Syllabi

HIS 241 – Canada and the World in the Twentieth Century

Fall 2020, online

Instructor: Dr. David Webster

Class meeting times: Mondays 9-10, plus asynchronous online discussion and work. Meetings take place using Microsoft Teams, discussion and other work is done using the class site on moodle but may also use Teams for some purposes.

Hours: Open office hours Mondays 10-11 (immediately after class). Multiple other times will be available through the online office hours scheduler on moodle.

E-mail: dwebster@ubishops.ca

Course Description

Topics include Canada and imperialism, the two world wars, the development of Canadian foreign policy, the golden age of Canadian diplomacy, Canada and the League of Nations, and the United Nations.

Required Readings

·         Asa McKercher, Canada and the World since 1867 (London: Bloomsbury, 2019)

·         Selected articles and primary sources available via moodle/library catalogue.

Course Requirements and Evaluation

·         Reading responses: 15%

·         Primary source worksheets: 15%

·         Discussion forum contributions: 20%

·         Primary source analysis: 15%

·         Research essay: 35%

As a primarily online course that meets for one hour per week, you will have to do a significant amount of work online, and submit work each week. Assignments are based on an estimate that in addition to one hour in a virtual classroom, you will spend roughly two hours each per week on the moodle discussion forum and simulations of debates in Canadian foreign policy history.

The assignments expected every week use contract grading, meaning you know in advance what mark you will receive based on the guidelines spelled out below. IN effect, this is a contract that you will respond each week and I will assign the mark promised. You may safely miss 2 of the 10 weeks for illness or emergencies with no penalty. If you respond to all 12, then you 2 lowest marks will be dropped. These weekly assignments are:

·         Reading response: each week you will be given a worksheet with assigned questions about the reading. You should complete your answers to those questions and upload them to moodle as a pdf or using the quiz function. You will have 12 opportunities to complete a reading response. The two lowest responses will be dropped (meaning you can safely miss two, if this is necessary, without losing marks). Possible marks: 1.5 (excellent response to all questions); 1 (satisfactory response to all questions); 0.5 (assignment handed in, but responses not satisfactory); or 0 (no response). Aim at 50-100 words per question on these assignments.

·         Primary source analysis: This course spends a substantial amount of time dealing with primary sources in the history of Canadian foreign relations. There will be a self-study primary source workshop on moodle each week that relates to the time period covered by that week. The Department of History and Global Studies uses this definition: “Primary sources are sources produced in the time period under study. Primary sources can vary from written documents to material sources and even oral sources for those who have access to interviews.” Each week, you will be asked to complete a one-page primary document analysis worksheet that asks you to analyse a document. As with the reading responses, you will have 12 opportunities to complete a reading response. The two lowest responses will be dropped (meaning you can safely miss two, if this is necessary, without losing marks). Possible marks: 1.5 (excellent response to all questions); 1 (satisfactory response to all questions); 0.5 (assignment handed in, but responses not satisfactory); or 0 (no response).

·         Discussion forum: Each week we will spend time discussing assigned readings, lectures and primary sources using the discussion forum on moodle. You should plan to make at least three posts each week. One of these should be an original comment on some aspect of the reading, lecture, or assigned primary sources. This may respond to a discussion question from the instructor or another relevant topic of your choice. In these cases, please open a new thread. Two of these responses may be replies to threads opened by others. You may open more than one thread if you wish, and you may post more than three times if you wish. The marks available for this assignment are: 2 (an excellent, thoughtful response to the week’s themes); 1.5 (a good response that meets all expectations); 1 (a partial response that is mostly satisfactory) 0.5 (an unsatisfactory response); or 0 (no response).

 Major assignments:

·         Your primary source analysis will ask you to describe and analyse the key features and messages of one primary source document, selected from the Documents on Canadian External Relations series (or another source, if you obtain instructor permission in advance. This paper should identify the creator, audience, purpose, significance, unanswered questions and any other important elements of the source, and set it in its historical context. In other words, it should answer the five questions/levels of analysis in the departmental research guide at https://www.ubishops.ca/academic-programs/faculty-of-arts-and-science/humanities/history-global-studies/research-guide/. Aim at 700-1,000 words or 2-4 pages double-spaced, but you will not be penalized for going longer.

·         Your research essay is a key component of the course and must show evidence of additional research beyond assigned readings. It requires a research question, a thesis statement (eg “this essay will argue that…”), research using both primary and secondary sources, and a clear conclusion. Alternatively, with instructor permission, you may choose to present your findings visually in the form of a research poster, or as an online project showcasing your research. Please discuss your choice with me in advance.

There is no final exam in this course.

Learning during a pandemic

None of us chose the current conditions. We are all doing this type of course for the first time. The word “unprecedented” is thrown around a lot, but for a reason: we are in uncharted territory. I appreciate that this is tough on everyone. I’ll make mistakes. Your life situation may change. Therefore, I’ve tried to design this course to minimize additional stress. There is no final exam. I am not imposing late penalties for essays, and the idea of contract grading is intended to maximize clarity and certainty as much as possible at a time when the future seems uncertain in too many ways. Please do tell me if at any time it all seems like too much. Your health is more important than any course. If you run into troubles, we will find a solution.

COVID-specific statements/reminders

All faculty, librarians, staff, students, and administrators will be expected to do a basic health assessment each day before coming to campus which will be available online and via the SAFEGAITER app. https://working.ubishops.ca/covid-19/. 

Everyone must stay away from class if ill. Contact the COVID-19 telephone line (1-877-644-4545) if you have any symptoms of the coronavirus. Do not go the University’s Health Clinic.

Communications

Questions are welcome before, after and during class. Apart from office hours, I am happy to arrange to meet with you at other times. You are welcome to send e-mails or contact me via Teams or the course web site. You are also welcome to use the Q&A forum on moodle at any time. I will respond to questions either with an answer or a time when I will be able to answer. If you have not heard back within 48 hours, please re-send, in case the message has gone astray.

As per University regulation, your “ubishops.ca” address is deemed to be the official e-mail between the University and its students. Therefore, you will be e-mailed at your university address as needed. To minimize e-mail volume, I will post most course updates and expectations via moodle. When you visit the moodle page, start with the “Communications Log” at the top of the page.

Submission of written work

All work should be submitted using the course moodle page. If uploading essays, please upload as a pdf, to facilitate online marking. Deadlines for weekly assignments will not be extended, in order to allow the course to move. If you require an extension on one of your other essays, please try to let me know in advance, rather than at the last minute.

Language of instruction

In accordance with the University’s policy on Language of instruction, students have the option to submit individual written work in English or French.

Academic integrity

Plagiarism (a form of academic dishonesty in which one person submits or presents the work of another person as their own), self-plagiarism (submitting the same work in different courses) and cheating (dishonest behaviour, usually in tests or examinations) are not acceptable.

Plagiarism is a kind of academic dishonesty in which an individual uses the work of another without appropriate acknowledgement. Plagiarism includes but is not limited to the following practices:

• Using another’s work without acknowledgement

• Copying material without quotation marks

• Paraphrasing too closely the exact words of the originating author

• Submitting as one’s own work written in whole or in part by another individual

• Submitting in whole or in part work for which the student has received credit in another course, unless the permission of the instructor has been obtained

• Submitting any statement of fact known to be false or providing a fabricated reference to a source

For details, see the university calendar section on plagiarism, available online.

Supporting your Success

Your academic performance is closely tied to your personal well-being and mental health. It is understood that university students encounter setbacks from time to time that can impact their academics. If you encounter difficulties and need assistance, it is important to reach out and take advantage of the resources available to you. For help and information addressing mental or physical health concerns, including meeting with a Bishop’s counsellor or nurse, visit: www.ubishops.ca/student-services/. If you are experiencing any personal difficulties that make it hard for you to meet your course requirements, please talk with your professor(s) or academic Dean. You should also connect with our professionals in student support services for your specific physical or mental health needs.

Accessibility & Accommodation Services

The Student Accessibility & Accommodation Services helps ensure that all students with disabilities have equal access to programs at Bishop’s University. They arrange for reasonable accommodations in accordance with Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms, the new Act Respecting Equal Access to Employment in Public Bodies and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. For more information: http://www.ubishops.ca/future-current-students/student-campus-life/student-services/student-accessibility-accommodation-services/.

Mental Health

The University values the mental health and wellbeing of its students. Professional counsellors are available to help students deal with personal concerns related to adapting to University life, family problems, relationships, difficulties with drugs & alcohol, depression, anxiety and other matters, all of which are handled in complete confidentiality. To book an appointment with one of these counsellors, contact Ms. Francine Hamel by email (Francine.hamel@ubishops.ca) or by phone at (819) 822-9600 ext. 2695.

Access to library resources

The Library Learning Commons has been expanding use of online sources and now has a new catalogue system. A video on how to sue the new catalogue will be available this term. Many books are available in e-book format. You can also consult google books and JSTOR for access to some book previews. Articles are generally available online. If they are not, you may request a pdf of an article, using the Inter-Library Loan system available for free through the library.

An increasing number of primary sources are available online. I will provide a guide to finding primary sources online in advance of essay due dates.

Access to help centres

Essays at university are expected to be of high quality. The Writing Centre offers free help with planning, organizing, outlining, sentence structure, grammar, referencing and citations. For details and to make an online appointment, visit https://www.ubishops.ca/academic-programs/bu-liberal-education-model/english-writing-proficiency/online-appointment-instructions/.

The Bishop’s University History Association University (BUHA) offers students free help through the Help Centre staffed with upper year students. For details, contact the instructor or BUHA.

Bishop’s University is located on the Traditional and Unceded Territory of the Abenaki People.

Class schedule and readings

The readings should be completed before our class meetings on Mondays. Class topics are subject to change.

Week 1:

Class meeting on Monday, September 14. Topic focus: colonial Canada

Reading: Canada and the World chapter 1, “Dominion-building and empire-building” (to be completed before the first class)

Primary source: Canadian stamp, 1898

Week 2:

Class meeting on Monday, September 21. Topic focus: Imperialism, nationalism and wars

Reading: Canada and the World chapter 2

Primary source: Gordon Sinclair, Footloose in India, excerpts

Simulation: The naval debate

Week 3:

Class meeting on Monday, September 28. Topic focus: Merchants and missionaries

Reading: Canada and the World chapter 3, “Canada and the first age of globalization”

Primary source: House of Commons Debates on Japanese migration, 1908, https://pier21.ca/research/immigration-history/gentlemens-agreement-1908

Week 4:

Class meeting on Monday, October 5. Topic focus: the war, autonomy and conscription

Reading: Canada and the World chapter 4, “Canada’s Great War”

Primary source: Letter on Canada and the West Indies from Documents on Canadian External Relations

Week 5:

Week of Monday, October 12. Since Monday is Thanksgiving, there is no class meeting this week. Normal assignments will still be posted and expected.

Reading: Canada and the World chapter 5, “North Americanism and the search for peace”

Primary source: Armenia documents

Simulation: Next for Duty? Canada and the Armenia question

Week 6:

Class meeting on Monday, October 19. Topic focus: Canada, intervention and the League of Nations

Reading: Canada and the World chapter 6, “Canada and the Descent to War”

Primary source: Allies not subjects? The Six Nations appeal to the League of Nations, http://historybeyondborders.ca/?p=189

Week 7:

Class meeting on Monday, October 26. Topic focus: A new role in the world?

Reading: Canada and the World chapter 7, “The North Atlantic Triangle from World War to Cold War”

Primary source: Louis St. Laurent, Grey lecture, 1948

Primary source analysis essay due by October 30 at midnight. If you require extra time, please speak with me in advance and let me know what due date you would like.

Week 8:

Class meeting on Monday, November 2. Topic focus: Canada and decolonization

Reading: Canada and the World chapter 8, “The Middle power and the end of empire”

Primary source: letter of instructions to first Canadian ambassador in Indonesia

Week 9:

Class meeting on Monday, November 9. Topic focus: Trade and Vietnam

Reading: Canada and the World chapter 9, “From colony to nation to colony?”

Primary source: Lester Pearson, Temple University speech

Simulation: Sleeping with the elephant: Canada-US relations in crisis

Week 10:

Class meeting on Monday, November 16. Topic focus: Development aid and human rights

Reading: Canada and the World chapter 10, “Canada and the emerging global village”

Primary source: Hugh Keenleyside letter to Lester Pearson

Week 11:

Class meeting on Monday, November 23. Topic focus: Canada vs Quebec; peacekeeping

Reading: Canada and the World chapter 11, “War and peace in the new world order”

Primary source: Canada and peacekeeping speech

Week 12:

Class meeting on Monday, November 30 and Wednesday, December 2 (make-up class for Thanksgiving). Topic focus: environmental and Indigenous diplomacy

Reading: Canada and the World chapter 12, “Globalization redux”

Primary source: Canada accepts UNDRIP speech

The final research essay is due before the exam period starts on Dec. 7: therefore, by Dec. 6 by midnight. If you require extra time, please speak with me in advance and let me know what due date you would like.

This course will explore the history of archives in Canada from the earliest collections to the digital era. What roles have historians had with archives and how have their roles changed? Students will explore the challenges and opportunities digitally born sources, digital archives and cloud computing offer historians in the 21st century.

Students will be introduced to a range of works on archives in Canada, the professionalization of archivists and the growth of professional associations within the landscape of galleries, libraries, archives and museums in Canada. Beyond course readings, we will also critically engage a range of digital tools and resources as students will also learn how to construct, post, maintain and implement new media in their course work. This course will explore the current and potential impact of the use of digital media on historical analysis, practice, research and presentation.

This course will explore Canada’s history using material history methods and material culture research.  Using inter-disciplinary approaches including, but not limited to archaeology, art history, Indigenous studies and museum studies, students will examine and contextualize artifacts and objects to learn about Canada’s past using a diversity of digital tools available. Students will evaluate, interpret and create history through their course work throughout the session.

What happens when the study of the past is presented in the digital realm? How does research and writing in a time when millions of significant primary and secondary source texts, photographs, videos, audio sources, artifacts, maps and much more have been made available via academic and public realms? What can/will/should we do to manage big data?

Students will be introduced to a range of works on evaluating, interpreting and creating history using digital tools. Beyond course readings we will also critically engage a range of digital tools and resources as students will also learn how to construct, post, maintain and implement new media in their course work.  This course will explore the current and potential impact of the use of digital media on historical analysis, practice, research and presentation.

This course will explore the history of archives in Canada from the earliest collections to the digital era.  What roles have historians had with archives and how have their roles changed?  Students will explore the challenges and opportunities digitally born sources, digital archives and cloud computing offer historians in the 21st century.

Students will be introduced to a range of works on archives in Canada, the professionalization of archivists and the growth of professional associations within the landscape of galleries, libraries, archives and museums in Canada. Beyond course readings, we will also critically engage a range of digital tools and resources as students will also learn how to construct, post, maintain and implement new media in their course work. This course will explore the current and potential impact of the use of digital media on historical analysis, practice, research and presentation.

When cholera swept around the world in 1832, people struggled to make sense of the experience: medically, morally, and politically. A new, free, and progressive country like Canada should, in theory, have been exempt from such old-world calamities associated with backwardness, filth, poverty, and fatalism. Cholera initiated a century of urgent, practical soul-searching about how processes of human history should be scrutinized and managed. Typhus in 1847, smallpox in 1885 and influenza in 1918 were no less politically and intellectually confounding. When authorities tried to quarantine or hospitalize people, or destroy their property in an effort to clean up local environments, they found their (often very new and fragile) legitimacy tested. Tuberculosis had its own perplexities as the disease, commonly attributed to overcrowding, spread through Indigenous populations in defiance of that precept.

Epidemics and public health unraveled nineteenth-century laissez-faire government. Liberal states had minimal mandates to manage private life; they saw themselves as facilitators of market forces. But what if the market brought death? Adam Smith had made airy promises that such a thing could never be—but there it was, spectacularly on display wherever epidemics were imported. To what extent did epidemics indict market forces or the state—whether liberal or authoritarian? To what extent did they unbind people from ordinary constraints of civil behaviour? What changed first: the medical profession’s ability to give good advice or the state’s administrative abilities? How did a long term shift from epidemic to endemic disease change things? These are some of the scholarly questions we will be addressing in this seminar.

Introduction

What does the teaching and researching of history in Canada look like after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC)? The TRC was established in 2008 as part of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, an agreement between the federal government and approximately 8000 Indigenous people who had attended residential schools.    Over the next six years, the TRC took on a staggering project of both research, public engagement, and advocacy.  The TRC did extensive archival research in the papers left by Canadian governments and churches, twice going to court to compel Canada to produce promised archival records.  As historian Mary Jane Logan McCallum notes, a serious commitment to gathering and analyzing oral testimony – and the different histories it told — differentiated the shape and mandate of the commission’s research. [1] The TRC created an oral archive based on interviews with more that 6,000 people, most of whom had themselves attended residential schools.[2]

The TRC’s final report was published in 2015, and as a document, the report makes clear how the TRC was both a powerful work of history and an important moment in history.   The TRC was focused on the particular question of Indian Residential Schools funded by the federal government between the 1880s and the 1990s.  The church-run schools that preceded the federal system were excluded, as were the church, province, or First Nation administered schools, including many of those that Metis children attended.  For all the specificity of this focus, the TRC became a vehicle for a wider, more critical discussion of the past and the present of Canadian colonialism, and the multiple ways it has cost Indigenous people and shaped Canada.

The TRC was in no small way a reckoning with Canadian history, and it makes sense that the work of history and historians played an important role in its work.  A quick review of the Final Report’s bibliography makes this clear:  there are historians from Arthur Ray, Winona Stevenson/Wheeler, George Stanley, Sarah Carter, Mary-Ellen Kelm, Cornelius Jaenen, James Daschuk, Jean Friesen, along with the names of historians who have written what are generally considered the standard, monograph length studies on the history of residential schools, J.R. Miller and John Milloy.

The TRC’s Final Report concludes with ninety-six calls to action designed to “redress the legacy of residential schools and advance the process of Canadian reconciliation.”[3]  Read at their most literal level, many of these concern the practice of historical scholarship and its production and application in classrooms, archives, and meetings rooms.  Read broadly, the Calls to Action that concern education (6-12) and Language and Culture (13-17) speak to the practices of working historians in Canada.  Call to Action 45 calls on Canada to jointly develop with Indigenous peoples a Royal Proclamation of Reconciliation that would build on the Royal Proclamation of 1764 and the Treaty of Niagara of 1764.   Call to Action 57 calls on federal, provincial, territorial and municipal governments to educate public servants on “the history of Aboriginal peoples, including the history and legacy of residential schools, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Treaties and Aboriginal rights, Indigenous law, and Aboriginal-Crown relations.”  Calls to Action 62 and 63 calls on governments to create curriculum and the capacity to integrate it in classrooms.

Calls to Action 67 through 70 concern Museums and Archives, calling on the federal government to fund a national review of museum policies (67), establish a funding program for “commemorative projects on the theme of reconciliation” (68) and that Library and Archives Canada adopt and implement the documents, including the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, or UNDRIP which assert Indigenous peoples’ “inalienable right to know the truth about what happened and why, with regard to human rights violations committed against them in the residential schools,”[4] ensure that its holdings related to residential schools are accessible to the public, and commit more resources to public education materials on residential schools.  Call to Action 70 calls on the federal government to fund the Canadian Association of Archivists to work with Indigenous peoples to produce a national review of archival policies and a plan to implement international mechanisms as “reconciliation framework for Canadian archives.”[5]  Calls to Action 71 through 76 address the need for more records and more cooperation to document the children who died at residential school.

Calls to Actions 77 and 78 concern the establishment of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation.  Calls to Action 79 through 83 concern Commemoration, calling on the federal government to amend the Historic Sites and Monuments Act and to revisit the National Program of Historical Commemoration with an eye to integrating “Indigenous history, heritage values, and memory practices into Canada’s national heritage and history,”[6] develop a national heritage plan for commemorating residential schooling, and to establish a statutory holiday and monuments to Residential schools in capital cities.

Four years have passed since these Calls to Action were first issued.  Historian Ian Mosby’s regular accounting makes clear that concrete action on the calls remains overwhelmingly incomplete or partial.[7] The calls to action have produced valuable institutional responses form some (though far from all) post-secondary institutions, units, and scholarly and professional organizations have engaged in a range of formal and informal responses to the TRC.  These include the Canadian Federation of Library Association/Fédération canadienne des associations de bibliothèques’s very substantial “Truth and Reconciliation Report and Recommendations,” the University of Regina’s Faculty of Arts Statement and Report on Indigenizing and the TRC’s Calls to Action.[8]

In the summer of 2017, the Canadian Historical Association/ Societé historique du Canadas struck a TRC response working group.  Made up of Jo-Anne McCutcheon, Sarah Nickel, Adele Perry, and Alison Norman and steered by CHA/SHC Executive Director Michel Duquet, this working group has taken on a number of projects, including funding TRC related projects.[9]  Inspired by the “Indigenous Content Syllabus Materials: A Resource for Political Science Instructors in Canada” released by  Canadian Political Science Association’s Reconciliation Committee in September 2018,[10] the CHA/SHC’s TRC Response Committee decided that an appropriate next step would be to craft this document: A Syllabus for History After the TRC.

The goal of this syllabus is to gather together materials on Indigenous history in and around Canada that might be useful for people teaching, researching, writing history or working in public history.   Throughout the syllabus, we seek to centre and highlight Indigenous scholarship, writing, and cultural production.  As much as historical scholarship and research played in the TRC, it is also true that as discipline and a profession, history in Canada – and elsewhere in the settler colonial world – has had an at best uneven, and at worse decidedly negative relationship to Indigenous history as a subject and to Indigenous scholars as practitioners.[11]  In recent months, important parts of this issue has been raised by historian Allan Downey, and the CHA as an organization has and will continue to respond to these conversations, which are past due.

How does the TRC, and the questions that informed it and the ones that have been raised in the wake of its completion, prompt us to think differently about the work we do in classrooms, archives, museums, and meeting rooms?  How have historians contributed to these conversations, and what needs to be done for us to produce books, articles, and syllabi that speak in more ethical, rigorous, and engaged ways to the questions raised by the TRC and by Indigenous Studies scholarship. As we complete this stage of the syllabus, the National Inquiry on Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women/ l’Enquête nationale sur les femmes et les filles autochtones disparues et assassinées issued its final report, and how does this change our readings of Canada and its histories?

[1] Mary Jane Logan McCallum, “Forward,” John S. Milloy, A National Crime: The Canadian Government and the Residential School, 2nd edition (Winnipeg, University of Manitoba Press, 2017)
[2] See Krista McCracken, “The Role of Canada’s Museums and Archives in Reconciliation,” Active History, 15 June 2015.
[3] Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Calls to Action (Winnipeg, TRC, 2015) 2.
[4] TRC, Calls to Action, 8.
[5] TRC, Calls to Action, 8.
[6] TRC, Calls to Action, 9.
[7] See “Curious about how many of the TRC’s calls to actions have been completed?? Check Ian Mosby’s Twitter,” 20 October 2017, https://www.cbc.ca/radio/unreserved/how-are-you-putting-reconciliation-into-action-1.4362219/curious-about-how-many-of-the-trc-s-calls-to-actions-have-been-completed-check-ian-mosby-s-twitter-1.4364330, accessed 18 December 2018.
[8] Camille Callison, “Truth and Reconciliation Report and Recommendations,” (Ottawa, CFLA-FCAB, 2016); University of Regina’s Faculty of Arts “Statement and Report on Indigenizing and the TRC’s Calls to Action,” June 2018, found at https://www.uregina.ca/arts/assets/docs/pdf/Arts_Indigenization_Report-Final%202018.pdf
[9] For more, see Sarah Nickel and Jo McCutcheon, “The TRC and the CHA,” Intersections, 1:1 (2018) 20-22.
[10] https://www.cpsa-acsp.ca/documents/committees/Indigenous%20Content%20Syllabus%20Materials%20Sept%2024%202018[27].pdf
[11] See, for a discussion and response, the special issue on “Indigenous Historical Perspectives,” with an introduction by Dimitry Anastakis, Mary-Ellen Kelm, and Suzanne Morton, and essays by Brenda Macdougall, Leanne Leddy, Mary Jane Logan McCallum, and John Borrows, Canadian Historical Review, 98:1 (March 2017), 60-135.  Also see Adele Perry, Adele Perry, « “Word from the President: Reading the Royal Historical Society’s 2018 Report,” Intersections, July 2019 1-4.

Canada has changed tremendously in the past 150 years. Families moved in large numbers from the country to cities; the economy and military became more integrated and entangled with global trends; immigrants changed the social and cultural makeup of communities; and ordinary people staked more radical claims for equality and opportunity. In short, the lives of our forebears would be hardly recognizable—or would they? We will learn what life was like for the powerful and the poor, how individuals and communities faced, resisted, and harnessed global forces, and try to understand the people of Canada’s past. Throughout this course, we will explore how Canada has changed and how it has remained surprisingly similar. Above all, we will consider the meaning and progress of equality for Canadians of many walks of life.

This is a full year, first-year level survey of World History from the 4th century CE to the present. Course description:  This course examines the growth of global connections over the last sixteen hundred years, from about 400 CE to the present. We will begin by looking at how people, ideas, and things travelled over vast distances throughout the Pacific, American, Mediterranean, African and Eurasians worlds, stimulating commodity trades, religious innovation, and the intermingling of populations. This increase in traffic supported many far-flung empires, including those in Scandinavia, West Africa, the Middle East, Central America, and northern Asia. The first semester of the course will be devoted to tracing connections and analyzing the hybrid political and cultural formations that were engendered as people promoted, resisted, and negotiated their way through growing translocal networks. The second half of the course will be focused on the last three hundred years, the so-called modern era. We will discuss the systems and effects of the past few centuries of globalization in terms of mass migrations, industrialization, environmental change, global communications infrastructure, universalist ideas, the international system, multinational corporations, consumer culture, world war, and transnational activism. In addition to learning the content of global history, students will also develop the skills necessary to write history: identifying the difference between primary and secondary sources, analyzing and interpreting evidence, engaging in research, crafting historical arguments, and evaluating historical claims in today’s popular culture.

This is the 2nd half of a first-year survey on World History. This half uses Donald Wright’s book The World and a Very Small Place in Africa as its main textbook.  Course description: The Winter term will continue to expose students to historically informed, critical analyses that frame contemporary discussions about globalization but we’ll do so by focusing on three interrelated lines of inquiry:
·      How have relationships between the “local” and the “global” changed over time and why is this important? Who and what are local and who and what are global?
·      What can the histories of hybridity and appropriation tell us about world history?
·      How can we study the relationship between globalization and power inequality and how it has changed over time? Why should we?
We’ll be examining historical case studies from about 1250 CE to the present.  These will include discussions about the Mongol Empire, the Indian Ocean World, the histories of various global commodity chains, European empires in the nineteenth century, the rise of fascism as an anti-globalization stance, transnationalism, transnational resistance movements, and the digital revolution.

This is a third year course in European imperial/colonial histories. Course description: “Globalization” and “imperialism” are both terms fraught with ambiguity and overuse.  Some, believing in visions of inevitable progress, argue that as populations have grown and technologies have become more sophisticated, the world has naturally become more “globalized” or more integrated in political, social, economic, and even cultural ways.  Others argue that this interconnectivity has come about not because of natural growth but through projects designed to exploit peoples around the world.  They read the term “globalization” as a kinder, gentler way of describing Western imperialism in its present day incarnation. By examining various empires in world history and with particular emphasis on modern European imperialism, this course will explore the relationship between empire and globalization. Four themes will be: difference; intermediaries; resistance; the global. Specific content to be discussed will include: mercantilism, the Atlantic slave trade, science and medicine, time, religion and civilizing missions, the colonial archive, racialized and gendered categories of difference, reproduction and sexuality, métissage, technology, bureaucracy, nationalism and citizenship, decolonization, Commonwealth, postcoloniality, and indigenous resistance movements.