XBC199Y1Y-L0262:
True North: Circumpolar Histories

Course description:

The North, as both a direction and a place, figures prominently in constructions of Canadian identity. But other countries also claim the North as their own. This course compares and examines connections in the contested polar region through several themes:  cultures in contact, trade and exploration, environment, crime and punishment, and defense and sovereignty.

Required texts (available at the University Bookstore):

• Renée Fossett, In Order to Live Untroubled: Inuit of the Central Arctic, 1550 to 1940 (Manitoba: University of Manitoba Press, 2001)
• Yuri Slezkine, Arctic Mirrors: Russia and the Small Peoples of the North (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1994)

Additional materials are available on line or on reserve at Robarts.

Marking:

• 4 (four) in-class quizzes (5% each)
• 3 (three) 4-5 page papers (10% each)
• final exam (30%)
• class participation (20 %)

Marking of written assignments is based on accuracy and use of historical evidence, statement and development of a strong thesis, style, and grammar.

Course Policies:
Be warned that plagiarism is a serious offense.  Read the university’s policies on academic dishonesty, located at http://www.governingcouncil.utoronto.ca/policies/behaveac.htm.  In this course, plagiarism (ask if you’re confused about what that means) can lead to failure, not on a single paper, but for the class as a whole.
 
For more information on avoiding plagiarism, see in particular the University’s information on “how not to plagiarize” at http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/using-sources/how-not-to-plagiarize.
 
Furthermore, students agree that by taking this course all required papers may be subject to submission for textual similarity review to www.turnitin.com for the detection of plagiarism. All submitted papers will be included as source documents in the Turnitin.com reference database solely for the purpose of detecting plagiarism of such papers. The terms that apply to the University’s use of the Turnitin.com service are described on the Turnitin.com website.
 
Unexcused late papers or missed exams are also not acceptable.  If you find yourself in dire straits, or anticipate a conflict, discuss the matter with us ahead of time.  The night before something is due is not ahead of time.  Do not simply fail to turn in a paper and assume we’ll accept something late. 
 
At a minimum, the penalty for late work is three percentage points per day.

One final note:  please, when sending us emails, include “XBC199” in the subject line.

Nineteenth Century Introduction

• Fossett, Chapter 5, “Degree of Cold” (115-137)

Film showing: Passage (GO TO MEDIA COMMONS FOR CLASS TODAY)

• Fossett, Chapter 6, “Memories of Hunger” (139-166)

The Northwest Passage (II)

• Charles Dickens, “The Lost Arctic Voyagers” in Household Words 10, no. 245 (2 December 1854): 361-365 and John Rae’s response in the same volume, no. 248 (23 December 1854): 434-437.

http://www.archive.org/stream/householdwordsa10dickgoog#page/n10/mode/2up:

NOTE: the page numbers refer to those of the journal itself, not the viewer software, which counts non-numbered pages. So the article beginning on page 361 is on page 371 by the viewer software’s count.

Integrating the North

• Slezkine, Chapters 3-4, “The Uncorrupted” and “The Oppressed” (73-129)

Deviance (I)

• Anton Chekhov, The Island of Sakhalin, excerpts (Blackboard)
  

Paper #2 Due (Film Review)

The North Pole

• Yuri Rytkheu, “Kakot’s Numbers,” from The Way of Kinship (218-37) (Blackboard)

Quiz #3

Science in the North

• Slezkine, Chapter 5, “The Liberated” (131-83)

Deviance (II)

• W. R. Morrison and K. S. Coates, “‘To make these tribes understand’: the trial of Alikomiak and Tatamigana,” ARCTIC 51, no. 3 (September 30, 1998): 220-230
• Alexander Solzhenitsyn, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, 3-32 (Blackboard)

Controlling the Peoples of the North

• Slezkine, Chapter 7, “The Cultural Revolutionaries,” 219-264
• Matthew Farish and P. Whitney Lackenbauer, “High modernism in the Arctic: planning Frobisher Bay and Inuvik,” Journal of Historical Geography 35, no. 3 (July 2009): 517-544

The Cold War in a Cold Place

• Slezkine, Chapters 9-10, “The Socialist Nationalities” and “The Endangered Species” (303-385)

The Contemporary Arctic

• Charlie Gillis "Who Owns the North Pole?" (http://www2.macleans.ca/2011/07/25/who-owns-the-north-pole/)
• Alun Anderson, “The Great Melt: The Coming Transformation of the Arctic,” (http://www.worldpolicy.org/blog/2010/10/15/great-melt-coming-transformation-arctic)
  

Quiz #4

Exam Prep/Review

Paper #3 Due (Article Review)