Minelle Mahtani is the Brenda and David McLean Chair of Canadian Studies, University of British Columbia. She is a former broadcaster, national television news journalist and is currently associate professor at the Institute for Social Justice, UBC. Her book, “May it Have a Happy Ending” is forthcoming with Doubleday/Penguin Random House. Her work has appeared in The Walrus, Maisonneuve and THIS magazine. She was a finalist for National Magazine Award and a Digital Publishing Award last year. Her other books include “Mixed Race Amnesia” and “Global Mixed Race.” You can listen to episodes of her award-winning show, “Sense of Place” at minellemahtani.com.
She is teaching the following course in January Winter Term 2 and students are welcome to enroll:
CDST 450B 002 (Seminar) Senior Seminar in Canadian Studies
Winter Term 2, Thursday, 11:00 – 14:00
The Canadian experience from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. Offered by the McLean Chair in Canadian Studies. Required of all Canadian Studies Majors.
ANTI-CANADA CANADIAN STUDIES? AN INTRODUCTION TO CRITICAL CANADIAN STUDIES
How might we more effectively trace complex and energizing epistemologies in critical Canadian Studies through a specifically organized suite of conversations with Canadian Studies scholars? Through an anti-colonial lens we will critically analyze the epistemic frame of critical Canadian Studies. The history of Canadian Studies is a fascinating and complicit one to trace and of course, the contours of what is considered to be Canadian Studies is shifting daily due to crucial questions about the role of Indigenous peoples in Canadian Studies, and settlers of colour in the multi-textured debates. We will map out those cartographies by inviting prominent authors into the classroom every week. The course will ultimately offer a renewed mapping of critical Canadian storytelling by investigating the relationship between affective pleasures of reading through theory, the discursive spaces of the academy and how certain readings inspire us to move towards more creative and imaginative places for revitalized conversations about new directions around epistemology in critical Canadian Studies.
More details can be found here.