Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation
This seminar explores nature, sport, parks, and travel at the crossroads of environmental and cultural history. It concerns ideas about nature expressed through outdoor pursuits and leisure from the 19th to the 21st century. Modern influences framed and promoted many outdoor pursuits and environments as natural, yet they were also culturally defined. Focused on Canada with international tangents, it studies conservation, adventure, wilderness, recreation, tourism, play, health, and body culture in outdoor life. Seminars may include topics such as natural history and field science, park origins and advocacy, mountaineering and paddling, snow sports and winter pastimes, expeditions and tours, wildlife and guiding, urban design and parks, outdoor education, youth movements and camps, nature art and literature, heritage and festivals, and tourism traced in cultural landscapes. Teaching encourages students from various disciplines to engage with history. Collaborative seminars and field trips incubate individualized research and writing to understand past and present concerns of people, place, and politics related to leisure and sustainability. Note: Credit will be granted for only one of KSR 504, KRLS 504 or PERLS 504.