EXNS - CE - Faculty of Native Studies

This course pulls the rug from underneath settler-based constructions of Indigeneity. Taking up the most prevalent stereotypes of Indigenous people, the course will provide context and reflection-based learning to give students the ability to unpack and challenge the narratives that both skew the lived experience of Indigenous peoples and allow the replication of stereotypes that reinforce colonial relationships.

This course provides foundational lessons about historical scientific relationships between Indigenous communities and colonial science fields in North America. Students will be introduced to key terms, nuances, and concepts to identify what decolonization means and how it can be pursued in science and research today. This class informs learners about impacts on Indigenous nations and non-humans from science practices, how they have taken place, and how to build ethical practices in varying contexts and advance Indigenous governance.

Created in partnership with Les Femmes Michif Otipemisiwak Women of the Métis Nation, features instruction from leading scholars in Métis studies across Canada. By highlighting concepts like kinship, nationhood, peoplehood, and wahkohtowin students will critically assess conceptual norms of leadership and recognize how colonization and racism have affected Métis women's leadership. Students will gain an increased knowledge and awareness of Métis culture and traditions and the skills to strengthen their leadership capacity for personal and community development.

Created in partnership with Les Femmes Michif Otipemisiwak Women of the Métis Nation, features instruction from leading scholars in Métis studies across Canada. By highlighting concepts like kinship, nationhood, peoplehood, and wahkohtowin students will critically assess conceptual norms of leadership and recognize how colonization and racism have affected Métis women's leadership. Students will gain an increased knowledge and awareness of Métis culture and traditions and the skills to strengthen their leadership capacity for personal and community development.

Created in partnership with Les Femmes Michif Otipemisiwak Women of the Métis Nation, features instruction from leading scholars in Métis studies across Canada. By highlighting concepts like kinship, nationhood, peoplehood, and wahkohtowin students will critically assess conceptual norms of leadership and recognize how colonization and racism have affected Métis women's leadership. Students will gain an increased knowledge and awareness of Métis culture and traditions and the skills to strengthen their leadership capacity for personal and community development.

Grounded in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Calls to Action, this micro-course introduces key anti-racism concepts that are applied to various sectors (education, social services, and the policing and legal system). By using real world case studies and Indigenous led content to provide learners with Indigenous perspectives and experiences, this micro-course points to successful efforts to tackle issues related to structural racism in Canada.

Learn about Indigenous historical and contemporary experiences to understand the legacy of settler colonialism and affirm Indigenous self-determination. Topics covered include worldview, resources and relations, governance and treaty, institutionalization, contemporary communities, and resistance and resiliency. Sharpen your critical thinking skills to strengthen personal and professional ethics, and deepen Indigenous/non-Indigenous collaboration through building literacy about Indigenous societies, enhancing intercultural awareness, and obtaining balanced facts about Canadian history and current realities

This microcredential introduces anti-Indigenous stereotypes in North America, outlines how the brain develops and perpetuates stereotypes within North America's settler colonial context, and covers how to interrupt stereotypes when they arise. Including some foundational stereotypes and concepts that are essential to understand, this microcredential outlines the social and political functions of stereotypes and concludes by deconstructing two significant stereotypes - that the Canadian State is a benevolent entity and that Indigenous peoples get everything for free and are largely unemployed. Both Indigenous and non-Indigenous relationships to stereotyping are presented.

This microcredential examines representations of Indigenous peoples in mainstream media, pop culture, and social discourse. These lectures connect how settlers have portrayed Indigenous peoples: as exotic, savage, noble, disappearing, etc. with the real world impacts of those portrayals - including violence against Indigenous women, psychological harm, appropriation, and the justification of ongoing settler colonialism. Each lecture further explores how Indigenous creators, scholars, and activists are pushing back against stereotypical representations, and how students can support this work and/or make interventions of their own. Prerequisite: EXNS 2805.

This microcredential takes a closer look at the relationship between anti-Indigenous stereotypes and socio-political-economic systems in North America. We examine how stereotypes are mobilized to maintain settler systems of power, which suppress Indigenous resistance and lifeways and naturalize the dispossession and subordination of Indigenous peoples. Lectures address stereotypes of criminality, dysfunction, angry protestors, and the assumption that Indigenous people should get over colonialism. Students are provided with tools needed to analyze, intervene on, and reframe these narratives to support the work and actions Indigenous people are already undertaking. Prerequisite: EXNS 2805.

This course introduces students to principles for collaborating well with Indigenous communities. Course content provides learners with tools to ethically conduct community-based research with Indigenous communities by gaining deeper awareness of the historical context and becoming familiar with current guidelines and standards. Students will gain appreciation for the importance of data sovereignty, co-design, structural barriers and dialogue-based approaches to engagement. The course highlights leading Indigenous scientists and successful case studies to provide real life examples and expose students to the exciting work being done in Indigenous technoscience. Prerequisite: EXNS 2801.

This course brings learners into deeper awareness of how Indigenous scientists are undertaking work in the field, including their goals, practices, mentorship approaches and decolonizing methods. Learners will be exposed to relational frameworks and nation-specific concepts that are guiding principles for producing, applying and governing knowledge. Case studies that are introduced include the Indigenous STS research and teaching hub at the University of Alberta, Indigenous astronomy, and contextual factors, such as Indigenous citizenship policies, epidemics and immunizations, in the field of medicine. Prerequisite: EXNS 2801.

Ancré dans les appels à l'action de la commission de vérité et réconciliation, ce micro-cours introduit les concepts clés de l'antiracisme qui sont appliqués à plusieurs secteurs (éducation, services sociaux et le système judiciaire et policier). En utilisant des vrais études de cas et en utilisant du contenu dirigé par des autochtones pour pouvoir offrir à ceux qui suivent ce cours des perspectives et expériences autochtones, ce micro-cours démontre le succès dans ces efforts de lutter contre les problèmes structurels reliés au racisme structurel au Canada.