Canadian Studies Courses for 2022-2023
Canadian Studies may be completed as a Minor or Major Please see the 2022-2023 Undergraduate e-Calendar for information about program requirements.
For any general questions, please contact David Roseman at david.roseman [at] mcgill.ca
PLEASE NOTE the opportunity for community-engaged learning internships in well-known Montreal organizations as part of the seminar CANS413/QCST440. This seminar is open to all McGill students.
Please also note that the course syllabi posted here are for reference purpose only. Official course syllabi will not be posted until start of classes.
Winter 2023
CANS 301 Topics in Canadian Studies 2 (CRN 1441) Instructor: Instructor: Dr. Jodey Nurse Topic: Leadership in Canada Who are Canada’s leaders? What is the source and legitimacy of their power? What is the relationship between those who lead and those who follow (or resist following)? In this course you will investigate the notoriously slippery subject of leadership and analyze the topic as it relates to both individuals and groups in Canada’s past and present. Central elements of investigation will include the social, cultural, political, and economic sources of power that have legitimized different methods of leadership and types of leaders; the relational, structural, and systemic forms of power that exist in these relations; and the existence of arenas for contestation and collaboration. Case studies of leadership during times of crisis, including during the COVID-19 pandemic, will also be used to highlight how leadership has been practiced and the resulting outcomes.
CANS 311 Topics in Cdn Public Affairs 1 (CRN 1443) Instructor: Prof. Andrew Potter Topic: Canada in Afghanistan The takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban in the fall of 2021, shortly after the American exit from the country, shocked the world and raised serious questions about what the West had to show for the twenty year long war it fought there. While most of the attention has focused on the American leadership and NATO’s performance, Canada's own effort in Afghanistan demands scrutiny. Canada’s mission in Afghanistan between 2001 and 2014 began as part of our response to 9/11 and the “global war on terror,” and became the site of the longest combat mission in our history and our most ambitious foreign adventure since the Second World War. This course will examine the various facets of this mission, including the combat deployment, nation-building, and humanitarian aspects of the mission itself; the place of the deployment in our relationship with our allies; the domestic politics of the mission (with special focus on the so-called “detainees scandal”); and finally, what our Afghan adventure says about our place in the world and what lessons we can apply from this to the current war in Ukraine.
CANS 312 Topics in Cdn Public Affairs 2 (CRN 6965) Instructor: Dr. Jodey Nurse Topic: Values and Public Affairs What are Canada’s core values? How are these values reflected in our society? In what ways are these values taught and communicated? These are just some of the questions you will encounter in CANS 312. In this course, you will investigate a variety of Canadian public affairs topics to examine what they reveal about Canadian values. This will include analyses of Canadian political institutions, policies, media, corporations, non-profits, community groups, and citizens. You will explore what Canadians purport to value in their society, how those values are reflected in public and private institutions and organizations (or not), and how values are taught and communicated more generally. You will also examine how sets of values or attitudes in Canada have changed over time and the resulting effect. These topics will be discussed in lectures and group discussions and addressed through persuasive writing and research assignments that allow you to develop your knowledge, critical thinking, and writing and communication skills.
michael_orsinican401.pdf
CANS 406 Canadian Studies Seminar 6(CRN 1445) poli_427_mcgill_social_policy_course_outline_fall_2021.pdf
cans_420_course_syllabus.pdfThis course explores key aspects of public affairs in Canada. Public affairs combines community-stakeholder-public engagement with policy analysis, and through this course you will be introduced to various stakeholders and organizations and learn about how they forge relationships with the public and work to influence, analyze, or communicate governmental and nongovernmental actions and decisions. As Canadian society has shifted, so too has public affairs practice, and therefore you will also learn about how public affairs as a field has evolved over time. This is a seminar course that encourages collaborative exchanges and a shared learning environment. Numerous guest lecturers have been invited to speak to the class about their experiences in public affairs in Canada or about their related research. This course offers a remarkable opportunity for you to engage with these professionals and researchers to better understand how public affairs practitioners engage stakeholders, explain policies, and assist policy makers.
Fall 2022
CANS 200 Understanding Canada(CRN 1557) Instructor: Dr. Jodey Nurse cans_200_syllabus.pdf
What is Canada? Canadians have not always agreed on what Canada is: what its national symbols should be; where its borders are; what stories its history should include; what central values it promotes. Indeed, what Canada represents is not a stable idea, but is instead a debated concept wielded by various actors in the past and the present to legitimize divergent agendas or beliefs. In this course, we will explore these different ideas about Canada by examining the evolution of some of the country’s key cultural, economic, social and political institutions and interrogating many important and defining topics such as colonialism, liberalism, nationalism, identity, multiculturalism, race, the welfare state, trade, human rights, gender equity, public health, foreign affairs, climate change, and reconciliation. Throughout this investigation, we question what stories we tell about Canada and why, while also exploring the voices and experiences that have commonly been silenced. The assignments for this course are specifically created to allow for a strong overview of these important subjects, but also to encourage you to focus on more specific topics or institutions for which you have a particular interest. Throughout the course, you will develop important interchangeable skills such as critical thinking and persuasive writing abilities in an inclusive and collaborative environment and gain a greater understanding of Canada.
CANS 300 Topics in Canadian Studies 1 (CRN 1565) Instructor: Dr. Jodey Nurse Topic: Canada and Food: Connecting Food, Society, and the State cans_300_syllabus.pdf
In this course you will learn about Canada through the lens of food. In Canada, as with elsewhere in the world, our food choices are informed by cultural, religious, social, environmental, health, economic, and political contexts. When thinking about our contemporary food systems, customs, and practices in Canada, we need to understand the mediating forces at play, from state policies and material conditions to cultural politics and the media. Today, discussions of food security, sustainability, and sovereignty are increasingly important, and recent crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, rising inflation, and Russia’s war in Ukraine, have affected the production and distribution of foodstuff and stimulated important conversations about our food supply chains and the related systems that influence the stability of our food sources.
This course offers you an interdisciplinary approach to better understand how Canadians’ food choices (past and present) have shaped the nation, but also how those choices have been shaped by the state and other actors. Important themes will include the connection between food and colonialism, capitalism, industry, labour, identity, regulation, protest, war, modernity, health, and the environment. By the end of the course, you will have: learned to participate effectively in group discussions; critically analyzed key scholarship in the field; developed your research and writing skills; increased your knowledge of contemporary food debates; and improved your understanding of how food has shaped individuals, communities, and the nation.
CANS 306 Topics in Indigenous Pub Affrs (CRN 1566) Instructor Christopher Reid
CANS 315 Indigenous Art and Culture(CRN 1567) arth_315_final_syllabus.pdf
CANS 402 Canadian Studies Seminar 2(CRN 1568) Topic for fall 2022: Canadian Criminal Justice Policy Visiting Professor: Dr. Kate Puddistercans402_fall_2022_puddister.pdf In spring 2020, thousands of people across Canada marched in the streets to protest the powers of the police and the disproportionate killings of Black and Indigenous peoples, and other people of colour, leading to calls for police reform and defunding. Beyond the coronavirus pandemic, communities across Canada are in the grips of an opioid overdose crisis, a pandemic that has resulted in the deaths of over 19,000 Canadians since 2016, prompting calls for drug policy reform and decriminalization. Criminal justice policy addresses fundamental questions about the powers of the state, the protection of the vulnerable, legitimacy, morality, and conceptions of justice. This course analyzes criminal justice policy and governance of the justice system from applied and theoretical perspectives. Particular attention is paid to the interplay between criminal justice policy and the larger political process. Key questions in the course include: how political science theories help to explain policy developments in criminal justice; why independence and accountability are particularly important in the criminal justice system; how does “politics” enter decision-making and is this appropriate? This course will discuss the larger, normative debates surrounding criminal justice policy and the policy processitself. Students will explore the criminal justice policy process from the perspective of each of the primary actors and will consider how other jurisdictions address similar policy problems and issues.
course_outline_cans_415_fall_2021final.pdf
**Note: CANS 408, 480, 481, 492D1, 492D2, 499 - students must find their own supervisor for these courses. For any questions, please contact David Roseman at david.roseman [at] mcgill.ca.
