HIST 5316F: Canadian History Special Topics – Climate, Environment and the North in Writing Canadian History
Fall 2021
Instructor: Professor Joanna Dean
This course will consider the role of Canada’s geography and environment, its vast spaces and distances, local and embodied attachments to place, and networks of mobility and diaspora, in the shaping of Canadian history. We will also be playing close attention to the writing of history, and the ways in which narrative has shaped the discipline. The course is historiographical in approach: we will look at how the writing of history has changed over time, and consider the influence of historians such as Harold Innis on the emergence of the themes that preoccupy historians today, such as indigenous and settler epistemologies, colonialism and postcolonialism, nationalism(s), multispecies assemblages, and materiality.
Climate and weather has been a focus for several years, but this year we will be dedicating several classes to the emerging field of climate history.
Evaluation:
Participation: 30%
This includes contributions to the weekly discussion forum as well as in class discussions.
Seminar Leadership: 10%
Essay/Project Proposal: 10%.
Essay or Project: 40%.
Essay Presentation: 10%.