Fourth Year Honours Seminars 2022-23

We acknowledge the sacred, unceded territory of the Algonquin Nation on which Carleton University operates, and Omàmiwininìwag stewardship of this land. We are grateful and honoured to have the opportunity to enjoy, work and learn from this territory.

This seminar takes a deep dive into the concept, right and practice of “self-determination” from the perspective of Indigenous peoples. Privileging texts, video and testimony that highlight the voices of Indigenous peoples, we will explore what self-determination means for Indigenous peoples, and why it is the principal demand and guiding concept in Indigenous people’s struggles towards fulfilling their collective life projects. We will examine the voices of youth, women, Elders and Indigenous leadership globally to come to a deep understanding of the complexity underpinning self-determination as defined by Indigenous peoples themselves, and the challenges of upholding this right in practice. Our exploration will privilege bottom-up tools Indigenous peoples have developed to resist the imposition of models of development that undermine self-determination, including Indigenous-to-Indigenous strategizing, revitalization of Indigenous law and autonomous law-making, counter-mapping, and taking to the streets, among other tools. And we will examine the mismatches in defining and practicing self-determination as defined by Indigenous peoples themselves, with the tools, mechanisms and possibilities put forward by states, corporations, and non-governmental organizations – including around free, prior and informed consent. We will look particularly at attempts to uphold and implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by states including Canada, and recent analysis developed by international mechanisms such as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

How has the internet become the way it is today and how will it evolve in the future? Platform has literally become a buzz word in the past several years, but what is a “platform” exactly? How have platform technologies played out in different localities and what are the social implications that platforms entail? This course provides an overview of the key historical and contemporary issues around the economics and politics of the internet and platforms in global contexts, such as the technical constructs of network technologies, key debates and the power interplay between different regions and countries in global internet governance and policies, the dominant business models for global platforms, economics and governance of (big)data, and platform cultural politics at both local and transnational levels.

What does the changing fate of empires mean? With an imperial shift/decline, does a world order continue or change? A World order is less visible than the hegemonic character of an empire. A world order is deeply rooted in a global system of converging economic, geopolitical, and ideological interests. History is a witness to the rise and fall of successive world orders. In this seminar, we will be exploring the U.S-China Rivalry, primarily in Northeast Asia. The tension and saber-rattling in the Pacific have reached new highs as the U.S and China, each vying for dominance in this geopolitical competition. Northeast Asia is now the center of gravity in contemporary global affairs. We will also examine how smaller regional powers have the capacity to impact the great power rivalry. For regional small powers, domestic factors such as nationalism, identity, and the response to the Russia-Ukraine War play a role in shaping the rivalry between the U.S and China. With the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, tension is rising in the western Pacific, with the outcome potentially threatening millions of lives and global stability.