholarly and collegial community among MA students.

This course will cover two related themes: an overview of the theory and practice of selected research methodologies; and the ethical considerations of research within Canadian Studies and Indigenous Studies and Sustainability Studies.

Cross-listed: SUST-5002H

Indigenous scholars have become an important aspect of the intellectual landscape in Native Studies and a few other disciplines. Over the last few decades, Indigenous scholarly writing has emerged in a number of fields: politics, social theory, philosophy, history. This required course examines this emerging literature.

Cross-listed: INDG-6603H

This course explores the evolution of Indigenous settler relations in Canada, tracing how they are shaped by economic, social, cultural, religious, political and military factors, and how they differ across regions and First Nations. Themes include comparative imperial policies; treaties, land and space; law and Aboriginal-settler relations; education; religion; the state and policy development; political organization and resistance; gender, familial and sexual relations.

Cross-listed: CAST-6171H, HIST-5171H, SUST-5171H

A critical perspective on rural community sustainability in Western developed economies. Traces the evolving interdisciplinary conceptualizations of 'rurality', 'community' and 'sustainability', and their role in understanding how rural people, places and systems respond to Socio-economic and environmental change. Emphasizes how sustainability is manifest in rural and small town Canada.

Cross-listed: SUST-5200H

This course will critically explore selected theoretical, empirical, and creative constructions, contestations and celebrations of Canadian culture(s). Course content ranges from the national to the local, examining cultural communities and identities, intellectual traditions, cultural policies, museums and galleries, and cultural expression in film, theatre and literature.

Cross-listed: ENGL-5306H, CAST-6102H

This course explores historical and contemporary perspectives on the Canadian North, focusing on aspects of how Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples experience and frame the region. It critically examines how environmental, economic, social, cultural, political, legal, and military factors have (re)shaped the region. Themes include Indigenous and Euro-Canadian concepts of North; the frontier/homeland dichotomy; legal systems; sovereignty and security issues; colonialism and state control; land claims and co-management; climate change; and Canada's Northern strategies.

Cross-listed: CAST-6210H, SUST-5210H

This course explores the political economy tradition in Canada, and specifically the complex relationship between the state, economy, society, politics, and culture. The course content will provide essential grounding in the approaches, methods, and themes that have been critical to the ongoing development of this Canadian tradition.

Cross-listed: CAST-6301H, HIST-5301H

This course explores human-environmental relationships from a variety of perspectives using both academic and public policy debates as source material. Selected topics will draw from historical and political ecology, environmental protection and activism, heritage law, land tenure and land rights, tourism, public parks, and notions of wilderness in Canadian identities.

Cross-listed: CAST-6201H, SUST-5401H, CUST-5512H

This course directly addresses a wave of identity politics and its controversial place even within seemingly identity-based movements. Readings on gender, queer theory and politics, disability, aging, and race will come from sociology and political science as well as cultural, literary and film studies.

Cross-listed: CAST-6401H, ENGL-5501H

This course explores the scholarly interpretations, debates, and theories that have shaped our understanding of women and gender in the Canadian and North American context. The historical and social construction of gender identity, culture, and sexualities are explored, and topics such as work, reproduction, 'race,' colonialism, political engagement and social movements.

Cross-listed: CAST-6501H, HIST-5105H, SUST-5701H, CUST-5503H, GWST-5000H

A written justification, course outline and approval of the Graduate Program Director are required to take the course.