14studyhistThe history department at the University of Manitoba has substantial teaching, research, and community expertise in the history of: human rights, aboriginal rights, self-determination and rights-based struggles; social justice and social movements. The department offers varied geographic perspectives on human rights issues for many different groups of people at the local, regional, national, and global levels.

The department currently offers a number of undergraduate and graduate courses that we have identified as suitable for a possible Human Rights and Social Justice concentration within the department.

At the graduate level, the department also has several areas of concentration relevant to Human Rights and Social Justice: Canadian and Aboriginal History; World History; and Archival Studies.  In conjunction with the MA program in Archival Studies, the department is currently exploring the possibility of developing new initiatives within the program specifically related to archival practices and human rights documentation. The department had two members on the University ad hoc committee exploring the possibility of making the University of Manitoba the home of the Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation archive.

A large number of nation-based and thematic courses within the department also provide important context for a study of Human Rights and Social Justice, particularly as they address the forces of imperialism and colonialism, as well as the development of social movements, rights regimes, and claims to rights by a variety of peoples and societies.  These include: 1000-level and 2000-level courses on Modern World History; 2000-level courses on national histories including the histories of Canada, United States, South Asia, India, China, Japan, Ireland, Great Britain, German-Jews, Latin America and South America, Africa, Europe, and Russia/Soviet Union; and upper-year courses with changing themes including Crime and Punishment, Gender in Germany and Africa; Race and Immigration in Canadian History, and so on.

Department members have also expressed interest in developing new courses in the following areas: History of Human Rights in Canada; Rights and Popular Movements in Socialist and Post-Socialist China.

For more information, including registration information, contact the History department.

New Directions in History: Inquiries into the Cultural Basis of the Modern World (HIST 1260)

Topic: Culture, Rights, and International Relations in Post-1939 World History.

New Directions in History: Inquiries into the Power Relations of the Modern World (HIST 1270)

The history of the social and cultural impact of factors such as changes in technology and communication, warfare, and revolution.

Colonial Latin America (HIST 2140)

A survey of the major developments in Latin America from the Indigenous cultures and European Conquests to Independence in 1821

The Métis in Canada (HIST 2020)

A history of the Métis in Canada.

Independent Latin America (HIST 2150)

A survey of the major developments in Latin American from independence in 1821 to the present

History of Antisemitism and the Holocaust (HIST 2240)

A survey of the role of the Jewish minority in Christian Europe over the past two thousand years. First term will focus on the evolution of anti-Jewish ideas and policies. Second term will be a study of the Nazi German Holocaust and, in particular, the role of antisemitism as a causal factor therein.

Aboriginal History of Canada (HIST 2280)

A historical survey of Aboriginal peoples in Canada from early times to the present. The course will cover pre-contact peoples, responses to the European arrival, military alliances, the fur trade, the Métis treaties, government policies and Aboriginal responses, and cultural resurgence and political organizing since 1945.

Inventing Canada (HIST 2282)

This course examines the “invention” and “reinvention” of Canada both before and after Confederation. It examines the process of invention from a range of different perspectives: political, cultural, economic, and social.

Modern Canada (HIST 2286)

The history of Canada since the First World War with attention to social, political, economic, diplomatic and cultural topics such as interwar and postwar life, struggles for equality, international and internal conflict, immigration, new technologies, nationalism, aboriginal affairs, the arts, and Canada’s role in the world.

History of Social Movements in Canada (HIST 2288)

Examines how Canadian democracy  has historically been contested, debated, and challenged. It will focus on the post-Confederation history of social movements, citizen engagement, and state responses to dissent. The course will discuss grassroots movements of workers, the poor, women, indigenous peoples, and racial and ethnic minorities

History of Human Rights and Social Justice in the Modern World (HIST 2400)

Introductory course examining the emergence of the modern human rights era and social justice movements globally. Possible topics of study: human rights as global norm; non-Western conceptions of rights; workplace rights; indigenous rights; women’s and gender rights.

History of Capitalism (HIST 2670)

The emergence and evolution of the capitalist system stressing its effects on human culture from the 15th to 20th centuries

A History of Socialism from the French Revolution to the Present (HIST 2680)

The history of socialism, both revolutionary and non-revolutionary from the French Revolution to the present. The course covers the history of theory and political action, and of both European and non-European socialism.

German and German-Jewish History, 1618 to the Present (HIST 3062)

Germany from 1618 to the present with a focus on the experience of German Jewry

Topics in History (HIST 3110)

Topics include Archives, Societal memory, and the Uses of the Past and Topic Apartheid and the Struggle for democracy and human rights and Topic African Resources and Development

The Métis Nation: The Modern Era (HIST 3272)

A study of the dispossession on the Métis Nation after 1870, their resurgence in the 1950s and contemporary issues affecting Métis people in Canada.

Topics in Recent World History (HIST 3580)

Topic Terrorist Discourses and Topic Vietnam

The Ukrainians in Canada (HIST 3910)

A history of the Ukrainian community in Canada. Topics to be discussed will include immigration, social and political organizations, churches, cultural assimilation, Ukrainian contributors to Canada, and relations with Ukraine.

Topics in History (HIST 3110)

Topic: Cultural Cold War and Topic Middle Eastern Diaspora and Migration: Dreams and Dilemmas

History of Occupation in Post-1945 Asia (HIST 4000/7772)

A seminar on comparative histories of occupation in post-1945 Asia. This course examines military occupations, humanitarian interventions, and settler colonialism in regional and global contexts. “Occupation” is used as a working concept to analyze different forms of colonial and imperial presence in post-1945 Asia. Course readings focus on the perspective of the occupied and cover topics including local political economy, gender and social relations, race and ethnicity, military base labor, and anti-occupation resistance movements.

Imperialism, Decolonization and Neo-Colonialism, 1700 to the Present (HIST 4010)

Studies in the theories and practice of imperialism from an historical perspective

History of Aboriginal Rights (HIST 4120)

A study of Aboriginal rights from early contact to the present with a particular emphasis on treaties, the courts, and Aboriginal efforts to enforce specific forms of rights.

Studies in World History since 1945 (HIST 4320)

A comparative approach to recent world history utilizing area and thematic studies

Social History of Health and Disease in Modern Canada (HIST 4680)

This course explores the history of health and health care in Canada, with a focus on the late 19th and 20th centuries. Topics will include colonization, infectious disease, and Aboriginal health; the evolution of medical and nursing professions; the emergence of the modern hospital; mental health, psychiatry and the asylum; cancer; alternative therapies; childbirth; health and old age; and health and the state. Analytical categories of gender, race, ethnicity, class, and sexuality will run throughout the material