Canadian Studies

The Canadian Studies Program was developed over the course of several years by Arts faculty from a variety of disciplines. The faculty members saw the creation of this thematic option as a logical outgrowth of keen student interest in existing Canadian content courses and strong faculty teaching and publishing in Canadian areas across the Arts spectrum.

The program was initiated in January of 1997 under the direction of geographer Robert Mackinnon, who also taught Canadian Studies 200, the program's core course. The course proved very popular, and Ginny Ratsoy (English), Anne Gagnon (History), and Martin Whittles (Anthropology) have subsequently taught the course, which has consistently been offered in both fall and winter semesters since 1998. Canadian Studies 200 has also been taught in summer sessions by visiting Canadian Studies professors.

Because of the interdisciplinary nature of the course, Canadian Studies 200 is fertile territory for creative student projects, and classes have been taking advantage of this fact. In May of 1998, for example, the Fall 1997 class published a book of book reviews called Reflections from the Cariboo, and the Fall 1999 class published Exposing Culture: In Conversation with Interior Artists and Writers in May of 2001.