This page is currently being updated. 2026-27 course descriptions will be added as they become available.

PLEASE NOTE:

  • Times and locations of courses are published in the Public Class Schedule.
  • Official Calendar Course Descriptions are available in the Undergraduate and Graduate Calendars.
  • Official Course Outlines will be distributed at the first class of the term.

Fall 2026/Winter 2027

Undergraduate Courses

CDNS 2400A Heritage Places and Practices in Canada – Winter Term

  • INSTRUCTOR: Susan Ross
  • DESCRIPTION: The conservation of heritage places and practices in Canada is a mature field of study, constantly responding to new ideas, issues and related societal concerns and environmental movements. While it began with grass roots advocacy, today heritage conservation is an internationally recognized professional field that includes: integrated national and local inventories, an array of novel conventions and charters, evolving heritage legislation, established multi-disciplinary practices, and governments and non-governmental organizations with decades of experience. Still, recurring and complex issues like urban development, mass tourism and climate change challenge basic practice. Furthermore, decolonizing memory, identity and place are increasingly part of both public and scholarly heritage discourse and activities. All this suggests that students today must go back to the key questions: why is heritage important, to whom does it matter, should we conserve it, and if so, how? Looking forward, what more could heritage and/or its conservation achieve, and how should practices adapt in the coming decades? This course is required for students enrolled in the Minor in Heritage and Conservation and a core course for students in the Conservation & Sustainability streams in Architecture or Engineering.
  • METHOD OF EVALUATION: Student work includes written assignments assessing heritage values and places, examining stakeholder and rights holder perspectives in the news, reflecting on Indigenous arts in situ and making arguments to advocate for heritage issues in Canada; students also complete exercises in TA-Led tutorials that apply concepts from International and Canadian policies. Attendance is required in all lectures and tutorials.
  • READINGS: All readings for this course will be made available electronically at no cost to the students via the Library’s ARES Reserves platform or through Brightspace.

CDNS 4403A Heritage Conservation and Sustainability in Canada – Fall Term

  • INSTRUCTOR: Susan Ross
  • DESCRIPTION: Connecting local places, meanings and actions to global impacts and concerns, this course introduces students to Canadian and international frameworks, policies and practices that connect natural and cultural heritage conservation with environmental, social and economic sustainability. Readings, discussions and case studies foster understanding of urban, landscape and built heritage contexts of climate actions, research, and planning. As CDNS 4403, this course may be taken for core credit in the Minor in Heritage and Conservation or the Conservation & Sustainability streams in Architecture or Engineering. AS CDNS 5403, this may be taken for core credit in the M.A. in Canadian Studies Concentration in Heritage Planning and Studies.
  • METHOD OF EVALUATION: Student assessment elements include: a short-written reflection on a campus walking tour; a presentation on localizing sustainable development goals in heritage places; preparation in three stages of a sustainable heritage case study; contribution to in class and online discussion of readings.
  • READINGS: All readings for this course will be made available electronically at no cost to the students via the Library’s ARES Reserves platform through Brightspace
  • CROSS-LISTED WITH: CDNS 5403A

Graduate Courses

CDNS 5001A Advanced research in Canadian Studies (MA Core Seminar) – Fall Term

  • INSTRUCTOR: Anne Trépanier
  • DESCRIPTION: What does it mean to study Canada today? In this seminar, students explore this question through an engaging combination of critical inquiry, original research, and experiential learning in Canada’s National Capital Region. Using Ottawa–Gatineau as a dynamic classroom, students investigate the stories, institutions, and debates that shape understandings of Canada with the tools of the theories of representations and narration. Field visits to leading national institutions, including museums and archives, provide unique opportunities to engage directly with Canada’s documentary heritage, public memory, and evolving national narratives. The seminar is designed to help students develop the advanced research, analytical, and communication skills essential for graduate study and professional careers. Working closely with faculty, peers, and research specialists, students design and refine their own research projects, participate in collaborative discussions and peer review, and present their findings through professional poster presentations and a fine-tuned elevator pitch. Ideal for students seeking an interdisciplinary, research and creation intensive graduate experience, CDNS 5001 offers a strong foundation for exploring Canada’s past, present, and future while building the skills and connections needed to thrive in academic, public, and cultural sectors.
  • METHOD OF EVALUATION: Research topic – mapping your interest 5%; Reading discussion participation 15%; Research proposal 20%; Reflection on your research consultation 10%; Collaborative research participation & feedback to your peers 20 %; First poster presentation 5%; Final poster presentation 15%; Final reflection 10%
  • READINGS: Readings are available on ARES

CDNS 5003W Photography, Memory, Archive – Winter Term

  • INSTRUCTOR: Carol Payne
  • DESCRIPTION: This seminar will address the role that photography plays in conceptualizations of memory. The class will engage with the rich body of theory drawn from Memory Studies, Photo Studies, and the critique of the archive.  As part of our exploration of photography and memory, we will also draw on work from photographic archives in the National Capital.
  • METHOD OF EVALUATION: 50% on a term-long research project (this project will be ‘scaffolded’ with smaller assignments culminating in a research paper). 50% on course work (including regular reflection papers, facilitation of discussion, class participation). Note that in all components, there will be an emphasis on critical analysis and writing
  • READINGS: Assigned reading will be available through Brightspace and ARES unless otherwise noted.
    Specific assigned reading TBA
  • CROSS-LISTED WITH: ARTH 5500W & CLMD 6105W

CDNS 5102B Settler World-Making and Indigenous Resistance – Winter Term

  • INSTRUCTOR: Jennifer Henderson
  • DESCRIPTION: Moving between 19th and 21st century texts, this course focusses on the role of discourse and narrative in organizing settler-colonial time-space in the territory known today as Canada. We look at some of the literary genres through which a settler-colonial world has been imaginatively consolidated as well as disrupted. Primary texts will be supplemented by criticism and theory.
  • METHOD OF EVALUATION: Assignments to include weekly reading notes; seminar presentation; meeting with professor; scaffolded research essay.
  • READINGS: Students will be asked to purchase 4-5 literary texts. Other readings will be online.
  • CROSS-LISTED WITH: ENGL4806

CDNS 5201A Critical Perspectives on Canadian Feminism: Rereading Women’s Liberation – Fall Term

  • INSTRUCTOR: Jennifer Henderson
  • DESCRIPTION: This course takes a historical materialist and intersectional approach to the Women’s Liberation movement of the 1970s. We look at archival materials and media representations from the period, as well as recent scholarship on the complex legacies of the movement and ambivalent relations to it. Our readings include movement writing and periodicals, autobiography, art installation, film, manifesto and ephemera as we work with several Canadian archives. The course focusses on the movement’s rhetorics, figures, and emotions; its practices of consciousness raising, formation of collectives and direct action; its wild imagination and something like its atmosphere. We pay attention to the uncertain and contested meanings of ‘woman’ and ‘women’; the construction of ‘lesbian feminist’ as a political identity; the attempt to produce an analysis of housework in relation to capitalist production. Throughout, we’ll be thinking about the movement’s staging both within and against colonialism, racism, heteronormativity, and binary gender. The course aims to be an inclusive, 2SLGBTQ-positive space and is for anyone interested in learning how to think about identities and politics historically. Women’s Liberation took shape in a world very different to ours–before the structural and ideological changes of neoliberalism, which is part of what we’ll work to understand as we look at a politics in its moment of messy eruption and relate to its memory as a complex inheritance.
  • METHOD OF EVALUATION: Commonplace book, media analysis, archive presentation, archives assignment or research essay.
  • READINGS: Maria Campbell, Halfbreed [1973] (McClelland & Stewart, 2019) plus online readings.
  • CROSS-LISTED WITH: ENGL5804, WGST5902

CDNS 5401A Heritage Conservation: History, Principles, and Concepts – Fall Term

  • INSTRUCTOR: Jerzy (Jurek) Elżanowski
  • DESCRIPTION: Course topic for Fall 2026: “Heritage in Polycrisis.” Conservationists in Canada are questioning the relevance of the term “heritage.” Some want to embrace “adaptive reuse” as a new model, while others argue that the field is stuck in a colonial paradigm out of step with reality. Connected in recent years to right-wing populist groups such as the Washington-based Heritage Foundation, the term describes with decreasing precision the complex, stewardship-driven approaches that often guide contemporary heritage planning and architectural conservation. In a world overwhelmed by a network of crises—climate change, mass migration, war, the polarization of wealth, and rising authoritarianism—what role can heritage conservation play in sustaining human and more-than-human lives, practices, and places? In this course, we will critically examine the historical and philosophical roots of values-based conservation. Together, we will look for a path forward—if not for “heritage,” then at least for an ethical practice that nurtures change. For more information, please see the instructor’s website: https://carleton.ca/canadianstudies/people/jerzy-jurek-elzanowski/
  • METHOD OF EVALUATION: Evaluation is based on two main components: a shared Encyclopedia of Heritage in Polycrisis (55%) and class participation (45%). The encyclopedia contribution includes a proposal (10%), full draft (25%), and final edit/website upload (25%). Participation includes regular engagement with readings in class (30%), discussant contribution (10%), and a short final participation statement (5%). Details may change and will be provided in the final outline.
  • READINGS: Please see the last term’s (winter 2026) outline for a tentative list of readings for the fall.

CDNS 5402A Heritage Conservation Theory in Practice – Fall Term

  • INSTRUCTOR: Susan Ross
  • DESCRIPTION: This is a core course for students in the M.A. in Canadian Studies Concentration in Heritage Planning and Studies and can also be taken for core credit in Graduate Diploma in Curatorial Studies. It is also cross listed as ARCH 5002 and open to graduate students in architecture, engineering, public history, art history, anthropology, environmental studies and many other related fields. The graduate seminar format introduces students to diverse contexts of heritage practice, with an emphasis on the evolving values of places, and the ethical questions to consider in the protection and planning for regeneration of the built environment. Literature from critical heritage studies, sustainable heritage planning, cultural landscape and decolonizing research methodology inform the approach. Students study the application of critical heritage and conservation theories in research methods, professional practice, community action and political engagement. They learn about existing models for conservation in Canada and internationally and become familiar with the interactions of the many disciplines involved in heritage planning. They are introduced to evolving governmental policies and legislation and learn about the roles of non-governmental organizations and diverse stakeholders in advancing new approaches. The format includes lectures, readings discussion and site visits. Invited guest speakers represent diverse disciplines, practices and organizations.
  • METHOD OF EVALUATION: Student work includes three main assessment elements: A weekly journal tracking student readings and development of their questions and positions in the course; a critical review of a recent professional report or policy; and a collaborative urban inventory project where they collectively examine a critical heritage theme or typology.
  • READINGS: All readings for this course will be made available electronically at no cost to the students via the Library’s ARES Reserves platform or through Brightspace.
  • CROSS-LISTED WITH: ARCH 5002

CDNS 5403A Heritage Conservation and Sustainability in Canada – Fall Term

  • INSTRUCTOR: Susan Ross
  • DESCRIPTION: Connecting local places, meanings and actions to global impacts and concerns, this course introduces students to Canadian and international frameworks, policies and practices that connect natural and cultural heritage conservation with environmental, social and economic sustainability. Readings, discussions and case studies foster understanding of urban, landscape and built heritage contexts of climate actions, research, and planning. As CDNS 4403, this course may be taken for core credit in the Minor in Heritage and Conservation or the Conservation & Sustainability streams in Architecture or Engineering. AS CDNS 5403, this may be taken for core credit in the M.A. in Canadian Studies Concentration in Heritage Planning and Studies.
  • METHOD OF EVALUATION: Student assessment elements include: a short-written reflection on a campus walking tour; a presentation on localizing sustainable development goals in heritage places; preparation in three stages of a sustainable heritage case study; contribution to in class and online discussion of readings.
  • READINGS: All readings for this course will be made available electronically at no cost to the students via the Library’s ARES Reserves platform through Brightspace
  • CROSS-LISTED WITH: CDNS 4403A