Graduate Course Listing

This required course is intended to introduce students to a fundamental principle which underlies the Frost Centre MA: that all students critically engage with the fields of Indigenous Studies and Canadian Studies. It will also create a context for developing of the thesis/MRP proposal for MA students and build a strong scholarly and collegial community among MA students.

This course will cover two related themes: an overview of the theory and practice of selected research methodologies; and the ethical considerations of research within Canadian Studies and Indigenous Studies and Sustainability Studies.

Cross-listed: SUST-5002H

Indigenous scholars have become an important aspect of the intellectual landscape in Native Studies and a few other disciplines. Over the last few decades, Indigenous scholarly writing has emerged in a number of fields: politics, social theory, philosophy, history. This required course examines this emerging literature.

Cross-listed: INDG-6603H

This course explores the evolution of Indigenous settler relations in Canada, tracing how they are shaped by economic, social, cultural, religious, political and military factors, and how they differ across regions and First Nations. Themes include comparative imperial policies; treaties, land and space; law and Aboriginal-settler relations; education; religion; the state and policy development; political organization and resistance; gender, familial and sexual relations. Not open to students with credit for INDG 4801H.

Cross-listed: CAST-6171H, SUST-5171H, HIST-5171H

This course will critically explore selected theoretical, empirical, and creative constructions, contestations and celebrations of Canadian culture(s). Course content ranges from the national to the local, examining cultural communities and identities, intellectual traditions, cultural policies, museums and galleries, and cultural expression in film, theatre and literature.

Cross-listed: CAST-6102H, ENGL-5306H

This course explores historical and contemporary perspectives on the Canadian North, focusing on aspects of how Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples experience and frame the region. It critically examines how environmental, economic, social, cultural, political, legal, and military factors have (re)shaped the region. Themes include Indigenous and Euro-Canadian concepts of North; the frontier/homeland dichotomy; legal systems; sovereignty and security issues; colonialism and state control; land claims and co-management; climate change; and Canada's Northern strategies.

Cross-listed: CAST-6210H

This course explores the political economy tradition in Canada, and specifically the complex relationship between the state, economy, society, politics, and culture. The course content will provide essential grounding in the approaches, methods, and themes that have been critical to the ongoing development of this Canadian tradition.

Cross-listed: CAST-6301H, HIST-5301H

Through this course, students will engage in Community-Based Research in partnership with community agencies, under the direction of Faculty and with the assistance of the Trent Community Research Centre. Students will undertake a research project in response to community-identified priorities, applying community-based models to address challenges or opportunities with action-oriented results with the Canadian context. In partnering with a community organization, students will also develop project management skills required to successfully navigate a collaborative and interdisciplinary research environment with culturally diverse populations.

This course explores human-environmental relationships from a variety of perspectives using both academic and public policy debates as source material. Selected topics will draw from historical and political ecology, environmental protection and activism, heritage law, land tenure and land rights, tourism, public parks, and notions of wilderness in Canadian identities.

Cross-listed: CAST-6201H, CUST-5512H, SUST-5401H

Explores the role of trust in the exercise of leadership with respect to Canada's Prime Minister and the House of Commons. Concentrating on legislative leadership the course examines how and why, in the face of declining trust and rising unwarranted distrust, the political executive aims to exercise leadership. Not open to students with credit for POST-CAST 4452H.

This course explores the scholarly interpretations, debates, and theories that have shaped our understanding of women and gender in the Canadian and North American context. The historical and social construction of gender identity, culture, and sexualities are explored, and topics such as work, reproduction, 'race,' colonialism, political engagement and social movements.

Cross-listed: CAST-6501H, CUST-5503H, SUST-5701H, HIST-5105H

Courses may be offered in a variety of areas as a way of introducing students to new subject matter, research techniques or methodologies.

A written justification, course outline and approval of the Graduate Program Director are required to take the course.