Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

An examination of selected topics in Canadian history. The content will vary from offering to offering. See department for further information. HIST 330W may be repeated for credit only when a different topic is taught. Students may not take selected topics within HIST 330W for further credit if duplicating content of another history course and vice versa. Writing.

COURSE DETAILS:

Canada, often seen as a land of wilderness, mobility, and “wide open spaces,” was and continues to be a site of forced displacements, resettlements, and relocations of peoples. From the deportation of the Acadians in the 18th century up to present-day gentrification, people in Canada—as one historian recently noted—have been “on the move.” This is putting it mildly: more often than we care to admit, displacements of peoples in the Canadian past were born out of immense colonial, genocidal, and wartime violence.  

What accounts for these controversial moments in Canada’s past? In this course, we will trace the histories of displacements and resettlements. We will engage with theory, scholarly accounts, original source material such as oral histories and documents, public history (including several visits to museums, archives, and walking tours) and material culture to help us better understand why displacements happened. We will also consider how ordinary people experienced and responded to them, and, with an eye to the future, what lessons might be drawn from these histories for how we might respond to displacements today. Examples of topics:  the Indian Act and the creation/formalization of reserves; internment policies during World War Two; racialized resettlements in Africville (NS), and Hogan’s Alley; the displacement of sex-workers in the West End; and rural resettlements, suburbanization, and deindustrialization during the Cold War and beyond. For much of the course, you can choose the topic(s). Canada, often seen as a land of wilderness, mobility, and “wide open spaces,” was and continues to be a site of forced displacements, resettlements, and relocations of peoples. From the deportation of the Acadians in the 18th century up to present-day gentrification, people in Canada—as one historian recently noted—have been “on the move.” This is putting it mildly: more often than we care to admit, displacements of peoples in the Canadian past were born out of immense colonial, genocidal, and wartime violence.   What accounts for these controversial moments in Canada’s past? In this course, we will trace the histories of displacements and resettlements. We will engage with theory, scholarly accounts, original source material such as oral histories and documents, public history (including several visits to museums, archives, and walking tours) and material culture to help us better understand why displacements happened. We will also consider how ordinary people experienced and responded to them, and, with an eye to the future, what lessons might be drawn from these histories for how we might respond to displacements today. Examples of topics:  the Indian Act and the creation/formalization of reserves; internment policies during World War Two; racialized resettlements in Africville (NS), and Hogan’s Alley; the displacement of sex-workers in the West End; and rural resettlements, suburbanization, and deindustrialization during the Cold War and beyond. For much of the course, you can choose the topic(s). 

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING: