Current Teaching
At the University of Alberta, I teach Indigenous-settler Relations (SOC402), and Introductory Sociology (SOC100).
Introductory Sociology (SOC100)
This course will introduce students to the study of what we call society. Students will be challenged to think critically about their everyday lives, and develop sociological imaginations for conceptualizing the relationship between individuals, groups, social structures, culture, and power. We will explore a wide range of macro, meso, and micro social forces that structure and mediate our lives, such as colonialism, nation, race, gender, class, and sexuality. The course will introduce students to sociological theory, and social research methods, which help us to answer questions about society, but also help us to understand how knowledge and evidence about society is produced, and even further, to understand whose knowledge counts. A goal of the course is for students to apply sociological theories to social issues, and look for explanation outside of ‘common sense’ understandings of the social world.
Course Objectives
- Develop a sociological imagination and understand its centrality to sociological thought.
- Describe, understand, and apply the theoretical traditions of sociology to the social world.
- Develop an understanding of the various social processes and institutions that structure peoples’ lives.
- Begin to understand the structure of sociological research and scholarship.
- Critically analyze how sociology and social sciences in general have studied Indigenous peoples and Nations, and build a vision for how it can be different.
Indigenous-settler Relations (SOC402)
Indigenous-settler relations is a broad area of study that examines the structured inequalities from the colonial past and present, but also the analysis and hope for resurgence and decolonization. This course is concerned with providing an understanding of the contemporary state of Indigenous relations with settlers by examining the different spaces, knowledges, and relationalities produced in this relationship. The course is interdisciplinary and builds on a number of broad themes found in sociology of Indigenous people, Indigenous studies, Indigenous political theory, settler-colonial studies, and critical legal theory. The course begins by posing the question of the problem of Indigenous-settler relations informed by Indigenous thinkers, and framed by concerns, knowledges, and theories from Indigenous scholars and allies. Some of the specific questions we will grapple with in this course include racism, whiteness, property, and possession; conflicts over land, borders, and mapping; the science, spatiality, and biopolitics of Indigenous identity; and the role of numbers, budgets and taxes in relation to Indigenous-Canada relations. The course ends with discussion of the future of reconciliation, decolonization, allyship and future of Indigenous sovereignty in the context of Indigenous-settler relationship building.
Course Objectives
- Learn to thoughtfully analyze and theorize about Indigenous-settler relations
- Think at an advanced level about the structure of knowledge production for/about/with/from Indigenous peoples and Nations within the context of sociology
- Examine a broad range of social processes and structures that impact how Indigenous peoples and settlers interact, including race/racism, settler colonialism, the state, science, and capital.
- Develop skills in analyzing a range of source materials that are used to make claims about Indigeneity and Indigenous people and Nations.
- Critically analyze how sociology and social sciences in general have studied Indigenous peoples and Nations, and build a vision for how it can be different.
Past Teaching
At Simon Fraser University I taught Political Sociology, Sociology of Knowledge, Social Policy, Social Control, and Introduction to Sociology.
