CANADIAN STUDIES 4000 What is Canada? Debating Canada’s Past and Future Dalhousie University Fall Semester 2011 LSC Common Area room C208 Tuesdays & Thursdays, 10:00-11:30 Instructor: Jerry Bannister Office: 3170 McCain FASS building Phone: 494-1541 Email: [email protected] Office Hours: Fridays, 1:00-3:00, or by appointment Format: Two seminars per week Description: This course explores current debates over the meanings of Canada. The past decade has witnessed a remarkable wave of scholarly and popular interest in reconsidering the question of ―what is Canada.‖ We will read and discuss a series of recent studies that provide strikingly different perspectives of Canada’s past, present, and future. These studies offer five distinct frameworks for understanding Canada – based on geography, politics, culture, values, and ideology – and traverse a fascinating range of popular and scholarly opinion. We will spend the first part of the course discussing each of these frameworks and debating their merits. Students will be asked to write a review of the first book in our seminar discussions, Michael Adams’s Fire and Ice. Students will then be given the opportunity to write a full-length essay that offers their own perspective on the question of how we should understand Canada. In addition to participating in weekly seminar discussions, students will present a draft of their research paper in class. A revised version of the paper will be submitted at the end of term. -1- Required Readings 1) Michael Adams: Fire and Ice: The United States, Canada, and the Myth of Converging Values (2009). 2) Cole Harris, The Reluctant Land: Society, Space, and Environment before Confederation (2008). 3) Janet Ajzenstat, The Canadian Founding: John Locke and Parliament (2007). 4) John Ralston Saul, A Fair Country: Telling Truths about Canada (2008). 5) Jean-Francois Constant and Michel Ducharme, eds., Liberalism and Hegemony: Debating the Canadian Liberal Revolution (2009). All five textbooks are available in paperback for purchase at the University Bookstore. These books comprise all of the required reading for the course – there is no separate course-pack or readings placed on reserve – and they will be used for the written assignments as well as the class discussions. Course Evaluation Book Review: Class Grade: First Presentation Draft Essay Presentation Peer Review Class Participation Final Research Paper: 20% (due October 14th) 5% 5% 10% (written version due one week after presentation) 20% (assigned at the end of term) 40% (due December 9th) As a seminar, this course is based on class discussions rather than lectures. There will be no test or final exam. Regular attendance is essential for the successful completion of this course. If you have to miss a class due to illness or an emergency, please contact the instructor. For the seminar to function properly, students must complete the required readings and be willing to participate in class discussions. The class participation grade will comprise a variety of elements (attendance, participation in discussions of weekly readings, comments on other students’ papers, and participation in general seminar discussions), and will be assigned at the end of term. Late papers will be penalized five marks per day (5%). -2- Course Schedule Week 1 Sept 8 Course Introduction Discussion of course themes & syllabus Week 2 Sept 13 Sept 15 Values: Sex in the Snow ―I am Canadian‖? Canadian Dreams and American Nightmares Reading: Adams, chs. 1-2 Week 3 Sept 20 Values: Canada as an “Unlikely Utopia”? Measuring and Mapping Canadian Values Reading: Adams, chs., 3-5 Promoting Nationalism and Selecting Memory Reading: Adams, chs., 6 & appendices Sept 22 Week 4 Sept 27 Sept 29 Week 5 Oct 4 Oct 6 Week 6 Oct 11 Oct 13 Week 7 Oct 18 Oct 20 Week 8 Oct 25 Oct 27 Geography: History and the Natural Environment The Power of the Land Reading: Harris, chs. 1-2 The Role of Regionalism Reading: Harris, chs. 3-6 Geography: Canada as a “Reluctant Land”? Demography and Economic Development Reading: Harris, chs. 6-9 Confederation and ―the Pattern of Canada‖ Reading: Harris, chs. 10-12 Politics: 1867 and all that In Search of a Founding Moment Reading: Ajzenstat, chs. 1-3 No Class Book Review of Adams due by 4:00 October 14th Politics: Canada as an Enlightened Dominion? Liberalism and Nation-Building Reading: Ajzenstat, chs. 4-7 Democracy and its Discontents Reading: Ajzenstat, chs. 8-10 Culture: Canada as a “Métis Nation”? Debunking Eurocentric Myths (and creating new ones?) Reading: Saul, part 1 Peace, Fairness, and Good Government Reading: Saul, part 2 -3- Week 9 Nov 1 Nov 3 Week 10 Nov 8 Nov 10 Week 11 Nov 15 Nov 17 Culture: Frameworks and Framers The Uses and Abuses of Anti-Elitism Reading: Saul, parts 3-4 Liberalism and Nation-Building (the prequel) Reading: Ducharme & Constant, chs. 1-3, 5 Ideology: Hopes and Fears The Uses and Abuses of Social Theory Reading: Ducharme & Constant, chs. 6, 9-11 No Class Ideology: Canada as a “Long Liberal Revolution”? ―After Canada‖ and Anti-Nationalism Reading: Ducharme & Constant, ch. 13 Discussion of Student Paper Projects Weeks 12-14 Presentations and Discussions of Draft Research Essays* Nov 22-Dec 6 Paper Presentations and Peer Reviews *Schedule of student paper presentations and peer reviews will be drafted during the semester and circulated in class. All Final Research Essays due by 4:00 on Friday, December 9th First Seminar Presentation In addition to participating in our weekly seminar discussions, each student will make a formal in-class presentation based on one of the chapters from Cole Harris’s book, The Reluctant Land. Each student will speak to the seminar for 5-10 minutes at the beginning of the class that covers the chapter she/he has selected. Your job is to summarize the chapter and explain to the class the principal points Harris is trying to make. No written report is required, but the oral presentation is worth 5% of your final grade. Book Review The first written assignment is a review of Michael Adams’s book Fire and Ice: The United States, Canada and the Myth of Converging Values. Please ensure that you use the updated 2009 edition of the book, which has a new preface. Your job is to summarize the book and offer a critical analysis. To do so, you will need to explain Adams’s methodology and place the book in its larger context. -4- In preparing your critical analysis, ask yourself a series of questions. What kind of evidence does Adams rely on, and is it sufficient to prove his thesis? Does it have a bias or rely on faulty reasoning? How does Adams employ quantitative analysis, public opinion surveys, and social values mapping techniques? In tackling these questions, you are welcome to consult related online material, but the bulk of your essay must be devoted specifically to Adams’s book. Two web sites in particular may help you to place his work in its larger context: http://www.michaeladams.ca/ and http://www.environics.ca/. The conclusion of your book review is entirely up to you — your review might be positive, negative, or a mix of both — but you must summarize Adams’s analysis and offer a clear judgment on whether you think his argument is persuasive. The book review essay should be 2,000-2,500 words in length (8-10 pages). It must be written in the proper essay forma, with a title page, a typed and double-spaced text, an introduction and conclusion, and full references and a bibliography. The introduction should indicate your overall assessment of the book and outline how you plan to organize your analysis. The paper must be placed in my FASS drop-box (number 71), by 4:00 on Friday, October 14th. Presentation of the Draft Research Essay For the research essay, students will have the opportunity to offer their own answer to the core question of the course: what is Canada? Your research essay should make the case for an interpretive framework for understanding Canada. You may choose to endorse one of the frameworks covered in the course, or you may decide to develop your own hybrid framework that draws on selected aspects of a variety of scholarship. You are encouraged to research more broadly in the secondary literature and primary sources, depending on the fields relevant to your thesis. Students must present a draft of their research paper to the seminar. Students are expected to email me their draft papers one week before their scheduled presentation date so that they can be forwarded to everyone in the seminar. Papers should be in MS-Word or some other accessible electronic format. It is essential that the drafts be submitted in sufficient time for everyone to read the papers and for the assigned students to prepare their peer reviews. Students are expected to give a 5-10 minute presentation at the beginning of the seminar. The schedule of presenters and reviewers will be drafted during the semester. Every paper will be given an evaluation, which will be made available the following week. No grades will be assigned for the draft presentation, but the assessment will provide a clear indication of the weaknesses and strengths of each paper, as well as suggestions for revision. Students are expected to revise their papers significantly after their presentation, and they are strongly advised to meet individually with the instructor at least once to discuss the revisions. -5- Peer Review Each student must prepare and present an assessment of another student’s draft research paper. Students must write a brief 2-3 page critique that assesses the entire paper. The peer review should consider a range of criteria: writing style, organization, methodology, argumentation, evidence, and use of primary sources. Students will be expected to take roughly 5 minutes to present their critiques during the seminar and to participate in the subsequent class discussion. Please note: this is an exercise in constructive criticism, and I expect the tone and conduct of the discussions to be positive and friendly. The purpose of the critiques is to help each other write a better paper. Each student will be given the opportunity to respond to the critique during the seminar discussion. A written copy of the critique must be submitted to the course instructor after the seminar; it will be graded and handed back the following week. The peer review will comprise 10% of the final grade. Research Essay The main essay assignment will be a research paper of no less than 3,000 words in length, focusing on the course’s core question: what is Canada? How you approach this question is up to you. You may decide to make a case for one of the interpretive frameworks covered during the term; you may decide to combine selected aspects of several frameworks; or you may decide to do something completely different. The choice is yours, but you should develop your research project in consultation with the course instructor. Research essays should be between 12 and 20 typewritten pages (3,000-5,000 words). The essay must be typed on regular white paper, stapled together; it must have a proper title page; it should use standard margins and fonts; the text must be double spaced; and all pages must be numbered. All papers must have a clearly-defined thesis presented in the introduction and developed in the body of the essay. Students must ensure that their essays have sufficient references in the proper format, using footnotes, endnotes, or some other approved method. References must be inserted whenever a direct quotation is used and whenever the paper cites specific information drawn from a source. Essays must have an introduction, a clear argument, a conclusion, and a formal bibliography. All papers must be based on a range of scholarly sources, which must be listed in the bibliography. Assignments must be proofread, clearly organized, and written at a senior university level. The criteria for the research essay will be discussed thoroughly in class. Students are strongly urged to discuss their research project with the instructor early in the semester. Plagiarism will be dealt with according to the university regulations. As a student in this class, you are required to keep an electronic copy of any assignment you submit, and the course instructor may require you to submit that electronic copy on demand. All final research essays are due by 4:00, December 9th. All assignments must be either handed to the instructor in person or placed in my drop-box (number 71), in the McCain FASS building. Do not push papers under the instructor’s door. Please note that the History Department’s main office does not accept student papers. -6- Late papers will be penalized five marks per day (5%). Extensions will be given only for documented medical or personal emergencies. Academic Integrity At Dalhousie University, we respect the values of academic integrity: honesty, trust, fairness, responsibility and respect. As a student, adherence to the values of academic integrity and related policies is a requirement of being part of the academic community at Dalhousie University. Academic integrity means being honest in the fulfillment of your academic responsibilities thus establishing mutual trust. Fairness is essential to the interactions of the academic community and is achieved through respect for the opinions and ideas of others. ―Violations of intellectual honesty are offensive to the entire academic community, not just to the individual faculty member and students in whose class an offence occurs.‖ [Intellectual Honesty section of University Calendar] How can you achieve academic integrity? make sure you understand Dalhousie’s policies on academic integrity give appropriate credit to the sources used in your assignment such as written or oral work, computer codes/programs, artistic or architectural works, scientific projects, performances, web page designs, graphical representations, diagrams, videos, and images Use RefWorks to keep track of your research and edit and format bibliographies in the citation style required by the instructor http://www.library.dal.ca/How/RefWorks do not download the work of another from the Internet and submit it as your own do not submit work that has been completed through collaboration or previously submitted for another assignment without permission from your instructor do not write an examination or test for someone else do not falsify data or lab results [these examples should be considered only as a guide and not an exhaustive list] -7- What will happen if an allegation of an academic offence is made against you? I am required to report a suspected offence. The full process is outlined in the Discipline flow chart and includes the following: Each Faculty has an Academic Integrity Officer (AIO) who receives allegations from instructors The AIO decides whether to proceed with the allegation and you will be notified of the process If the case proceeds, you will receive an INC (incomplete) grade until the matter is resolved If you are found guilty of an academic offence, a penalty will be assigned ranging from a warning to a suspension or expulsion from the University and can include a notation on your transcript, failure of the assignment or failure of the course. All penalties are academic in nature. Where can you turn for help? If you are ever unsure about ANYTHING, contact the course instructor Academic Integrity website o Links to policies, definitions, online tutorials, tips on citing and paraphrasing Writing Center o Assistance with proofreading, writing styles, citations Dalhousie Libraries o Workshops, online tutorials, citation guides, Assignment Calculator, RefWorks Dalhousie Student Advocacy Service o Assists students with academic appeals and student discipline procedures. Senate Office o List of Academic Integrity Officers, discipline flow chart, Senate Discipline Committee Statement on Accommodation Students may request accommodation as a result of barriers related to disability, religious obligation, or any characteristic under the Nova Scotia Human Rights Act. Students who require academic accommodation for either classroom participation or the writing of tests and exams should make their request to the Office of Student Accessibility & Accommodation (OSAA) prior to or at the outset of each academic term (with the exception of X/Y courses). Please see www.studentaccessibility.dal.ca for more information and to obtain the Request for Accommodation – Form A. A note taker may be required to assist a classmate. There is an honorarium of $75/course/term. If you are interested, please contact OSAA at 494-2836 for more information. Please note that your classroom may contain specialized accessible furniture and equipment. It is important that these items remain in the classroom so that students who require their usage will be able to participate in the class. -8-
© Copyright 2024