GOV 94MK The Politics of Land, Resources, and Colonialism in North America

Semester: 

Spring

Offered: 

2021

Katie Mazer
Dates/Times: TBA

This course examines the colonial basis of the continental political economy of the United States and Canada, which has long been understood as the United States’ main resource hinterland. It offers students a range of analytical tools through which to understand contemporary contestation over land and resources in both countries. Drawing on writings by political scientists, geographers, anthropologists, and historians, the course moves between theories of nature and settler colonialism; Indigenous perspectives that transcend and exceed Canada and the United States; and specific historical geographies of colonialism, extraction, and contestation.  While the course is centered on the structures of power that reproduce the extractive economy, students will also engage with themes of resistance and resurgence throughout.