About Our Class
Feb 25th, 2011 by sundberg
We are GEOGRAPHY 495, an innovative fourth-year seminar in the Department of Geography at UBC taught by Dr. Juanita Sundberg. The course explores the politics of North-South solidarity in theory and practice using Community Service Learning models that join theory with experience and thought with action. The curriculum addresses solidarity on a theoretical level by exploring how solidarity is conceptualized, accomplished, and practiced in and by movements and activists in the Americas. On a practical level, GEOG 495 invites community partners directly in the classroom to share in the elaboration of collaborative political analysis and action-oriented activities.
Solidarity is a principal mechanism through which Canadian citizens have supported social justice struggles in Latin America since at least the 1980s. Historically, solidarity in the North has been conceptualized in terms of defending the rights, interests, and identities of different and distant Others. However, scholars and grassroots activists have argued that this conceptualization of solidarity transforms Latin American people into “objects” or “beneficiaries” of Northern benevolence. The course explores how solidarity alliances might disrupt, rather than reproduce unequal power relations between states as well as differently situated social groups.
In 2011, GEOG 495 is working in collaboration with Jolom Mayaetik, an indigenous women’s weaving cooperative in Mexico as well as la mano, a Vancouver-based social enterprise founded by Jennifer Boundy, a UBC grad. Two leaders with the cooperative will accompany the class for part of the semester, thereby transforming the classroom into a space of international engagement, reflection, and action. Our central focus is indigenous women’s autonomy and creative resistance. Students will collaborate with Jolom Mayaetik on concrete and viable initiatives that support the cooperative’s goals. In so doing, students have the opportunity to work across cultural and linguistic borders in socially responsible ways while learning about the ethics of solidarity from multiple perspectives. This builds cross-cultural understanding and mutual respect.
Check out our blog for GEOG 495 2010.
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