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Course Proposal: GEOGRAPHY 390A-921: Geography of Selected Regions
Course Title:
Geographies of Canada’s North
Applicants: Matt Dyce
PhD Candidate
Department of Geography, UBC
778-990-6096 mdyce@interchange.ubc.ca
Jonathan Peyton
PhD Candidate
Department of Geography, UBC
778-836-0568 jwpeyton@interchange.ubc.ca
Course Description:
Turn on any news channel and you will see images of the major challenges facing people in the world today: climate change and global warming, famine and decreasing food supplies, political turmoil and repressive governments, pollution, exploitative resource gathering, cultural erasure and appropriation, terrorism and the militarization of territory. Now think about the word ‘North’ and what images come into your head?
Would most people imagine a vast expanse of snow and ice? Canadians sometimes forget that for many inhabitants of the North today, the major issues and struggles of the
21 st century are a part of their everyday lives. In this course we will undertake to reconnect the North to the rest of Canada through an investigation of our interrelated human and physical geographies. We will accomplish this is three broad units, examining the cultural, environmental, and political geographies of the Canadian North.
By the end of this course, participants will be able to (1) describe the history, geography, economy, and politics of the Canadian North and northern peoples; (2) analyze contemporary global events through comparisons with Canadian perspectives; and (3) critically assess and discuss issues important to the lives of northerners and
Canadians in general.
Course Rationale: A course in the geogr aphy of Canada’s North is fundamental to better understanding Canada’s place in the world. Students taking this course will develop their understanding of issues relevant to their own lives. They will also be able to connect their understanding of Canada to international affairs. As a regional geography course, students studying physical and biogeographical characteristics of the
North would be encouraged to enrol in a human geography course converging with their subject. This course would also compliment a wide range of the thematic modules our department currently offers in historical geography, colonialism, environmental studies, political geographies, geographies of migration, critical theory, and general regional courses on North America.
Lecture Schedule:

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I. Cultural Geographies of North in Canada
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North and South
The social, economic and environmental interconnections between the northern
‘hinterland’ and southern ‘metropole’. This lecture will address the idea of
Canada as a northern nation, and ask students to start thinking of what it means to take responsibility for this idea. How can the North be thought of and treated differently? What does studying the North enable us to do?
2.
The Idea of North
Tracing the history of north-ness through cultural representations in Europe. The various ways that ‘North’ has been dramatized or mystified in cartography and literature.
3.
The Idea of North: The North in Canadian Culture
The imaginative geography of North as the home of the ‘white race.’
4.
Photography and Film
How has representing the Canadian North and northern peoples mattered in the historical geography of the nation?
5.
Experts and Technocrats: Science, Technology and
Bureaucracies in the North
A week focusing on the second colonial period of the North to Canada following
Diefenbaker’s ‘Northern Vision.’ This week focuses on the political geographies of settlement, health, movement, militarization and dislocation.
II. Environmental Geographies of North in Canada
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The Physical Geography of North: Terrestrial and Marine
Environments
7.
Managerial Ecologies: Hunting, Conservation, Wildlife
A week focusing on the cultural importance of animals to Indigenous cosmologies .
8.
South: The Political Ecology of Climate Change

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First of two lectures investigating the political ecology of resource rights, climate change, representations of north, and development. As created and experienced by ‘the south.’
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North: The Political Ecology of Climate Change
Second of two lectures investigating the political ecology of resource rights, climate change, representations of north, and development. As created and experienced by ‘the north.’
III. Political Geographies of North in Canada
10.
Northern Frontier?: Mega-Projects and the Rush for
Spoils
Diamond and gold mining, oil and gas development, hydro-electricity projects, off-shore drilling. This week discusses the North as a booming resource frontier.
11.
Northern Homeland?: First Nations Governance & Arctic
Sovereignty
The history of the NWT in Canada leading up to the creation of ‘our land,’
Nunavut, and an interpretation of the successes and challenges the territory faces today.
12.
Canada in the Global North
13.
A retrospective analysis of the themes in the course sharing similarities with other nations or national regions.
Canada and the Global North
What role has Canada played, or not, in shaping the potential future of the circumpolar north?