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Semester 2

Diversities: Canada and Beyond (SCIL10096)

Subject

Sociology

College

CAHSS

Credits

20

Normal Year Taken

3

Delivery Session Year

2023/2024

Pre-requisites

Visiting students must have completed at least 3 Sociology courses at grade B or above. We will only consider University/College level courses.

Course Summary

Multiculturalism was invented in Canada. It was a way to recognize the cultural diversity of its immigrant communities, and later a means by which Canada distinguished itself from the United States' 'melting pot.' This course takes this as a starting point to critically explore the ways in which Canada has responded to its societal diversity: its troubling relationship with indigenous Inuit, First Nations and Métis, demands for national recognition from Québec and for French language rights across Canada, and calls for recognition and equality from women and LGBTQ+ communities, and the consequences of immigration and wider processes of post/decolonial. The course draws on Canadian theory, and theorists, notably Charles Taylor, Will Kymlicka and Glen Coulthard, each of whom engage directly with these questions, as well as practice, comparing the Canadian experience with that of countries elsewhere, including the United States and Europe.

Course Description

Academic Description: The course provides a cross-disciplinary approach to the study of diversities in Canada, drawing upon sociological, political, historical, anthropological and legal accounts. It examines key theories and concepts in relation to diversity in Canada. It investigates the relationships among the various diversities encountered in the course - regionalism, indigeneity, sub-state nationalism, immigrant cultures, gender, and sexuality. In doing so, the course illuminates the ways substantive case material informs theory-making. Indicative Outline Content: I. Preliminaries * The Making of Diversities in Canada * The Importance of Regionalism in Canada * II. Indigeneity and Settler Colonialism * (Unsettling) Settler Colonialism * Race, Space and Gendered Violence: Settler Colonial Nation Building * Indigenous Resurgence: Resistance in Knowledges and Actions * III. (Sub-)State Responses to Diversities * Canada and its Aboriginal Languages: Legal and Policy Framework * Multiculturalism as a Cultural Object * Québec: From Interculturalism to Laïcité * Trans Rights * IV. Reflections * Majority Nationalism as a Reaction to Diversities. Student Learning Experience: The course will be taught across 10 weeks, with 20 hours of combined lecture and seminar discussion. There will be two essay assessments, midterm and final.

Assessment Information

Written Exam 0%, Coursework 100%, Practical Exam 0%

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