Sunday, January 5, 2020: 4:10 PM
Flatiron (Sheraton New York)
Engaging students actively in course materials is a consistent challenge in teaching Canadian history at the 100- and 200-levels. Many students enter intro-level classes begrudgingly ready to fulfill a program requirement with no interest in history at all, or the classic “Canadian history is boring” outlook. Combining local and public histories with the (re)current trend to politicizing commemoration has proven a successful antidote to this undergraduate ennui. In this era of redress and reconciliation, engaging students actively in re-thinking commemoration is an approach to historical pedagogy that creates a dynamic interest in history for undergraduates. Three specific assignments (and corollary activities) inform this argument: analysis of commemoration as a political process via creative project, re-thinking currency as a commemorative act, and considering acts of reconciliation as a method of re-writing history. Intersections of public history, public art, and redress of past transgressions motivate students to re-think and re-consider old historical tropes.