These two events challenge how we think about social justice within the 21st century. An amalgam of history, culture, media, the arts and pedagogy, this course will present a unique opportunity to examine any horrific event within a teaching and learning perspective. While housed within the University of Manitoba Faculty of Education, this course will reach far beyond a simple “how to teach” model.

The course will provide a historical context of the two events, beginning with an overview of the history of Ukrainian Canadians and of Ukraine, seen within the broader context of 21^st century Canadian and world history. The internment and famine case studies will be examined in depth focusing on content, context, subtexts and pedagogy.

The pedagogy component will be aimed specifically at teachers from Grades k-12, and will examine ways of learning about horrific events, including contemporary technology-based ideas such as webquests, databases, online and mobile teaching methodologies. However, this course is not only aimed at teachers. Others, including graduate students, will have the opportunity to further explore content issues as appropriate.

This course will extensively draw upon content experts, both in person and via teleconferencing from Manitoba and across Canada.

Some of the highlights of the course include:

• An opportunity to view critical documentary films dealing with the Internment and Holodomor.
• A look at why the Canadian government treated minorities as enemy aliens during World War One, and how this extended to the treatment of the Japanese Canadians and others in World War Two.
• A discussion of how Raphael Lemkin, coined the term “genocide” in 1943, and applied it to the Ukrainian famine.
• An examination of George Orwell’s novel Animal Farm and … a little known fact … how it might be conceived of as a depiction of the Ukrainian famine.
• A study of how these issues fit into the Manitoba school curriculum, presented by curriculum specialists from Manitoba Education.

The course is directly aimed at teachers at all levels, but is also relevant to masters and doctoral students in education, in history, in political studies and students doing advanced work in peace and justice studies.

The Institute is worth 6 credit hours and is a viable component within the PBDE program, as well as for an MEd/PhD program (with advisor’s permission), and potentially transferable to other faculties and universities as well. The course is also available to auditors.

Grounded in the Faculty of Education, this Summer Institute is supported through grants by the University of Manitoba Innovation Fund, the Shevchenko Foundation and is assisted by the Centre for Ukrainian Canadian Studies at the University of Manitoba.