Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Variable units 3, 4, 5.

COURSE DETAILS:

This is a 5-unit course.

Indigenous Graphic Novels & Storytelling in the Curriculum

Indigenous graphic novels combine text and visual art and provide a platform to document experiences while envisioning future Indigenous identities. In recent years, the number of Indigenous graphic novels written by Indigenous authors has grown rapidly as way to speak back to settler colonial misrepresentations of Indigenous identities, issues and cultures, leading some scholars to refer to this this literary style as being a vehicle for Indigenous self-determination and sovereignty (Sinclair, 2013). For educators who are interested in utilizing Indigenous graphic novels in the classroom, this literary genre can provide useful tools to foster complex and structural understandings of settler colonialism, power, racism, decolonization, and Indigeneity while simultaneously building students’ critical thinking and interpretive skills. Along with the graphic novels listed below, we will also read zines, watch films, witness community murals, review video games, and read a selection of secondary readings that discuss graphic novels, adaptations, Indigenous storytelling traditions and popular cultural representations.  

This course will critically explore theoretical, cultural, educational, and political dynamics underwriting the history and future of this literary style. The course will be comprised of a combination of lectures, guest speakers, in-class demonstrations, community visits, group discussions and projects. This course will be taught from a wholistic and critically informed Indigenous perspective.

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

·      Briefly examine the history of Eurocentric misrepresentations of Indigenous peoples and cultures in graphic novels and popular culture.
·      Develop critical resource assessment skills in choosing appropriate Indigenous graphic novels for the classroom. ·      Investigate and the connections between Indigenous storytelling/oral traditions and graphic novels as a medium for Indigenous knowledge transmission and pedagogy.
·      Identify, discuss and write about theoretical themes in the novels that are connected to: self-determination, sovereignty, Indigenous language revitalization, decolonization, racism and Indigenous identities.
·      Gain skills and experience in searching, interpreting, summarizing, synthesizing and analyzing theoretical literature.
·      Provide students with the skills and time to create their own graphic story/journal and develop visual literacy skills.
·      Examine pedagogical practices for using Indigenous graphic novels, zines and Indigenous new media in the classroom.
·      Provide opportunities for students to bridge theory and practice by designing a theoretically informed curriculum design for an Indigenous graphic novel to be used in classrooms, schools, and/or community learning contexts.

Grading

Materials

MATERIALS + SUPPLIES:

Students will need to purchase a sketch book from Amy on our first day of class for $4.00.

REQUIRED READING: