Like neighbourhoods within a town, each with socio-economic indicators, our specific geography and historical culture frame how we describe and define events in our lives. This posting explores how Indigenous people represent reality in their regions, and specifically how they view circumstances such as natural disasters – the Alberta floods a decade ago are given as an example. Evaluating data bases, library resources, and online records will allow the researcher to “determine how they might wish to see their past defined” – within a context of Indigenous issues. Interviews will also be part of this process, with names of key players provided.
Specific to the AU student experience, remembering as we must that the broader the scope of a course’s intrigues the more diverse will be our student body and the realm of a course’s relevance, Dr. Pannekoek will ask the successful applicant to consider a general pedagogical question: “What should both Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples learn in any course?” To ask is to answer, as intuitive folks claim. Yet in this case research will reveal the ways and means by which crucial life realities come to be represented within given communities that are each unique parts of the mosaic of our great Canadian nation-state.
Interested applicants are to send cover letter, transcript, resume and contact info for one or two human references to fritsp@athabascau.ca