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.
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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%).
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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]
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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:
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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?
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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.
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