Winter Session 2024/25
*multi-access means you can attend lectures in-person or online
CENS 104: Canadian Monuments to Central & Eastern European History | Sample syllabus
Term 1 | multi-access | Tues/Thur 14:00 pm – 15:30 | 3 credits
Structural monuments and sites dedicated to the history of an immigration from Central and Eastern Europe in Canada and their influence on Canadian cultures of remembrance.
CENS 201: Capital and Commentary – Contexts
Term 1 | in-person | Mon/Wed 9:30 – 11:00 | 3 credits
Marx’s Capital (Das Kapital) is arguably the best known book in the canon of European Studies, and yet also the least read! The challenge, or wager, of this course is to read Capital as a literary, philosophical, sociological, historical, political and economic experiment in thinking otherwise about our past, present, and future. Together we’ll explore how Marx’s passion for both interpreting and changing the modern world speaks to his own context as well as to ours, with a focus on his ideas about class exploitation, settler colonialism, the gendered division of labour, chattel slavery, economic crises, and ecological breakdown. Knowledge of languages other than English, including but not limited to German, is an asset but not a prerequisite!
CENS 201: Nation and Identity in central and eastern europe
Term 2 | multi-access | Tues/Thurs 9:30 – 11:00 | 3 credits
This course explores the conflictual cultural history of Central and Eastern Europe from the eighteenth century to the present. We will investigate the historical roots of present-day conflicts, such as the fight for political stability on the Balkans, the struggle for Ukrainian lands, and the latent state of war in the Caucasus. Classes will be dedicated to lectures on and discussion of films and literary texts that reflect on these issues.
CENS 202: Lying, Deception, and Manipulation in Interpersonal and Mass Contexts
Terms 1 | in-person | Tues/Thurs 11:00 – 12:30 | 3 credits
If you are a curious mind, join this course to sharpen your critical thinking skills and enhance your ability to navigate an increasingly deceptive present-day life. This course views the intricate world of falsehoods through interdisciplinary lenses, examining the psychology behind lying, the mechanics of deception and ways of detecting it, historical contexts, ethical dimensions, and modern-day manifestations of manipulation as well as the proliferation of disinformation in contemporary political and media landscapes.
CENS 202: Changing Climates – Catastrophe and Gender in European Literature
Term 1 | in-person | Tues/Thurs 15:30pm – 17:00 | 3 credits
This course focuses on aspects of catastrophe and gender, humans and animals in a range of works from central, eastern, and northern European literatures from late medieval to modern times. It opens with mythologies of creation and catastrophe and discourses of eco-criticism in feminist and indigenous perspectives. The course readings fall into four modules, treating a wide range of narrative prose works that deal with seismic upheavals, plague epidemics, apocalyptic and dystopian visions, ecological, technological and social disaster, nuclear accidents and warfare. This course has no prerequisites. It is taught in English and all relevant material studied will be provided in English translation.
CENS 202: Gender & Sexuality in Central, Eastern, and Northern European Literature and Culture
Term 2 | in-person | Mon/Wed 9:30 – 11:00 | 3 credits
In this course, we will explore how discourses on gender and sexuality shaped and were shaped by 19th- and early-20th-century literature and culture. We will read select short prose, drama, and novels from central, eastern, and northern Europe. We will consider how these works relate to emergent sexological writings, women’s rights debates, emergent modern subjectivities (e.g., new woman, queer), and political movements. Throughout the course, we will also consider the relevance of these literary traditions for our current moment.
CENS 203: Arctic Art and Activism | Sample Syllabus
Term 1 | in-person | Tues/Thur 9:30 – 11:00 | 3 credits
This course looks at Indigenous political art in the circumpolar region, focusing largely on the arts from Sápmi, Inuit Nunangat, and Siberia. The course looks at the ways both traditional and contemporary arts serve as a political and social tool: to promote awareness, to cultivate community, to shape discourse, and to leverage social power. The course is thematically arranged, looking at the shared experiences Indigenous peoples have with colonization, resistance, and decolonization today.
CENS 303: Representations of the Holocaust: Getto
Term 1 | online | 3 credits
The Nazi Ghetto in film and literature from Central, Eastern, and Northern European Countries.
CENS 304: Representations of the Holocaust: Auschwitz
Term 1 | online | 3 credits
Concentration camps in art, film and literature from Central, Eastern and Northern European countries.
CENS 307 Witches: Myth and Reality | Sample Syllabus
Terms 1 | in-person | Tues/Thurs 11:00 – 12:30 | 3 credits
Terms 2 | in-person | Tues/Thurs 14:00 – 15:30 | 3 credits
CENS 307 examines ideas of the witch, witchcraft, and magic from their early historical constructions to recent cultural adaptations. Following these ideas and their relationship to the creation of outsiders, our main topics will be early pagan and Christian religious beliefs; the conflict and overlap of these beliefs in the medieval and early modern periods, including the height of the witch hunts; images of witches in folklore and fairy tales; recent representations of witchcraft in literature, film, and other media; and contemporary witchcraft. The reading and viewing assignments consist of witch-related materials, including historical records; literary, film, and other media representations; scholarly analyses; and other work examining witches, witchcraft, and magic from numerous perspectives.
CENS 308: Comics and Graphic Novels in Central, Eastern and Northern Europe | Sample Syllabus
Term 1 | in-person | M/W 9:30 – 11:00 | 3 credits
Political, cultural and social themes in European comics and graphic media.
CENS 315: Languages and Translation in Eastern Europe
Term 2 | in-person | Tues/Thurs 11:00 – 12:30 | 3 credits
How many languages do you think are spoken in Central and Eastern Europe? How many different varieties and dialects of those languages? What language-pairs see the most translation, simultaneous interpreting, code-meshing, and literary translation traffic between them: Polish to Croatian, Bosnian to German, Ukrainian to Russian? Requiring no prior knowledge of languages other than English, this course explores the languages and linguistic cultures of the vast, multicultural, and multilingual region of Central and Eastern Europe—through media, literature, politics, social policy, social media, games, and historical sources.
CENS 404: Gender and Nation in European Literatures | Sample Syllabus
Term 1 | multi-access | Tuesdays 17:00 – 20:00 | 3 credits
Cross-listed with GMST 517A.This course is focused on concepts of “nation-building” in central, eastern and northern Europe in relation to discourses of personal and political Emancipation, Enlightenment, as well as Orientalism. It falls into four modules: (1) Concepts of “Nation” in Canada and Europe (2) Emancipation, Revolution and “Nation” (3) Enlightenment, Race, Religion and “Nation” (4) Gender Politics and “Nation” around 1900. This course has no prerequisites. Language of instruction is English. All course materials will be provided on Canvas.