Concordia University
Art History/Indigenous Studies

Websites:

*Art History Department: http://art-history.concordia.ca/

*First Nations Art: An Introduction to Contemporary Native Artists in Canada ((sometimes doesn't work???)): http://collections.ic.gc.ca/artists/

*Centre for Native Education at Concordia University (2110 Mackay 3 rd Floor, 514-848-2424 ext. 7326, manon@alcor.concordia.ca ).   The Centre also has a reading room in their V Annex that has many books and videos on First Nations, Inuit and Métis subjects.   It is open between 9-5 Monday through Friday.   Website has extensive list of scholarships: http://supportservices.concordia.ca/nativecentre/

Relevant Theses Completed at Concordia:

*Khatchadourian, Annie.   Raven's Reprise: A Pivotal Point in Exhibition Practice of             Aboriginal Art in Canada .   2007.   MA Art History.   J. Acland Supervisor.

*Simms, Jordan.   Cheating the End: Native Artifacts Contaminated with Toxic             Preservatives .   2007.   MA Art History.   J. Acland Supervisor.

*Duval, Carolyne.   Revealing Teacher's Values Through Conversations about the             Amauti: An Art Based Research about an Inuit Traditional Garment.   2006.   MA             Art Education.   L. Blair Supervisor.

*David Cree, Linda.   Would You Like to Hear a Story?   Mohawk Youth Narratives on             the Role of the History of Quebec and Canada on Indigenous Identity and             Marginality .   2005.   MA Educational Studies.   L. Cleghorn Supervisor.

*Dmytruk, Irmela Agnes.   The Manichaen Body: Rebecca Belmore's Art Making in the             Context of Socially Responsive Activist Art.   2004.   MA Art History.   J. Acland             Supervisor.

*Hoang, Quyen.   First Nations People Mining the Museum: A Case Study at the             Glenbow Museum .   2003.   MA Aart History.   J. Acland Supervisor.

*Jarosova, Marketa.   First Nations, Museums and McCord Museum's Journey Across             Borders .   2001.   MA Art History.   J. Acland Supervisor.

*Tomasic, Patricia.   The De-Construction of 'Indianess' at Writing-On-Stone Provincial             Park .   2001.   MA Art History.   J. Acland Supervisor.

*Wise, Jonathon.   Photographic Memory: Inuit Representation in the Work of Peter             Pitseolak .   2000.   MA Art History.

*Meier, Rhonda Louise.   Re-Membering the Colonial Present: Jimmie Durham's Serious             Dance .   1999.   MA Art History.   J. Acland Supervisor.

*Mattes, Catherine.   Whose Hero?   Images of Louis Riel in Contemporary Art and Métis             Nationhood .   1998.   MA Art History.   J. Acland Supervisor.

*Mullick, Nancy.   The Transfer of the Northern Affairs (NA) and Indian and Northern             Affairs of Canada (INAC) Collection of Inuit Art: 1985-1992 .   1998.   MA Art             History.   J. Acland Supervisor.

*Szawlowski, Grazyna.   Inherent Rights, Vision Rights: A Virtual Environment by             Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun .   1997.   MA Art History.   J Acland Supervisor.

*Acland, Joan Reid.   The Native Artistic Subject and National Identity: A Cultural             Analysis of the Architecture of the Canadian Museum of Civilization, Designed             by Douglas J. Cardinal .   1994.   PhD Humanities.   D. Howes Supervisor.

*Gaye Henderson, Lisa.   Emblems of Identity: An Introduction to the Paintings of Indian             Portraits in Canada .   1991.   MA Art History.   J. Belisle Supervisor.

*Swinton, Nelda.   The Inuit Sea Goddess .   1985.   MA Art History.   L. Lacroix             Supervisor.

Relevant Courses in Art History:

ARTH 376/2-A TOPIC-AMERINDIAN & INUIT ART Special Topic:  Tradition, Renewal and Survivance

SEMESTER: SEPTEMBER 2007                        J-13:00-15:15            SGW INSTRUCTOR: DR. SHERRY FARRELL RACETTE

This course is intended to provide an overview of the artistic production of First Nations, Inuit and Metis people in Canada.  The course will be divided into three themes:  traditional arts and the contentious issues around its collection and exhibition, change and continuity in traditional arts, and the emergence of contemporary indigenous arts practice.  Students must be ready to actively engage in hands-on experience, discussion and presentation.

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ARTH 379/2-A POSTCOLONIAL THEORY IN ART HISTORY

SEMESTER: SEPTEMBER 2007                        M-13:00-15:15  SGW INSTRUCTOR: DR. SHERRY FARRELL RACETTE

In the last twenty years postcolonial studies has challenged the theories and practices of art history.  This course will begin with a survey of key ideas within postcolonial theory, such as Orientalism, the construction of the colonized "Other," hybridity and diaspora.  We will also consider the 'post' in post-colonialism in relation to globalization, neocolonialism, and the resistant resilience of colonial ideologies.  Special attention will be given to issues of representation, the colonized body, amnesia and remembering, and artistic strategies of resistance.  Students will critically examine both the art created during the colonial period and the "post-colonial" response by artists in Australia, Africa, Asia, New Zealand, Britain and North America.

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ARTH 388/4-A            NARRATION AND ART

SEMESTER: JANUARY 2008                        W-15:30-17:45 SGW INSTRUCTOR:  DR. SHERRY FARRELL RACETTE

Artists have been engaging viewers in story for centuries.  Whether serving as a mnemonic device for a particular story or history, referencing and evoking collectively known stories, or complete/incomplete visual narratives, artists give stories visual form.  Stories assume and evoke voice and audience with a constant interplay between text and subtext, presence and absence.  We will examine these issues and the specific narrative devices utilized in examples ranging from Indigenous pictographic traditions, the Bayeux Tapestry and new media.  We will also explore the relationship between image and text, with an emphasis on illustrated children's books, comics, graphic novels and artist books.

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ARTH 389/2-A            ISSUES IN ETHNOCULTURAL ART HISTORY Special Topic:  Race, Citizenship and Art in Canada

SEMESTER: SEPTEMBER 2007                        T-13:00-15:15            SGW INSTRUCTOR: DR. ALICE MING WAI JIM

The year 2007 marks the 100th anniversary of the 1907 Vancouver Anti-Asian Riots, the 60th anniversary of the 1947 Canadian Citizenship Act, the 40th anniversary of the 1967 Canadian Immigration Act, and the 10th anniversary of the 1997 return of Hong Kong from British rule to the People's Republic of China.  These moments provide the historical framework for this course which explores Canadian art's engagement with a very different group of "sevens."  The course critically examines the politics of representation, redress and recognition in Canadian art, circa 1907-2007, focusing (not exclusively) on contemporary praxis by artists of Asian and African descent.  Topics include Emily Carr's approach to Chinese immigrants and First Nations peoples, migration histories and colonial stereotypes, Canada's role in the transatlantic passage and as part of the Pacific Rim, hyphenated identities and nationhood, the paradoxes of multiculturalism and cultural diversity, and the relationship between community, art and activism.

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Relevant Courses at Concordia:

  ANTH 204 Native Peoples of North America

Focusing primarily on the Native peoples of Canada, this course

examines the ecological, economic, social, and religious aspects of

Native cultures. A representation society from each geographic area of

Canada is studied. This course is primary ethnographic in emphasis, but

it also seeks to provide some of the social and historical background

necessary to understand the current situation of Native communities.  

ANTH 302 Art, Aesthetics and Anthropology  

This course examines the relationship between art and society. It is

mainly concerned with analysing how art may function as a means of

signifying and perpetuating a given social order. Examples of artistic

practise are drawn from diverse North and South American, African and

Melanesian cultures.  

ANTH 303   Indigenous Cultures Today  

A selection of case studies from around the world and in particular from

South and North America. The course focuses on the rights of

indigenous peoples, the question of cultural of cultural survival, the

contribution indigenous cultures make to world cultural diversity, and on

the ways they help us to understand what it is to be human through the

comparative method.   

RELI 368 Religion in Native Traditions

This overview looks at the many diverse religious traditions of the First

Nation population in North America. This course examines the sacred

stories, ceremonial patterns, life cycle rituals, and religious activities in

their varied expressions. Consideration is given to the historical

interaction of native government with religious practices.   

RELI 371 Religion and Healing  

An examination of the interaction between religious conception and

practices on one hand, and healing arts on the other. This course

considers such phenomena as shamanism; healing and Christian

shrines; Native healing rites; folk medicine of the Third World; modern

spiritual healing groups; the contemporary dialogue between established

forms of medicine, psychiatry, and religion in the twentieth century.    

RELI 398K (selected topics in religion)  

Women, Religion and Colonialism in North America

This course examines the impact on women of the encounter in North

America between Indigenous cosmologies and Christian colonialism.   It

considers the role of the white woman missionary and settler in

promoting a Christianity which ignored the symbolic   and cosmological

universe of Native peoples and it looks at how Native women created  

and lived out religious counter-narratives as acts of resistance to

colonialism.    

FMST 217 First Nations and Film

A survey of representation by and of aboriginal peoples in film and video.

The emphasis is on the Americas, but important works from other

continents are included. Films and videotapes, both mainstream and

experimental, are discussed in the context of contemporary aesthetic

issues, socio-cultural history, and post-colonial theory. Weekly

screenings.  

WSDB 381 First Nations' Women  

This course aims to acquaint students with North American First Nations,

particularly the women's contemporary realities. Other pedagogical

objectives are to facilitate an understanding of cultural perception; to

develop a critical viewpoint of ethnocentrism in mainstream society; to

introduce the current debate around minority representation cultural

appropriation, and post-colonial theory.  

COMS 419 Communication and Indigenous Peoples

Focusing on Canadian First Peoples territories in the North and South,

selected circumpolar regions, parts of Australia and other areas of the

world inhabited by indigenous peoples, this course examines from a

global perspective the historical, theoretical, and (cross-) cultural content

and contexts of aboriginal media - financing, audience research, product

development, distribution issues, and policy information. Broadcasting,

print, and digital media case studies and materials are a central

component.  

COMS 464 Race, Ethnicity and Media

This course addresses practical and theoretical issues of race and

ethnicity that have become focal points for current debates in public

cultural expressions and media studies. The following themes are

discussed: cultural / racial differences and its implications for media

studies; the (mis)representation of multicultural and multiracial minorities

in mainstream and alternative media; questions of access to arts and

other cultural funding sources; implications of employment equity

legislation in light of media budget cuts; and cross-cultural awareness

programs vs. anti-racist training for media professionals. Theoretical

readings which frame issues of cultural and racial representation are an

integral part of this course.  

GEOG 407 Indigenous Resource Management  

This course explores the relationship between indigenous people and the

environment. It focuses on two primary themes: first, it looks at ways in

which ecological knowledge shapes indigenous resource management,

land tenure, and sea-rights systems; and second, it examines the roles

of indigenous peoples and state authorities in land, sea and resource

management.  

HIST 398Q (Selected Topics in History): Native American History

HIST 398Z (Selected Topics in History): Latin American Indigenous Peoples

ENGL 380: First Nations/North American Literature