CDST 450, 2022W: Senior Seminar in Canadian Studies
3 credits
Professor Minelle Mahtani, McLean chair in Canadian Studies
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.