Syllabus
Various issues relevant to the development of societies in the United States, Canada and Mexico in the decades since the end of World War will be treated:United States: - relationship betw. religion and state (school prayer and related issues)- right to life versus right of choice- Affirmative Action- immigration and migration- social capital- challenges posed by globalization, deindustrialization- conformism and nonconformism in the 1950s- McCarthyism: witchhunt or spyhunt?
CANADA
Class on April 26th - Canadian foreign PolicyGuest: Andrea Papouskova, Ph.D. student specialising in Canadian foreign policy will be giving presentation on currently hot topic for Canadian diplomacy - "Canada and Afghanistan: Canada as a key player around the NATO table?" MANDATORY TEXT Canada and the war in Afghanistan: NATO’s odd man out steps forward by Joseph T. Jockel, a and Joel J. Sokolsky, in Journal of Transatlantic Studies, Vol. 6, No. 1, April 2008, 100 - 115. (available in the SIS).
For this class, please read the attached article and prepare following discussion points:
· What do you think about the relevance of NATO in today’s security environment?
· Are alliances such as NATO advantageous for all members?
· What are your views on Canada’s decision to change its profile of engagement in Afghanistan?
· Judging on its contribution to missions through NATO, what image is Canada propounding?
Class on May 17th: Aboriginal issue in Canada: a portrait of life in reserves
Screening of the documentary film BETSIAMITES by DENIS CHOUINARD (2010, 27min), followed by the discussion with the filmmaker.
Prof. Chouinard is an Associate professor of film at Université du Quebec a Montréal and an award winning director (films: Clandestins/ Stowaways 1997 - Prize Bayard d'Or in Namur among others, Tar Angel /Ange de Goudron 2001 - Ecumenic Prize in Berlin, Délivrez-moi 2007). For more information available at http://www.coopvideo.ca/membres/denis-chouinard.en.
His latest film Betsiamites (pronounce Bette-Scie-Ah-Mitte) will be screened in French with English-subtitles. The documentary was filmed in the first nation community in Northern Quebec and it is a great portrait of the first nation life in the reserves, viewed by Indians themselves.
Mexico:
Annotation
This course, conducted in the English language, will offer participants insights into some of the most important topics of public debate in the United States in recent decades.