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Submission to theArts & Science Regulations and Curriculum

Committee (ARCC)

Interdisciplinary Program/Courses

Dr. Sal Renshaw (Coordinator)Professor Renee Valiquette

DATE: 27TH September 2014TO: ARCCFROM: Faculty of Arts and Science

This document contains (5) motions for consideration.

SUMMARY OF MOTIONS

MOTION 1: That the new course INTD 1005 Introduction to the Disciplines be added.

MOTION 2: That the new course INTD 2005 Introduction to Interdisciplinary Studies (Concepts) be added.

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MOTION 3: That the new course INTD 3005 Solving Wicked Problems be added.

MOTION 4: That the new courses INTD 2005 and INTD 3005 be counted towards breadth requirement. Each course can be counted for 2 x 3 credits of the student’s choice among Science, Social Science and Humanities.

Motion 5: That the course UNIV 2005: Introduction to Cross-Disciplinary Analysis be deleted.

Background & Rationale

In the late winter of 2013, following a number of conversations about Spring and Summer programming, and the ongoing ‘enrolment crisis’ in Arts and Science, Dean Craig Cooper struck a small interdisciplinary committee to explore opportunities for attracting more students to the Spring/Summer sessions. The committee, which was chaired by the Associate Dean at the time, Dr. Ann-Barbara Graff, conceived the idea of what have since become known as the interdisciplinary ‘concept’ courses (See Appendix A for Syllabi). In the Spring term of 2013, the first version of the course, designed around the concept DIRT, was offered using the existing UNIV 2005 code, and titled “Introduction to Cross-disciplinary Analysis: DIRT.” Based on a model of interdisciplinary programming similar to the University of Toronto’s “Big Ideas” courses (http://www.artsci.utoronto.ca/newstudents/courses/big-ideas-courses), the course included 10 professors from 8 different disciplines, each of whom spoke to the central theme of the course from their own disciplinary and research backgrounds. Every other class was conducted by the course director, Professor Renee Valiquette, who did the work of integrating the material. As hopefully many at the University already know, the innovation and success of this course was profiled for the cover story of the April 2014 edition of University Affairs. http://www.universityaffairs.ca/the-subject-was-dirt-nipissing-first-undergrad-interdisciplinary-course.aspx.

Following the success of DIRT, and seeing an opportunity to continue profiling the high caliber of teaching and innovation in Arts and Science at Nipissing, the interim Dean, Dr Ann-Barbara Graff, became interested in developing more signature courses like DIRT and integrating them into all three terms of the academic year. Dr. Sal Renshaw was asked to take on the role of coordinating the effort. This included establishing permanent course codes, coordinating the development of new courses to strengthen the interdisciplinary identity of the courses, as well as administering their set up and supporting them through committee. To this end, one of the things Dr. Renshaw has established, with the help of marketing, is a visual identity for the courses. (See Appendix B for a sample of the promotional posters thus far).

Included in this proposal are two additional courses: a first year “Introduction to the Disciplines” course, and a third year “Solving Wicked Problems” course. The goal is to have the first year course do double duty in appealing to new students who are

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http://www.universityaffairs.ca/the-subject-was-dirt-nipissing-first-undergrad-interdisciplinary-course.aspx

http://www.universityaffairs.ca/the-subject-was-dirt-nipissing-first-undergrad-interdisciplinary-course.aspx

already committed to coming to Nipissing while also, and perhaps more importantly, serving as a recruitment tool for High School students who wish to explore their post-secondary options. The third year “Wicked Problems” course will build on the skills students will have attained in the second year Concept courses, which function to introduce the theory of interdisciplinary scholarship as well as expose students to a range of examples of its application in and across multiple disciples. Third year ‘Wicked Problems’ courses offer students a more concrete and applied engagement with interdisciplinary analysis by focusing the lectures around a contemporary large-scale social problem. For example, the concept course we are proposing for Fall/Winter 2015/16 on the North Bay campus is ‘Evolution’ and the subsequent Wicked Problem course might well be ‘Mass Extinction.’ The third year courses will offer students the opportunity to focus the skills they begin to develop in the second year concept courses, enhancing their capacity to employ interdisciplinarity to address concretely identified problems.

Since the DIRT course, we have used the same code, UNIV 2005, to offer SLOTH in Spring 2014, as well as the inaugural Fall/Winter version, WATER, currently running at the Muskoka Campus. This latest offering draws on faculty from the North Bay campus, the Muskoka campus, as well as guest lecturers from the University of Sydney, York University, Concordia, NSCAD and OCAD universities. In addition to attracting 21 undergraduate students, WATER has provided us with another unique innovation opportunity as 36 “lifelong learners” from the Muskoka community have been permitted to attend the first 3 guest lectures. This integrated classroom format is one of the first initiatives of the Nipissing Muskoka Centre for Lifelong Learning, in partnership with the faculty of Arts & Science, which aims to increase community involvement and interest in Nipissing programming. The integration of credit and non-credit bound students makes the program unique among lifelong learning offerings in Ontario.

Beyond the pedagogical innovation of the courses, their appeal to a broad range of students across the disciplines lies partly in the fact that these courses have been able to count toward their breadth requirements. Each course is designed so there is a balance between the sciences, social sciences and the humanities, a multi-disciplinary focus that provides an effective and important complement to disciplinary breadth requirements. With each iteration of the course so far, the Petitions and Appeals Committee has approved to have it count for all three breadth requirements. We are now seeking ARCC, USC and ultimately Senate’s approval to formalize this aspect of the existing Concept course, and for the proposed Wicked Problems courses (Note, we are not seeking breadth approval for the first year course being proposed here.) Specifically, we are proposing that each 6 credit course count for 2 x 3 credits of the student’s choice. In other words, the course can count as 3 credits of Humanities and 3 of Science or 3 of Social Science and 3 of Science or 3 of Humanities and 3 of Science. It cannot count as 6 credits from any one group. This way, students will still be required to take additional credits of exclusively disciplinary breadth requirements.

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We are also proposing that we move away from the UNIV shell and implement a new code, INTD, to house the existing concept course, as well as the new first year course, INTD 1005: Introduction to the Disciplines, and the third year course, INTD 3005: Solving Wicked Problems. The INTD code will have the obvious advantage of being identifiable to students and recognizable by other institutions on a transcript. This is an important aspect of credentialing for students and should be a priority. We envisage that by the time we move all 3 courses into regular rotation it will also be possible to offer students a certificate in Critical and Applied Interdisciplinary Studies. Furthermore, the INTD code may also prove useful for the Dialogue courses, with which Arts and Science has been experimenting very successfully since 2012. A new slate of codes INTD 2XXX Dialogue and 3XXX Advanced Dialogue, for example, would allow the same kind of shell format as do the Interdisciplinary Concept and Wicked Problem courses. The actual title of each course – INTD 2005: Introduction to Interdisciplinarity Analysis: WATER – would accompany the code to make each iteration clear and distinct to students that might, for example, take INTD 2005 in the Spring of one year and the Fall/Winter of the next.

The goal in proposing a new 6 credit Intro course as well as a 6 credit 3rd year course is to fully integrate and brand the interdisciplinary courses into the Nipissing Curriculum and to offer students the opportunity, if they take all 3, to get a certificate in interdisciplinary studies. In the future, we hope to also develop a practicum course, Applied Interdisciplinarity, that might be modeled on the very successful GESJ 3057 Sanctuary and Salvation course that took place in Hong Kong this past spring.

Finally, the interdisciplinary courses offered thus far on this model have not only proven to be popular and successful with students, they have offered a range of Arts and Science as well as Professional Schools professors an extraordinary opportunity to collaborate across the faculties and the disciplines. The feedback from faculty has been every bit as positive as the feedback from students. Going forward we hope these classes will continue to function as an incubator for innovative pedagogy and collaborative research.

ADDING NEW COURSES

To Add:INTD 1005 Introduction to the Disciplines

A) Descriptive Data

Course code: INTD 1005

Course title: Introduction to the Disciplines

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Short title:

(maximum 29 characters)

Intro to the Disciplines

If this course belongs to a major

that has course groupings, please

indicate which group the course

belongs with:

N/A

Course Prerequisites:

None

Course Co-requisites:

N/A

Antirequisite: N/A

Total Hours:

(Lecture / Lab / Seminar)

72 hours

Breakdown of Hours

(e.g. Two hours of lecture and one hour of laboratory work per week for one

term.)

3 hours of lecture per week

Course Credits: 6 credits

Course Description:

(as it will appear in the academic

calendar)

This course provides students with a unique opportunity to encounter a wide array of disciplinary approaches to knowledge and scholarship. Through guest lectures from professors across the Arts, Sciences, Social Sciences and Professional Schools, students will get a sense of the kind of critical and cutting edge research questions and scholarship undertaken in each of the selected disciplines, allowing them to more fully explore their academic interests.

Program Implications:

This course is designed to meet the needs of students:

Who are new to university and unsure of what they want to study

Who need first year electives

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Who are interested in developing a concentration in interdisciplinary studies

Learning Expectations/

Outputs

(6-8, visible, measurable and in

active verbs)

By the end of the course students will be able to:

1. Demonstrate some familiarity with the history, theories and methodologies of disciplinary approaches to knowledge.

2. Identify and clearly articulate the key strengths and challenges of disciplinary approaches to knowledge.

3. Identify and explain the reasons for their own emerging disciplinary preferences

4. Demonstrate an emerging ability to identify a well reasoned analytical argument across a range of disciplinary contexts.

5. Demonstrate an emerging capacity to identify and explain the different kinds of evidence that pertain to different disciplines.

6. Begin to be able to construct and sustain well reasoned analytical arguments in consistent, coherent and grammatical prose and express these analyses both in a written project/essay and in verbal analyses.

Cross-listing or cross-coding

(please indicate if this course is

approved for either cross-listing or

cross-coding, and to which discipline)

B) Comparative Data:

University Equivalent Course(s) and Titles Non-Equivalent but 50% or more overlap

BrockCarletonGuelphLakeheadLaurentianMcMasterOttawa

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Queen’sRMCRyersonTorontoTrentWaterlooWesternWilfrid LaurierWindsorYork

C) Statement of Need

Many students entering university say they have no idea what the numerous disciplines at university offer. The average first year student is encouraged to take a broad range of Introductory courses, however, once they have taken ACAD as a requirement and also followed the advice of Advising to get their breadth requirement ‘out of the way,’ their options are considerably narrowed. “Introduction to the Disciplines” provides an innovative approach to introducing students to a much broader range of disciplines at the university while they still have time to change their majors. While the course stands alone, it also functions as an introduction to the 2nd and 3rd year Interdisciplinary courses.

Perhaps most significant of all in terms of ‘need’ is the possibility that this course can be a powerful recruitment tool for High School students considering university but unsure of what they might take. Should the course be approved we hope to pilot this strategy at the Muskoka Campus for the Fall/Winter 2015/2016 term.

D) Statement of Resource Requirements

The course will be taught by existing faculty and will become part of the regular rotation. It will not require additional resources. Library holdings are sufficient at this stage.

To Add:

INTD 2005 Introduction to Interdisciplinary Analysis

B) Descriptive Data


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Course title: Introduction to Interdisciplinary Analysis

Short title:


Given that the course content will vary each year the short title should reflect the actual topic for that year.




belongs with:

N/A


18 credits competed


N/A

Antirequisite: N/A

Total Hours:


72 hours

Breakdown of Hours


term.)

3 hours of lecture per week

Course Credits: 6 credits

Course Description:


calendar)

Interdisciplinary analysis has emerged as a powerful critical and analytic tool for addressing complex problems such as climate change and global poverty. Taking interdisciplinary approaches, principles and methods as its topic, the course engages students through a single theme, such as DIRT or WATER. Students will also develop skills in lateral and collaborative thinking, both essential to innovative and creative problem solving. The course will be taught by a variety of professors across a range of disciplines, each of whom will approach the theme from their own disciplinary/interdisciplinary background. The topic and disciplines will change each time the course is offered.



who need humanities, science or social science breadth

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requirements

who need upper year electives

who are interested in developing a concentration in interdisciplinary studies


Outputs


active verbs)


1. Demonstrate familiarity with the history, theories and methodologies of interdisciplinarity.

2. Identify and clearly articulate the key strengths and challenges of interdisciplinary approaches to knowledge.

3. Select, evaluate and integrate information from various sources to inform a critical analysis of the topic.

4. Participate in collaborative efforts to produce emergent, interdisciplinary knowledge on a particular topic.

5. Construct and sustain well reasoned analytical arguments in consistent, coherent and grammatical prose and express these analyses both in a substantial written project/essay and in verbal analyses.

6. Demonstrate a preliminary understanding of critical epistemology.





N/A



BrockCarletonGuelphLakeheadLaurentianMcMaster

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OttawaQueen’sRMCRyersonTorontoTrentWaterlooWesternWilfrid LaurierWindsorYork


The course provides students with an opportunity to study the strengths and weaknesses of interdisciplinary approaches to knowledge via the strategy of focusing the content around a single theme or topic that is then approached from multiple disciplinary and interdisciplinary angles. This course is designed so that the course director, who attends every class, draws out and helps delineate how interdisciplinary analyses change, clarify, expand on and even sometimes better resolve a set of interrelated questions. Because some prior experience of university level learning will help the students in their varying encounters with different approaches to knowledge, we are proposing this course at the 2nd year level with 18 credits of pre-requisites. The course has been piloted three times so far and has proven to be very successful in getting students to see as relevant disciplines and approaches they reflexively reject. By balancing the Science, Social Science and Humanities content, the courses have broad appeal while also making breadth requirements a pedagogically more meaningful and relevant experience for students.

Moreover, the kinds of critical intellectual and analytic skills students develop in these courses are particularly relevant to the current employment context. The capacity to make connections across different contexts, to collaborate in a group of varied experts, and to seek out and acquire new knowledge, are preferential skills that interdisciplinary training optimally develops.



To Add:

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INTD 3005 Interdisciplinary Approaches to Solving Wicked Problems

C) Descriptive Data


Course title: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Solving Wicked Problems

Short title:


Wicked Problems

Given that the course content will vary each year the short title should reflect the actual topic for that year.




belongs with:

N/A


Any 18 credits completed


N/A

Antirequisite: N/A

Total Hours:


72 hours

Breakdown of Hours


term.)

3 hours of lecture

Course Credits: 6

Course Description:


calendar)

Building on the 2nd year course “Introduction to Interdisciplinary Analysis,” “Solving Wicked Problems” offers students the opportunity to apply interdisciplinary scholarship to real world dilemmas facing society locally, nationally and globally. Students will learn how to work collaboratively, integrating a variety of disciplinary expertise, in order to creatively address the most pressing concerns of the day. The ”Wicked Problem” will change with each offering, but might include topics such as: mass extinction, global poverty, homelessness and climate change.

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who need upper level electives

who need humanities, science or social science breadth requirements.

who are interested in developing a concentration in interdisciplinary studies


Outputs


active verbs)


1. Demonstrate the application of interdisciplinary approaches to problem solving.

2. Identify and clearly articulate the key strengths and challenges of interdisciplinary approaches to problem solving using a concrete example.

3. Apply the core concepts and theories they have encountered in the class.

4. Demonstrate an understanding of various methodological approaches germane to the disciplines and research relevant to the Wicked Problem they have explored.

5. Select, evaluate, integrate and apply information from various disciplines as they pertain to the wicked problem.

6. Construct and sustain well reasoned analytic arguments in consistent, coherent and grammatical prose and express these analyses both orally and in writing.







BrockCarleton

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GuelphLakeheadLaurentianMcMasterOttawaQueen’sRMCRyersonTorontoTrentWaterlooWesternWilfrid LaurierWindsorYork


“Wicked Problems” courses offer students an opportunity to build on and develop the interdisciplinary knowledge they have gained in doing the second year Concept courses. More crucially, the Wicked Problems courses use real world dilemmas, which students already see as relevant to their future lives, as a laboratory for experimenting with applied interdisciplinarity. Each disciplinary contribution will be focused on the selected social problem and students will develop concrete solutions drawing on the material they encounter in the guest lectures. Modeled on the idea of a moot court in Law School, these courses will be appealing as well as pedagogically innovative precisely because they will provide students with an opportunity to apply their learning in the classroom.



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Appendix A

UNIV 2005: Introduction to Cross-disciplinary Analysis: D I R TMonday-Thursday, 3:30pm - 6:30pmApril 29th - June 10thFinal Exam: June 11, 3:30-6:20

Overview...Interdisciplinarity as an academic practice recognizes that the world doesn’t always exist in neat, disciplined categories. Despite the important and necessary distinctions that we make between economics and poetics, psychology and biology, to offer just two examples, the ideas and problems considered in each of these fields also connect to and impact one another. While disciplined knowledge is essential, without recognizing the limitations of any one approach we risk becoming thinkers unable to see “the big picture.” While disciplinary study engenders remarkable depths of expertise, interdisciplinarity reminds us that expertise in one area doesn’t compensate for ignorance in others. In this way, interdisciplinarity challenges the notion of “mastery” in education and knowledge production.

Course Expectations and Outcomes: To introduce students to the history, theories and methodologies of interdisciplinarity. To explore the benefits of interdisciplinary thinking and application.To emphasize the risks of narrowly conceived disciplinarity. To draw attention to the interdisciplinary work already being done within disciplinary boundaries and in existing interdisciplinary programs. To exhibit how Nipissing is breaking new ground in interdisciplinary teaching and curriculum.To introduce students to faculty members pushing and challenging the boundaries of their disciplines, and stretching conversations to make more connections possible. To engage students in the production of emergent, interdisciplinary knowledge on DIRT.

Readings... Most readings will be provided to students at handouts or made available through blackboard. Students must purchase a copy of the following texts:Mary Douglas, Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Pollution and TabooBram Stoker, Dracula (Oxford World’s Classics). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.

Assignments...

Participation (10%) Engagement in and commitment to class discussions is especially important for an experimental course such as this one. In order for success to be achieved, students need to

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be invested in the project as a whole, to be willing to help their fellow students when confusion arises and to do their best to facilitate a safe and productive environment. For those of you for whom talking comes easily, not only do you need to practice listening, you might also consider this an opportunity to help facilitate hearing from your peers. For the non-talkers, we really need you to challenge yourselves to actively engage with your peers. The field trip will be part of your attendance mark.

The 21st century classroom: While laptops, tablets and other electronic note-taking devices are permitted in the classroom, if students show themselves incapable of avoiding the distractions of smart phones and laptops, they will be asked to cease using the hardware during lecture. Classrooms are shared environments and as such it is imperative that no individual student be permitted the right to create distractions for other students, either energetically (by placing their attention elsewhere) or literally, by flashing pictures of drunken debauchery. Of course, daydreaming remains an inalienable right.

Reading and Lecture Journal (30%) Students will keep a journal throughout the course, which they will hand in at the end of each week (May 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd, 30th, 6th). Students will make a journal entry for each set of readings and for each lecture (including the field trip to Piebird). Entries should be a minimum of one paragraph (100 words) in length and a maximum of 1 page, single spaced (500 words). Each week's entries will be graded out of 5% (5 x 6 = 30) and will be returned to students on Monday.

Journals are to be written electronically and submitted in hard copy at the end of each week. If journals are not handed in the on Thursday, 5% will be forfeited from the total grade.

*In grading the journals, I will look for students to demonstrate the depth of their understanding of readings and lectures.

Essay (20%) – Due Students will choose one of the following questions and write a 6-page response, drawing on course materials.

Option One: Choose one guest lecture and with reference to the selected readings, as well as at least two of the core readings on interdisciplinarity, discuss the strengths and weaknesses of bringing an interdisciplinary analysis to bear on the material presented that lecture.

Option Two: Choose two guest lectures and with reference to the selected readings as well as at least two of the core readings on interdisciplinarity discuss how the content presented in each lecture is enhanced and strengthened by the other.

Option Three: With reference to a minimum of three readings from guest lectures and two readings on interdisciplinarity, provide an interdisciplinary analysis of “dirt.”

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Final Debate (10%) – June 6th The final class will stage a debate between teams around questions related to disciplinarity and interdisciplinarity and the state of the university. More details to follow.

Final Exam - June 11th, 3:30 - 6:20 - 30% The exam will be comprised of short answer questions that will be provided to students on June 5th.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Week One: Interdisciplinarity: Muddying the Waters

April 29 – Lecturers: Sal Renshaw and Renée Valiquette

Overview: What is interdisciplinarity and why is it worth practicing? How are we already learning to think and research interdisciplinarily in current courses and programs? Programs and "disciplines" that lean toward interdisciplinarity: geography, gender studies, religions and cultures. Others? How do we think about and behave in disciplined ways?

April 30 – Lecturers: Sal Renshaw and Renée Valiquette

Overview: What does it mean to think about how you're learning while you're learning? How and why did higher education become disciplined? What kinds of challenges and changes are proposed by interdisciplinarity to the disciplinary structure of higher education? What does interdisciplinarity make possible?

Readings: *Kathryn Shailer, "Interdisciplinarity in a Disciplinary Universe: A Review of Key Issues" (Blackboard)

*Joe Moran, Interdisciplinarity (ebrary ) We will discuss this text throughout the course.

Additional Material to be used throughout the course (can be used for final essays):

*C. P. Snow, "The Two Cultures" Public Affairs (library) *Allen F Repko, “Defining Interdisciplinary Studies,” Interdisciplinary Research: Process and Theory (Blackboard)

May 1 – Lecturer: James Abbott (Geography): The landscape of Human Interaction with Dirt: John Snow's 'Cholera Map' of 1850s London

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Overview: We will look at the landscape of human interaction with dirt. Using John Snow's 'Cholera Map' of 1850s London, we will explore how this revolutionized our understanding of disease and health geography.

Readings: Halliday, S. 2001. Death And Miasma In Victorian London: An Obstinate Belief. BMJ: British Medical Journal, 323(7327): 1469-1471. (Blackboard)

Brody et al. 2000. Map-making and myth-making in Broad Street: the London cholera epidemic, 1854. Lancet. 356: 64–68. (Blackboard)

May 2 - Course Director: Renée Valiquette *Mark Kingwell, “Seven Pathways to the Stars” The Globe and Mail. Oct. 13,

2012We will continue our conversation from April 30th and re-visit the basic concepts

of interdisciplinarity in light of our first guest lecture.

Week Two: Contaminated Landscapes

May 6 - Course Director: Renée Valiquette Screening: Dirt! The Movie

Reading: Peter Nyers, "Moving Borders: the Politics of Dirt"

May 7 – Jeffrey Dech (Biology): The Living Dirt: a story of degradation and recovery of soils in

an industrially-impacted landscape near Sudbury, ON, Canada.

Overview: In this lecture we will explore the history of natural resource development on the land surrounding the city of Sudbury, Ontario and the impacts industrial activities had on terrestrial ecosystems. We will specifically examine the key role that modification of soils played in both the degradation of the original pine-dominated forest ecosystem, and in the successful restoration of the area to a state that supports a healthy ecosystem providing social, cultural and economic benefits to the people of Sudbury. Central to the discussion will be the critical importance of soil as a medium that drives ecological change.

Readings: Billings, WD.1952. The Environmental Complex in Relation to Plant Growth and Distribution. Quarterly Review of Biology 27(3):251-265.

Winterhalder, K. 1995a. Early History of Human Activities in the Sudbury Area and Ecological Damage to the Landscape. Pages 17-32 in Gunn, J.M. (Ed.) Restoration and Recovery of an Industrial Region. Springer-Verlag, New York.

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Winterhalder, K. 1995b. Natural Recovery of Vascular Plant Communities on the Industrial Barrens of the Sudbury Area. Pages 93-102 in Gunn, J.M. (Ed.) Restoration and Recovery of an Industrial Region. Springer-Verlag, New York.

Winterhalder, K. 1995c. Dynamics of Plant Communities and Soils in Revegetated Ecosystems: A Sudbury Case Study. Pages 173-182 in Gunn, J.M. (Ed.) Restoration and Recovery of an Industrial Region. Springer-Verlag, New York.

May 8 – Susan Cahill (Fine Arts): Visualizing Industrial Landscapes

Overview: The idea of a wild, clean, and untouched wilderness has been central to artistic representations of Canada since the nineteenth century. However, the increasing role of oil extraction in the Canadian economy is changing the cultural, political, and geographical landscapes of the nation. In this class, we will use photographer Edward Burtynsky's images of the Alberta Tar Sands to examine the politics of art and "dirty" landscapes in twenty-first-century Canada

Reading: Emily Gilbert. "Beyond Survival? Wilderness and Canadian National Identity in the Twenty-first century." British Journal of Canadian Studies 21.1 (March 2008): 63-88 (Blackboard)

Recommended: John O’Brian, “Wild Art History,” in Beyond Wilderness, Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s UP, 2007, pp. 21-37.** book in library and available online through Nipissing university website

May 9 - Renée Valiquette (Gender equality and social justice/Philosophy) From Earth to Dirt: Devaluations of non-human nature. Getting Dirty! Field Trip: Piebird ($20)

Week Three: The Politics of Cleansing

May 13 – Serena Kataoka (Political Science): Urban dirt: Sewerage & Shit Bombs

Overview: Two histories of shit can be drawn out of ancient Rome. One is neat, following pipes from latrines through a sewage system whose innovations continue to be improved upon in cities across the world. Such progress can also be seen in the shift from animals and their waste flowing through city streets, to their sanitary slaughter in abattoirs on the outskirts of town. The other history is dirty, with shit being flung through the air with little regard for where it might land, whether in the early streets of Rome, contemporary slums, or dog parks.

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Despite penalties, plastic bags, and other attempts to contain shit bombs, they continue to fly. This session highlights the reclamation of dirty practices (e.g. diaper-free babies in “elimination communication” with their parents), with special attention to what is washed away in the reclamation process (e.g. dogs’ role in the household, to eat babies’ shit, among other waste). It raises questions about the politics of sanitizing our dirty histories.

Reading: Dominique Laporte, “The Colonial Thing,” in History of Shit (Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2002 [1978]), pp. 56-75. HAND-OUT

May 14 – Course Director: Renée Valiquette

May 15 – Stephen Connor (History): Blood and Soil: Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing

Overview: This session forces us to imagine the unimaginable: the absolute destruction of human beings. We begin with an examination of the crime of genocide as it was defined by the United Nations in 1948. The definition is used as a demarcation point to further examine the question "what is genocide and ethnic cleansing, how and why does it occur." The objective of this session is to offer students a critical understanding of the paths to modern genocide.

Readings: Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Resolution 260 (III) A of the United Nations General Assembly on 9 December 1948. (http://www.hrweb.org/legal/genocide.html)

James Waller, Perpetrators of Genocide: An Explanatory Model of Extraordinary Human Evil, http://guweb2.gonzaga.edu/againsthate/Journal1/waller.pdf

Andrew Bell-Fialkoff, A Brief History of Ethnic Cleansing, Foreign Affairs , Vol. 72, No. 3 (Summer, 1993), pp. 110-121. Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20045626

Excerpt: Elie Wiesel, Night. http://www.pbs.org/auschwitz/learning/guides/reading6.1.pdf

Watch: Personal Histories: Survival (Select one or more to watch) http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/phistories/

· Eyewitness Testimony: Damas Gisimba (Rescuer). http://www.ushmm.org/genocide/take_action/gallery/portrait/gisimba

Listen: · Prach Ly, Dalama: The End'n' Is Just the Beginnin', http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/cambodia/ly.html#, Interview with Ly: http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/cambodia/ly_interview.html

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Week Four: Dracula: Gothic Nightmares and the Fantasy of Unclean Desires

May 20 - Victoria Day

May 21 – Cameron McFarlane (English): Nightmarish Contaminations and “Unclean” Fantasies in Bram Stoker’s Dracula

Overview: Like all gothic novels, Dracula gives expression to cultural fears and (sub)cultural desires. We consider the novel first as a nightmare of social and bodily contamination, both in its original late Victorian context and in its cinematic afterlife. We then reconsider Dracula as, not so much a nightmare, but a fantasy of various “unclean” desires.

Reading: Bram Stoker, Dracula (Oxford World’s Classics). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011. Campus Bookstore

May 22 – Cameron McFarlane, continued


Week Five: Matter Out of Place

May 27 – Nathan Colborne (Religions and Cultures): The Sacred, the Clean and the Unclean

Overivew: If dirt, following Mary Douglas, is best understood as 'matter out of place,' then concepts of purity, pollution, and corruption can only be understood against a

backdrop of social categories that order the world. Experiences of revulsion and repugnance at the impure, the corrupt, the abominable, or the monstrous point to a background order that is not always articulated. We will study examples of contemporary moral and political discourse that can be usefully examined in light

of Douglas' understanding of dirt.

Reading: Mary Douglas, Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Pollution and Taboo

May 28 - Course Director: Renée Valiquette

May 29 – Gillian McCann (Religions and Cultures): Gender, Purity and Hinduism

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Overview: In this lecture we will use the classic text “Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Pollution and Taboo” as a jumping off point for talking about the religious dimensions of dirt. Purity is a central metaphor in many of the world’s religions and we will examine some of the ways in which this has structured social relationship and shaped attitudes towards what is deemed “unclean”.

Reading: Mary Douglas, Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Pollution and Taboo

May 30 – Course Director: Renée Valiquette “The Principles of Interdisciplinary Research and Pedagogy”

Week Six: The Pleasures of Impurity

June 3 – Sal Renshaw (Gender equality and social justice/philosophy): Talking Dirty and Queering Desire

Overview: In this lecture we will apply a gender analysis to recently published research that analyzes and seeks to expose some of the complexities of human sexuality and

desire.

Readings: *Alain de Botton, How to think more about sex *Ogi Ogas and Sai Gaddam, A Billion Wicked Thoughts: What the Internet

Tells us about Sexual Relationships

June 4 – Course Director: Renée Valiquette Conclusion: “Desiring (in)Stability, or ‘Why (it's good) things don’t stay put’”

Overview: In this concluding lecture we will consider how the most radical aspects of

interdisciplinary dialogue ask us to rethink the university structure from the ground up. Readings: Bob Hanke and Alison Hearn, "Introduction: Out of the Ruins, the University to Come" TOPIA, Number 28, Fall 2012. (Blackboard) *Martha C. Nussbaum, Not For Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities

(Hand- out)

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* Jeffrey J. Williams. "Deconstructing Academe: The birth of critical university studies" The Chronicle of Higher Education, February 12, 2012. (Blackboard)

http://chronicle.com/article/An-Emerging-Field-Deconstructs/130791/ *Mark C. Taylor, "End the University as We Know It," Op-Ed Contributor,

New York Times, April 27, 2009

June 5 – Prep for Debate + Final Exam Review *Final Essay Due

June 6 – Debate

June 11: Final exam

UNIV 2005: Introduction to Cross-disciplinary Analysis: S L O T HMonday-Thursday, 12pm–3pm May 5th – June 12th Final Exam: June 12th, 12pm-3pm

Overview...Interdisciplinarity as an academic practice recognizes that the world doesn’t always exist in neat, disciplined categories. Despite the important and necessary distinctions that we make between economics and poetics, psychology and biology, to offer just two examples, the ideas and problems considered in each of these fields also connect to and impact one another. While disciplined knowledge is essential, without recognizing the limitations of any one approach we risk becoming thinkers unable to see “the big picture.” Disciplinary study engenders remarkable depths of expertise, but interdisciplinarity reminds us that expertise in one area doesn’t compensate for ignorance in others. In this way, interdisciplinarity challenges the notion of “mastery” in education and knowledge production.

Course Expectations and Outcomes: To introduce students to the history, theories and methodologies of interdisciplinarity. To explore the benefits of interdisciplinary thinking and application.To emphasize the risks of narrowly conceived disciplinarity. To draw attention to the interdisciplinary work already being done within disciplinary boundaries and in existing interdisciplinary programs. To exhibit how Nipissing is breaking new ground in interdisciplinary teaching and curriculum.To introduce students to faculty members pushing and challenging the boundaries of their disciplines, and stretching conversations to make more connections possible. To engage students in the production of emergent, interdisciplinary knowledge on DIRT.

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Readings... Most readings will be provided to students at handouts or made available through blackboard.

Assignments...

Participation (15%) Engagement in and commitment to class discussions is especially important for an experimental course such as this one. In order for success to be achieved, students need to be invested in the project as a whole, to be willing to help their fellow students when confusion arises and to do their best to facilitate a welcoming and productive classroom environment. To those of you for whom talking comes easily, you will need to practice listening and helping to make your peers feel as comfortable sharing as you do. To the non-talkers, we really need you to challenge yourselves to actively engage with your peers and vocalize your questions and observations.


Reading and Lecture Journal (30%) Students will keep a journal throughout the course, which they will hand in at the end of each week (May 8th, 15th, 22nd, 29th, June 5th & 10th). Students will make 1 journal entry engaging with and discussing the ideas presented in the assigned readings for the guest lectures, as well as 1 entry for each guest lecture class reviewing and reflecting on the content presented and class discussions of this content. Lectures and readings for the classes with no guest lecturer do not require entries; however, students will be expected to integrate their understanding of interdisciplinarity into the required entries as it develops. This means that there will be four entries per week. Entries should be a minimum of 250 words to a maximum of 500 words, singled spaced 12 point font. Each week's entries will be graded out of 5% (5 x 6 = 30).

Entry 1: May 6th (lecture only) and May 7th readings and lectures (3 entries total). Due May 8th Entry 2: May 12th and May 14th readings and lectures (4 entries total). Due May 15th Entry 3: May 20th and May 21st readings and lectures (4 entries total). Due May 22nd Entry 4: May 26th and May 28th readings and lectures (4 entries total). Due May 29th Entry 5: June 2nd and June 4th readings and lectures. (4 entries total) Due June 5th Entry 6: June 9th and concluding entry. (3 entries total) Due June 10th or 11th

Journals are to be written electronically and submitted in hard copy at the end of each week. Late entries will not be accepted.

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*In grading the journals, I will look for students to demonstrate the depth of their understanding of readings and lectures through detailed engagement and analysis.

Essay (20%) – Due June 10th Students will choose one of the following questions and write a 6-8, doubled spaced response, drawing on course materials.

Option One: Choose one guest lecture and with reference to the selected readings, as well as at least two of the core readings on interdisciplinarity, discuss the strengths and weaknesses of bringing an interdisciplinary analysis to bear on the material presented that lecture.

Option Two: Choose two guest lectures and with reference to the selected readings as well as at least two of the core readings on interdisciplinarity discuss how the content presented in each lecture is enhanced and strengthened by the other.

Option Three: With reference to a minimum of three readings from guest lectures and two readings on interdisciplinarity, provide an interdisciplinary analysis of “SLOTH.”

Final Exam - June 12th, 12pm-3pm - 35% The exam will be comprised of short answer questions that will be provided to students prior to the exam date.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Week One: Defying Categories

May 5 – Lecturers: Renée Valiquette & Sal Renshaw Topic: Introductions and Introducing Interdisciplinarity

May 6 – Lecturers: Dave Hackett and Lesley Lovett-Doust (Biology) Topic: Habitats and Hosts: From Pre-History to the Contemporary Rainforest

Overview: Sloths are (slanderously) named for a deadly sin…in today’s class we will review the biological evidence and explain why sloths deserve our respect, admiration and protection.

May 7 – Lecturer: Joe Boivin (Biology) Topic: Plant Dormancy - When stasis is the essence of life

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Overview: Divided into two parts, this talk will consider two types of plant dormancy: seasonal dormancy and dormancy in seeds. In part 1, seasonal cycles of growth and dormancy will be presented by showing how plants grow and what causes that growth to stop. Impacts of climate change will be considered and a case study showing how dormancy can be manipulated during greenhouse production of tree seedlings used in forest regeneration will be described. In part 2, plants producing seed will be presented in an evolutionary context and mechanisms of seed dormancy will be explained. Our relationship with seeds, agriculture’s green revolution, and the advent of genetic engineering will be presented, raising questions about how best to sustainably grow crops and feed over 7 billion people.

Readings: PDF lectures posted to Blackboard

May 8 - Lecturers: Renée Valiquette & Sal Renshaw

Overview: What is interdisciplinarity and why is it worth practicing?

Readings: *Kathryn Shailer, "Interdisciplinarity in a Disciplinary Universe: A Review of Key Issues" (Blackboard)

*Joe Moran, “Introduction” Interdisciplinarity (Blackboard)

Week Two: The War Against Sloth: From Ancient Affliction to Victorian Social Reform

May 12 - Lecturer: Susan Srigley (Religions & Cultures) Topic: The ‘sin’ of sloth from the desert fathers to Dante’s Inferno

Overview:“Sloth…is an oppressive sorrow, which, to wit, so weighs upon man’s mind, that he wants to do nothing.” ~St. Thomas Aquinas

My lecture will trace the religious history of sloth, and how it came to be included as one of the seven deadly sins. Originally, the seven sins were characterized as eight afflictions, described in the writings of Evagrius Ponticus (345-399 CE). These afflictions were psychological descriptions of the shared experiences afflicting body, mind and soul, gathered and written down by the solitary desert monastics. Eventually, this list of eight afflictions was adapted and transformed into the idea of the seven deadly sins. I will then explore Dante’s encounter with the slothful in the Inferno and consider how his representation of the slothful relates to the ancient affliction of acedia.

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Readings: Dante’s Inferno, Cantos I-II & VII. Trans. Mark Musa (Hand-out)

May 13 – Course Director: Reneé Valiquette

Overview: In addition to interdisciplinary engagements with guest lectures, we will also consider Mark Kingwell’s argument regarding the importance of a “core curriculum” in university education.

Readings: Mark Kingwell, “Seven Pathways to the Stars” The Globe and Mail. Oct. 13, 2012 (Hand out)

May 14 – Lecturer: Anne Clendinning (History) Topic: Improving the Nation: Moral social reform in the great age of industry

Overview: In a society that celebrated the virtues of hard work, thrift and self-help, sloth was a particularly offensive quality. This lecture considers the moral and physical understanding of sloth in nineteenth-century England and the ways that ideas about sloth, or laziness, impacted perceptions of class, gender and race. As a case study, we will consider British responses to the Great Famine and Ireland’s dependency on the potato, otherwise known as the “lazy root.”

Readings: Primary Sources

James Kay, “The Moral and Physical Condition of the Working Classes….in Manchester (1832),” in The Past Speaks: Sources and Problems in British History Vol II, second edition, ed. Walter L. Arnstein (Lexington, Mass. and Toronto: D. C. Heath and Company, 1993), 154-158. (Hand out)

Alexander Somerville, Letters from Ireland during the Famine, 1847http://web.archive.org/web/20000408175412/http://www.people.virginia.edu/~eas5e/Irish/somerville.html

Secondary Source

Scholl, Lesa. “Irish Migration to London During the c.1845-52 Famine: Henry Mayhew’s Representation in London Labour and the London Poor.” BRANCH: Britain, Representation and Nineteenth-Century History. Ed. Dino Franco Felluga. Extension of Romanticism and Victorianism on the Net. Web. [Accessed May 1,2014].

http://www.branchcollective.org/?ps_articles=lesa-scholl-irish-migration-to-london-during-the-c-1845-52-famine-henry-mayhews-representation-in-london-labour-and-the-london-poor

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http://web.archive.org/web/20000408175412/http://www.people.virginia.edu/~eas5e/Irish/somerville.html

http://web.archive.org/web/20000408175412/http://www.people.virginia.edu/~eas5e/Irish/somerville.html

May 15 - Course Director: Reneé Valiquette Overview: Practicing Interdisciplinarity

Week Three: Essence and Appearance

May 19 – VICTORIA DAY – No classes

May 20 – Lecturer: Carmen Wehrstedt (Physics) Topic: Inertia - a universal principle?

Overview: Physics is the study of the material world by looking at patterns that can be translated into rules, laws, models and theories. “Inertia” is a lecture in which we will try to familiarize the students with the laws that govern motion. The lecture is structured into three parts. In the first part we will describe motion and its physical quantities. The second part we will introduce the concept of inertia and the laws that explain motion (Newton’s Laws). In the third part of the lecture we discuss if the laws of nature are viewed the same by observers that are in different Reference Systems. The lecture is mostly a conceptual view, but we will also make use of some equations since the language of math is so eloquent in describing general statements in physical sciences.

Talk Outline:

Describing Motion : A common property of this universe is change! Everything changes even when some things seem to stay the same. (Have you watched a mountain grow?) To describe change we must define the fundamental concept of time. Motion means that objects change their position with time. In this part of the lecture we will try to look at what physical measurements will describe motion.

Explaining Motion: Doesn’t motion just happen? In this part of the lecture we will look at the laws of nature that explain how the motion might occur. Here we shall introduce the concept of inertia, and its consequences. We will also introduce the concept of force, linear momentum and gravity.

Relativity (Motion Viewed in Different Reference Systems): Do observers moving relative to each other agree on the description of the motion of an object? Will two points of view agree with each other? We will explore two types of reference systems, inertia and non-inertial, explain what pseudo-forces are, and introduce the basics of Relativity.

May 21 – Lecturer: David Tabachnick (Political Science) Topic: The malaise of modernity: boredom, technology and leisure

Overview: This lecture will explore the “malaises of modernity” through a discussion of the technology and the “culture industry.” While some thinkers

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suggest that the modern project is completed at the “end of history” followed by millennia of boredom, it is argued that the revival of the ancient practice of leisure might resuscitate a richer experience of being human.

Readings: "The Culture Industry" chapter of Horkheimer and Adorno's Dialectic of Enlightenment: Philosophical Fragments. (Hand-out)Thomas de Zengotita's “The Numbing of the American Mind: Culture as Anesthetic.” Harper's Magazine. Vol. 304, Issue 1823. April (2002): 33-40. (Available online)


Week Four: Indolence, Race and Class

May 26 – Lecturer: Sarah Winters (English Studies) Topic: The Couch Potato and Fan Fiction

Overview: One powerful contemporary image of sloth is the couch potato watching television in a glassy-eyed state of passive consumerism. But many viewers of television and film are not passive, but rather creative and transformative in their viewing. This lecture examines the labour of fandom in relation to the Harry Potter movies, including fan fiction, fan vids, and fan activism. It examines whether fandom’s labours of love, unpaid and outside the capitalist system, can be categorized as sloth at all.

*STUDENTS SHOULD TRY TO WATCH ALL 8 HARRY POTTER FILMS PRIOR TO THIS LECTURE (THERE WILL BE SPOILERS)

Readings: 1. Jenkins, Henry. "Cultural Acupuncture: Fan Activism and the Harry Potter

Alliance"http://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/article/view/305/259

2. Stanfill, Mel and Megan Condis: "Fandom and/as labor"http://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/article/view/593/421

3. Turk, Tisha: "Fan work: Labor, worth, and participation in fandom's gift economy"

http://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/article/view/518/428

May 27 – Course Director: Reneé Valiquette

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May 28 – Lecturer; Leslie Thielen-Wilson (Gender Equality & Social Justice) Topic: Colonialism, Race, "the Indolent Native", and You

Overview: Why did European colonizers / settlers in the Canadian context, mobilize representations of Indigenous people as “indolent”: slothful, lazy, non-industrious, and stuck in a pre-modern time? What do these “race logics” reveal about settlers and how colonial power operates? How are these race logics connected not only to the past violence of land-theft and Indian residential schools, but to contemporary settler violence against Indigenous women, children, men, and Nations? This lecture draws upon critical race, critical Indigenous, settler colonial, and feminist anti-racism studies to explore these questions and their significance for social justice and change today.

Readings: Green, Joyce (2006). “From Stonechild to Social Cohesion: Anti-racist Challenges for Saskatchewan.” Canadian Journal of Political Science vol. 39.3 (Sept): 507-527. (Required – Blackboard)

John Sutton Lutz (2008) “Making the Lazy Indian,” pages 31-37: excerpt from Chapter Three of Makuk: A New History of Aboriginal-White Relations. (Blackboard – Recommended)


Week Five: Environmental Sloth

June 2 – Lecturers: Kirsten Greer & Jamie Murton (Geography/History) Topic: Climate, Sloth and Empire and Slothful Food

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00wfhgg

Overview & Readings: Forthcoming. See copy of syllabus posted to Blackboard.

June 3 - Course Director: Renée Valiquette

June 4 – Lecturer: Roger Bernades (Education) Topic: Obesity: Movement as the heart of the issue?

Overview: Sloth has many negative connotations including its association with obesity. The World Health Organization has declared obesity a disease, and children are the group most implicated in the "war on obesity" due to the anticipated burden they will place on our health care system. As a result, schools, and physical education in particular, are seen as appropriate avenues of intervention. BUT, there is much less consensus on the science of obesity than one might expect; Obesity is actually protective in some invasive medical

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00wfhgg

procedures, and there is the growing recognition of the possibility of being fat, heathy, and active. Further, it is possible that current physical education practices continue to marginalize bigger students already stigmatized by other segments of society (for example, BMI, standardized performance tests, etc). We often treat bigger bodies as problematic subjects in need of being fixed through fitness regiments. In short, these practices do not help people lead healthier lives, and we need to look for ways to make being fat a survivable experience in physical education, as well as explore ways in which bigger bodies can positively re-imagine themselves doing physical activity.

Readings: Beausoleil & Ward (2010). Fat panic in Canadian public health policy: obesity as different and unhealthy. Radical Psychology. 8(1) (Blackboard)

June 5 – Course Director: Renée Valiquette *Final Exam Review distributed.

Week Six: The Ethics of Sloth

June 9 – Lecturer: Nestar Russell (Criminal Justice) & Johanna FraserTopic: It’s just easier to flip the switch! The Milgram experiments, climate change and

moral sloth Overview: Over half a century ago American social psychologist Stanley Milgram (1963) undertook his (in)famous Obedience to Authority experiments. The most well-known variation demonstrated that 65 percent of ordinary people would, albeit hesitantly, follow an experimenter’s instructions to inflict seemingly intense electrical shocks on an innocent, even likeable, person. This lecture will present Milgram’s results along with a theoretical overview of some of the more powerful psychological, social psychological and sociological forces behind them. This presentation will show that many of these forces can be traced back to the sloth that, to varying degrees, can be found in all of us.

Readings: Nestar J. C. Russell and Robert J Gregory. “Spinning an Organizational “Web of Obligation”? Moral Choice in Stanley Milgram’s ‘Obedience’ Experiments.” The American Review of Public Administration. September 2011, Volume 41(Issue5) Page p.495-518

Nestar Russell. “The Emergence of Milgram’s Bureaucratic Machine.” Arthur G. Miller, S. Alexander Haslam, & Stephen D. Reicher, Eds. Milgram at 50: The enduring relevance of psychology’s most famous studies (Blackboard)

Albert Bandura “Impeding ecological sustainability through selective moral disengagement” Int. J. Innovation and Sustainable Development, Vol. 2, No. 1 , 2007 (Blackboard)

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Milgram, S. (1963). Behavioral study of obedience. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 67(4), 371-378. (Blackboard)

June 10 – Course Director: Renée Valiquette Final discussion/colloquium *Final essay due

June 11 – Review class June 12 – Final exam – 12pm – 3pm

UNIV 2005: Introduction to Cross-disciplinary Analysis: W A T E RTHURSDAYS, 6:30pm-9:20pm SEPTEMBER 11th – APRIL 2nd COURSE FACILITATOR: Renée Valiquette([email protected])

Overview...Interdisciplinarity as an academic practice recognizes that the world doesn’t always exist in neat, disciplined categories. Despite the important and necessary distinctions that we make between economics and poetics, psychology and biology, to offer just two examples, the ideas and problems considered in each of these fields also connect to and impact one another. While disciplined knowledge is essential, without recognizing the limitations of any one approach we risk becoming thinkers unable to see “the big picture.” Disciplinary study engenders remarkable depths of expertise, but interdisciplinarity reminds us that expertise in one area doesn’t compensate for ignorance in others. In this way, interdisciplinarity challenges the notion of “mastery” in education and knowledge production.

Course Expectations and Outcomes: *To introduce students to the history, theories and methodologies of interdisciplinarity. *To explore the benefits of interdisciplinary thinking and application.*To emphasize the risks of narrowly conceived disciplinarity. *To draw attention to the interdisciplinary work already being done within disciplinary boundaries and in existing interdisciplinary programs. *To exhibit Nipissing’s unique contribution to interdisciplinary teaching and curriculum.*To introduce students to faculty members pushing and challenging the boundaries of their disciplines, and stretching conversations to make more connections possible. *To engage students in the production of emergent, interdisciplinary knowledge on WATER.

Readings... Readings will be provided to students as handouts or made available through blackboard.

31

Assignments...

Participation (15%) Engagement in and commitment to class discussions is especially important for an experimental course such as this one. In order for success to be achieved, students need to be invested in the project as a whole, to be willing to help their fellow students when confusion arises and to do their best to facilitate a welcoming and productive classroom environment. To those of you for whom talking comes easily, you will need to practice listening and helping to make your peers feel as comfortable sharing as you do. To the non-talkers, we really need you to challenge yourselves to actively engage with your peers and vocalize your questions and observations.


Reading and Lecture Journal (30%) Students will keep a journal throughout the course, which they will hand in 6 times throughout the course. Students will make journal entries engaging with and discussing the ideas presented by the guest lecturers, reviewing and reflecting on the content presented and class discussions of this content. These entries must also engage the readings assigned for the lecture. Students will also do entries for the lectures facilitated be Renee. These entries can be more creative, but should focus on integrating ideas from multiple lectures. Entries should be approximately 500 words, singled spaced 12 point font. Each submission will be worth 6% of the overall journal grade (6 x 5 = 30).

Entry 1: Due October 23 (September 18 – October 9: 4 entries)Entry 2: Due November 27 (October 23 – November 20: 5 entries) Entry 3: Due February 5 (November 27 – January 29: 5 entries)Entry 4: Due March 12 (February 5 – March 6/7 – will include longer piece on conference: 4 entries) Entry 5: Due April 2 (March 12 – March 26 + Overall assessment entry: 4 entries)

Late entries will not be accepted.

*In grading the journals, I will look for students to demonstrate the depth of their understanding of readings and lectures through detailed engagement and analysis.

Essay (25%) – Due March 19th Students will write an 8 page, doubled spaced essay, beginning with the following question.

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With reference to a minimum of four readings from guest lectures and three readings on interdisciplinarity, provide an interdisciplinary analysis of “WATER.”

Final Exam – DATE TBA - 30% The exam will be comprised of short answer questions that will be provided to students prior to the exam date.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

September 11: Introductions and How We Arrived at WATER

Lecturers: Renée Valiquette, Gender Equality & Social Justice, Liberal Arts Muskoka & Dr. Sal Renshaw, Gender Equality & Social Justice, Religions & Cultures

September 18: “Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink.”

Lecturer: Dr. Robert Hemmings, English Studies & Liberal Arts Muskoka

Overview: The title of this lecture, taken from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” acknowledges the ubiquity of water, often figured as a natural life force, and then immediately negates its potential vitality by stripping it of its capacity for sustenance. Water is at once everywhere and unavailable.

This lecture looks at water from the disciplinary perspective of English Studies. English Studies is an increasingly interdisciplinary discipline that is interested in a wide range of cultural texts, including novels, poems, plays, films, architecture, advertisements, fashion, and painting, among others. So, in this lecture I examine the literary richness of water by exploring its symbolic potential in poetic and pictorial representations of oceans, lakes, rivers and ponds, in both fluid and frozen forms, and consider the mysteries that lurk beneath surfaces.

The lecture is meant to demonstrate some of the techniques of literary inquiry by attentively reading a handful of superb poems by profoundly gifted but diverse poets, starting with the English Romantic poet S.T. Coleridge, and ending up with later 20th century North American poets.

Readings: Provided as hand-outs

S.T. Coleridge, "Rime of the Ancient Mariner"

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http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poems/rime-ancient-mariner-text-1834

William Wordsworth, The Prelude, Book 1, lines 452-489http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poems/prelude-book-1-childhood-and-school-time#poemline-181

Edmund Blunden, "The Midnight Skaters"

Margaret Atwood, "This is a Photograph of Me"

Adrienne Rich, "Diving into the Wreck"

September 25: Approaching Interdisciplinary

Course facilitator: Renée Valiquette

Readings: *Joe Moran, “Introduction” Interdisciplinarity (Blackboard) *Kathryn Shailer, "Interdisciplinarity in a Disciplinary Universe: A

Review of Key Issues" (Blackboard)

October 2: "UNTAPPING WATERSHED MIND": Water, Justice, and the Environmental Imaginary

Lecturer: Dr. Astrida Neimanis, Environmental Humanities, University of Sydney, Australia

Overview: What does it mean to "untap our watershed mind"? How might reimagining our relationship to water help us protect the bodies of water that sustain all life on earth? In this lecture/discussion, we will weave together research from the natural sciences, social sciences and humanities to explore the meaning of water in our everyday lives, and how that meaning shifts across various social, cultural and economic contexts. As we will discover, how we treat water is strongly related to what we imagine water to be. Key concepts that we will explore include: environmental imaginaries; naturecultures; "bodies of water"; hypersea; and water justice.

Reading: D. Christian and R. Wong, "Untapping Watershed Mind" in Thinking with Water, eds. C. Chen, J. MacLeod and A. Neimanis (MQUP 2013). (Hand-out)

October 9: – Decolonizing Disciplinarity: Indigenous Perspectives

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http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poems/prelude-book-1-childhood-and-school-time#poemline-181

http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poems/prelude-book-1-childhood-and-school-time#poemline-181

http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poems/rime-ancient-mariner-text-1834

Lecturer: Dr. Jennifer Walker, Child and Family Studies (Muskoka Campus)

Overview: This session will provide an overview of Two-Eyed Seeing, a guiding principle for co-learning coined by Mi’kmaw Elder Albert Marshall. This approach refers to learning to see through two lenses: Indigenous and Western ways of knowing, taking the best from each to improve the way that we live for the benefit of all. We will explore reflections on water from the perspectives of Indigenous peoples. In particular, the relationship between Indigenous women and water will be discussed.

Readings:

Kim Anderson, “Aboriginal Women, Water and Health: Reflections from Eleven First Nations, Inuit and Métis Grandmothers”http://www.onwa.ca/upload/documents/womenandwater.pdf

“Two Eyed Seeing” (website)http://www.integrativescience.ca/Principles/TwoEyedSeeing

October 16: READING WEEK: No Classes

October 23: TAKING TO THE WATER: Wilderness canoe trips as a means of travel for personal and group exploration

Lecturer: Steve Cairns, RN, BScN, Bed, Med, School of Nursing, Nipissing Muskoka

Overview: Steve Cairns has been a leader in adventure-based education programs for over 25 years. Working for Outward Bound Canada since 2002, he has led wilderness canoe trips through many of the lakes and rivers of Ontario and it is through these experiences that Steve hopes to share WATER as a means of travel for personal and group exploration.

Readings: Reflections of Exploration through Water

Pages 24 and 25 of this article:

Joyce M. (1988). Rocks & Rivers, Men & Women: Learning from Each other at Outward Bound . The Journal of Canadian Outward Bound Wilderness School (COBWS) Education, 4(1), 22-25. Retrieved from:http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CC0QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fstaff.outwardbound.ca%2Fjournal%2FVol04_1988_COBWS.pdf&ei=Sm8PVKrmAcy1yATa7YGQCA&usg=AFQjC

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http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CC0QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fstaff.outwardbound.ca%2Fjournal%2FVol04_1988_COBWS.pdf&ei=Sm8PVKrmAcy1yATa7YGQCA&usg=AFQjCNEOUAJE89gGMPoJbL0vUa9bDpAnrA&sig2=pDxrsdGAe_ckYWZYPML6mw&bvm=bv.74649129


http://www.integrativescience.ca/Principles/TwoEyedSeeing

http://www.onwa.ca/upload/documents/womenandwater.pdf

NEOUAJE89gGMPoJbL0vUa9bDpAnrA&sig2=pDxrsdGAe_ckYWZYPML6mw&bvm=bv.74649129,d.aWw

Bogner, F. (1998). The Influence of Short-Term Outdoor Ecology Educationon Long-Term Variables of Environmental Perspective, The Journal of Environmental Education, 29(4), 17-29. Retrieved from:http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00958969809599124

By Anu Rao, A. (2014), The canoe reminds us that we are all one, The David Suzuki Foundation, July 24. Retrieved from:http://davidsuzuki.org/blogs/healthy-oceans-blog/2014/07/the-canoe-reminds-us-that-we-are-all-one/

Sieniuc, K. (2014). Wahta Mohawks to portage in protest of hydro plant in Muskoka region, The Globe and Mail, August 27, 2014. retrieved from:http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/wahta-mohawks-to-portage-in-protest-of-hydro-plant-in-muskoka-region/article20230502/ Video:CTV Barrie Staff, (2014). Wahta First Nation holds portage protest over hydro plant in Bala, CTV News Barrie, Thursday, August 28. retrieved from:http://barrie.ctvnews.ca/wahta-first-nation-holds-portage-protest-over-hydro-plant-in-bala-1.1981649

*We will meet at Muskoka Outfitters at 6:30 for gentle kayak on the Muskoka River. There will be a shortened lecture after the expedition. Further details to follow.

October 30: Sustainable Knowledge: A Theory of Interdisciplinarity


Readings: Robert Frodeman, “Introduction,” “Disciplinarity,” “Interdisciplinarity” Sustainable Knowledge: A Theory of Interdisciplinarity” (Handout)

November 6: Solving Major Environmental Problems

Lecturer: Dr. Norm Yan, Senior Research Scholar, Department of Biology, York University c/o Dorset Environmental Science Centre

Overview: My overall idea for my 3 hour class is to: i) prove to the class that society has, on several occasions, solved major environmental problems, ii) take the key elements that were used to solve these problems and assemble them into a

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http://barrie.ctvnews.ca/wahta-first-nation-holds-portage-protest-over-hydro-plant-in-bala-1.1981649

http://barrie.ctvnews.ca/wahta-first-nation-holds-portage-protest-over-hydro-plant-in-bala-1.1981649

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/wahta-mohawks-to-portage-in-protest-of-hydro-plant-in-muskoka-region/article20230502/

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/wahta-mohawks-to-portage-in-protest-of-hydro-plant-in-muskoka-region/article20230502/

http://davidsuzuki.org/blogs/healthy-oceans-blog/2014/07/the-canoe-reminds-us-that-we-are-all-one/

http://davidsuzuki.org/blogs/healthy-oceans-blog/2014/07/the-canoe-reminds-us-that-we-are-all-one/

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00958969809599124



generic environmental protection and management model, and iii) used these elements to consider how we could solve the problems that are currently facing Muskoka’s lakes.

I will begin the class by demonstrating that we have made great progress in solving the regional, national and international problems that started the environmental movement – lead pollution, DDT and the loss of birds, the “death” of the Great Lakes, and acid rain. As a class, we will then examine the key common features of these recovery stories, noting that solutions required problem recognition, diagnosis, public involvement, and restorative intervention, all of which required social change. We will assemble the common features of these environmental good news stories into a generic environmental protection and management model, then see if this model can help us to solve any of the environmental problems currently facing Muskoka’s waters.

Readings: Ehrlich, P.R. and G.C. Daily. 1993. Science and the management of natural resources. Ecol. Applicat. 3(4): 558-560 (Blackboard)

November 13: Sustainable Knowledge, continued

Readings: Robert Frodeman, “Introduction,” “Disciplinarity,” “Interdisciplinarity” Sustainable Knowledge: A Theory of Interdisciplinarity” (Handout)

November 20: Waterboarding and International Human Rights

Lecturer: Dr. Rosemary Nagy, Gender Equality & Social Justice, Human Rights Nipissing, North Bay Campus

Overview: Is waterboarding a form of torture or an enhanced interrogation technique? Is it "how we baptize terrorists" or a practice in the violation of fundamental human rights? How does the water separating the United States and Cuba (i.e. the Gulf of Mexico) make the practice of waterboarding a seeming exception to American and international laws prohibiting torture? In this lecture we examine the definition, purpose and effects of torture, and ask whether torture can ever be morally or legally justified.

Readings: Eric Weiner, "Waterboarding: A Tortured History," NPR 3 November 2007 at: http://www.npr.org/2007/11/03/15886834/waterboarding-a-tortured-history

Gewen, Barry. "The Gray Zone." World Affairs 173, no. 1 (May, 2010): 49-61. [access through library catalogue]

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http://www.npr.org/2007/11/03/15886834/waterboarding-a-tortured-history

http://www.npr.org/2007/11/03/15886834/waterboarding-a-tortured-history

Jones, Dan. "Beyond Waterboarding: The Science of Interrogation." New Scientist 205, no. 2750 (March 6, 2010): 40-43. [access through library catalogue]

Additional recommended:

Amnesty International, "The Torture Memos" 4 May 2009 at http://www.amnesty.org.au/hrs/comments/20923/.

Human Rights Watch, "Getting Away with Torture: The Bush Administration and the mistreatment of detainees," (Human Rights Watch, New York: 2011) at http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/us0711webwcover_1.pdf [read summary]

November 27: Water interpreters: using aquatic organisms to understand the biological outcome of water quality

Lecturer: Martha Celis, MSc, York University/ ERASMUS University of Windsor

Overview: Aquatic organisms are used as water quality indicators; what they do is 'read' the water for us. Water chemistry is the basis for aquatic research related to ecological stress, but some organisms help us interpret what is actually happening at the most sensitive end of the biological community when the water quality changes, either for good or for bad. Vast arrays of biological responses provide information on the severity of ecological stress; the complexity of biologically interpreting water quality will be addressed.

OBJECTIVES: Students will understand: (1) What is water quality? (2) How and why is water quality determined? (3) The use of aquatic organisms as interpreters of water quality.

These objectives will be achieved by analyzing the following topics and activity:a) The quality of water: physical, chemical and biological perspectives.

b) Aquatic animals as water quality interpreters: a. Sensitive species. Examples:

i. Algae and crustaceans as water quality interpreters: sources, potential, limitations.

ii. Conceptual model of the use of microalgae and crustaceans for the interpretation of water quality. Example: metal stressed ecosystems.

iii. Who are the interpreters? Example: Aquaculture and conservation.

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c) Recent trends in the search for biological indicators of aquatic stress: Metabolomics, proteomics, lipidomics, genomics, paleolimnology, resurrection ecology.

d) Build a model:i. Basic steps for the evaluation of the current status of an aquatic

species.ii. What, when, who is needed.

Reading: Altshuler,I., Demiri,B., Xu,S., Constantin,A., Yan,N. and Cristescu,M. 2012. An Integrated Multi-Disciplinary Approach for Studying Multiple Stressors in Freshwater Ecosystems: Daphnia as a Model Organism. Integrative and Comparative Biology 51 (4): 623–633. (Blackboard)

December 4: Interdisciplinary Methodology

Course facilitator: Renée Valiquette No readings

------------HOLIDAY BREAK-------------------------------

January 15: Valences of Interdisciplinarity: Decolonizing Teaching and Learning


Readings: Roxana Ng, “Decolonizing Teaching and Learning Through Embodied Learning.” Valences of Interdisciplinarity (Blackboard)

January 22: Colonial Tears: The Exploitation of Water as a Natural Resource in 'Canada's' History, From Contact to the Present Day

Lecturer: Dr. Darren Ferry, History & Liberal Arts Muskoka

Overview: As a geographical entity, “Canada” is a nation abundant with natural resources, particularly as it concerns the utilization of water. Water has always been essential for the operation and growth of all Canada’s natural resource sectors, and has traditionally been a resource ripe for exploitation. Striking a balance between economic growth and environmental stewardship pertaining to water has been an ongoing challenge since the first European settlers “colonized”

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this land. This lecture examines the legacy of colonialism as it pertains to water throughout Canada’s history, and will explore the following themes: First Nations and equilibrium with water as a resource; the exploitation of the early fishery; water as transportation; the employments of water in the industrial age; sanitation and the development of lakes and rivers; hydroelectric power and the commodification of water in Canada’s near future.

Readings: Kurt Korneski, “Development and Degradation: The Emergence and Collapse of the Lobster Fishery on Newfoundland’s West Coast, 1856-1924,” Acadiensis 41, no.1, (Winter/Spring 2012): 21-48. (Blackboard)

Tina Loo with Meg Stanley, “An Environmental History of Progress: Damming the Peace and Columbia Rivers,” Canadian Historical Review 92, no. 3, (September 2011): 399-426. (Blackboard)

January 29: Valences of Interdisciplinarity: Ecological Thinking as Interdisciplinarity


Readings: Lorraine Code, “Ecological Thinking as Interdisciplinarity Practice” Valences of Interdisciplinarity (Blackboard)

February 5: Water: A social-ecological perspective

Lecturer: Dr. Dan Walters, Geography, Nipissing North Bay Overview & Readings: Forthcoming

February 12: WATERbending!

February 19: READING WEEK

February 26: Decolonizing Methodologies


Readings: “Introduction” + “Research Through Imperial Eyes,” Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples (Handout)

March 6-7: CLASS MOVED TO FRIDAY/SATURDAY

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MINI CONFERENCE: Decolonizing WATER through Interdisciplinarity

Confirmed Guest Panel: Indigenizing WATER: Art as Decolonization WATER and Indigenous Art: How Indigenous art is used in practices of decolonization? Dances of resistance – Christina

Dr. Heather Igloliorte (Inuit, Nunatsiavut Territory of Labrador), Assistant Professor, Aboriginal Art History, Concordia University

Dr. Igloliorte's teaching and research interests center on Inuit and other Native North American visual and material culture, circumpolar art studies, performance and media art, the global exhibition of Indigenous arts and culture, and issues of colonization, sovereignty, resistance and resilience.http://art-history.concordia.ca/people/faculty/igloliorte_heather.php

Dr. Carla Taunton, Assistant Professor, Division of Art History and Critical Studies, NSCAD University

Dr. Taunton’s areas of expertise include Indigenous arts and methodologies, contemporary Canadian art, museum and curatorial studies as well as theories of decolonization, anti-colonialism, and settler responsibility. Drawing on collaborative research models, her current research focuses on Indigenous arts-based approaches towards the socio-political projects of decolonization, indigenization and social-justice. http://nscad.ca/en/home/academicprograms/arthistoryandcriticalstudies/faculty/carlataunton.aspx

Dr. Julie Nagam, Assistant Professor, Indigenous Visual Culture Program, OCAD University

Dr. Nagam’s research interests include a (re)mapping of the colonial state through creative interventions within concepts of native space. She demonstrates knowledge in the areas of cultural geography (urban, rural and remote space), Indigenous critical theory, cultural and post-colonial theory.http://apache.ocad.ca/faculty_biographies/bio.php?bid=1449&fac=liberal%20studies

MANY MORE DETAILS TO COME!

March 12: Forthcoming

Lecturer: Dr. Reehan Mirza, Department of Biology and Chemistry, Nipissing North Bay

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http://apache.ocad.ca/faculty_biographies/bio.php?bid=1449&fac=liberal%20studies

http://apache.ocad.ca/faculty_biographies/bio.php?bid=1449&fac=liberal%20studies

http://nscad.ca/en/home/academicprograms/arthistoryandcriticalstudies/faculty/carlataunton.aspx

http://nscad.ca/en/home/academicprograms/arthistoryandcriticalstudies/faculty/carlataunton.aspx

http://art-history.concordia.ca/people/faculty/igloliorte_heather.php

Overview & Readings: Forthcoming

March 19: From Conceptual Interdisciplinarity to Tackling Wicked Problems


Readings: Valerie A. Brown, John A. Harris, Jacqueline Y. Russell, eds. Tackling Wicked Problems: Through the Transdisciplinary

Imagination (excerpts – handout)

*FINAL ESSAY DUE

March 26: For Crying Out Loud…a whirlwind cultural history of tears

Lecturer: Dr. Sal Renshaw, Gender Equality & Social Justice, Religions & Cultures

Overview & Readings: Forthcoming

April 2: Wicked problems, continued


Final Exam: TBA

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Appendix B

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