Instructor: Joanna Dean
This course examines big questions with a tight focus on one small landscape. We will examine the history of human use of the Ottawa area, with a focus on campus and its environs, to understand how humans have lived in this place since earliest times to the early twentieth century. We will consider the impact of the last ice age on the landscape; plants and animals that appeared as the ice retreated; indigenous ways of knowing and working with the natural world; trade routes along the Ottawa and Rideau Rivers; the devastating impact of European microbes, plants, animals, and settlers; the engineering of the Rideau Canal; scientific and squatter agriculture; Algonquin land claims; and plans for suburbs. We will explore different ways of seeing the natural world and consider the development of both indigenous ecological knowledge and western science.
There will be a number of short field trips: students will explore archeological digs near campus, the Central Experimental Farm, the Arboretum, the Rideau Canal and hidden corners of the campus landscape, and participate in workshops on archaeology and Algonquin history. Through short writing assignments they will develop their writing skills, learn to identify (and then critique) the central argument in a scholarly article, and how to read visual sources, maps, material artefacts and the physical landscape.
The class will be run as a seminar. Students will complete a number of short written assignments through the term.
This course is open to students outside the department of history. Please note that this is a second year course, and first year students should only enrol if they are confident in their ability to assimilate course material and write papers at a second year level. Please do not hesitate to contact the instructor if you have any questions.
The course is paired with HIST 2311: Canadian Environmental History from 1890. Both courses provide a foundation for HIST 3310: Animals in Human History. Students who have completed HIST 2306A are not eligible to enrol in this course.