Canada: A Hidden History

Course Description

What does it mean to be Canadian? How has the country’s past, politics, and people created the Canada we see today? When someone mentions Canadian history, what comes to mind? Snow, hockey, and Tim Hortons often come to mind when people think of Canada, but what, and who is missing from this story? What parts of Canadian history get left out, and why? Do you feel represented in your current understanding of Canadian history? In this course, Canada: A Hidden History, students will go beyond national narratives to learn about the parts of Canadian history often hidden from view by tackling themes of othering, exclusion, erasure, and resistance. In this course, students will get access to art, archives, and documents to investigate the histories of 4 different marginalized groups in Canadian history to learn the different ways that history is hidden, and how it can be uncovered.
In this course, students will take on the role of historians in training. Each day, we will engage with a different hidden (subaltern) history and how it has been obscured. To do so, students will get to go behind the scenes to archives such as the Ottawa Research Collection and tour the collections of the Carleton Art Gallery where we will meet with experts and analyze primary historical sources, including newspaper articles, photographs, videos, objects, and interviews, to learn how historians create historical narratives and give meaning to the past. Topics will include the relationship between hockey and gender, Queer communities and the law, Inuit cultural revitalization, and protest movements, which will encourage students to critically examine how factors such as national myth-making, geographical distance, cultural norms, and power structures can impact our understanding and access to the past.
Through this journey, students will develop critical thinking, analysis, and research skills, learn the importance of asking questions about our preconceived understandings of the past, and understand how can history be used as a tool to seek justice for people in the past and the present. Throughout the week, students will work on a project to uncover a hidden history of their choosing. Students are encouraged to be creative and will be able to work with the instructors to choose a topic and project which are meaningful to them. Potential projects could include a podcast, a game, an infographic, or spoken word. Through these projects, students will not only learn more about Canada’s past, they will have an opportunity to explore the many unique ways that history can be uncovered and shared.
**Please note - this course will deal with sensitive subject matter including police violence, graphic videos depicting hockey violence, and outdated and/or derogatory terms/language connected to marginalized groups.**