Indigeneity and the City
Urban Indigeneity in Canada today
PLAN 321 | January 3rd thru April 6th
Credit hours (3)
Tuesdays & Thursdays
12:30pm to 2:00pm
This course introduces students to the multiple, complex, and contested ways urban Indigeneity is constituted in Canada today. Through various strategies such as lectures, guest speakers, presentations, videos and site visits, students will critically engage with settler colonial constructions of Indigeneity and urban space, with attention to how such narratives continue to be expressed today. These issues will be examined from interdisciplinary and comparative perspectives drawing on material from the fields of Indigenous Studies, History, Cultural Geography, Planning and Community Health Studies. Through focusing on the role of local governments in addressing Indigenous/non-Indigenous relationships, students will gain a deeper understanding of how community and municipal development is closely connected to Indigenous self-determination and resurgence. The major assignment will immerse students in a city engagement project in which they will have the opportunity to activate the principles of place-based learning while engaging in contemporary urban development issues.
This course is taught by Lyana Patrick, a PhD Candidate in the School of Community and Regional Planning whose research focuses on urban Indigenous peoples and pedagogical practices that advance Indigenous Knowledge for the benefit of Indigenous communities. Lyana is from Stellat’en First Nation in BC’s North Interior.
This course is open to undergraduate students with 3rd year standing and above, or 2nd year students with permission of the instructor. Graduate students may also be eligible to receive credit towards their degree.
