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Halifax and the World

INTD 1102

Course Description

This course offers an introduction to both International Development Studies and Canadian Studies by exploring the connections between important global issues and your daily life as a student in Halifax. As you walk across the Dalhousie campus and go about daily life in Halifax, your actions connect you to people around the globe and to the history of the city and world as well as to the many works of literature, art and music that depict these connections. Here are just a few examples of connections that we will explore:

▪ your morning coffee connects you to the peasant farmers in Africa and Latin America who produced the coffee beans
▪ a cell phone call connects you to Child Soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the coltan used in making cell phones is mined and fought over – and to Guiyung, China – the world’s largest electronic waste site
▪ walking across the Dalhousie campus you are traversing what was once Mi’kmaq territory
▪ while walking downtown on a Friday night you might tread in the footsteps of the central characters in Hugh MacLennan’s novel Barometer Rising and other major works of Canadian fiction
▪ as you walk through the city you’ll see monuments and statues that commemorate the city’s early colonial leaders – which raise questions about how we chose to remember history of the city and its connections to the world.

The course will examine these and other connections between your daily life in Halifax and the world through lectures, guest speakers, films, tutorial discussions, and assignments that require you to physically explore the city as well as to read and write about the connections between your life in Halifax and the rest of the world in a variety of genres – including fiction, academic writing, journalism, music, art and theatre. Course assignments will require you to actively engage with community organizations in Halifax. The course will also examine some of the challenging ethical questions that come up when we become aware of our global connections – such as our moral obligations to other people on distant parts of the planet.

Learning Objectives

Course Outline

Evaluation and Assignments

Required Readings

Description of Assignments

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