OVERVIEW
This program is designed for students interested in expanding their knowledge about North America through an interdisciplinary approach and getting involved with people and communities. The program proposes to those who want to explore different fields of study a chance to experience real-life urban issues, tensions, projects and creative initiatives. Students will experience the result of four hundred years of cultural negotiation not only between the French and the English, but also between the others who have also contributed in the cultural capital of the city. By studying cultural narratives in literature and visual arts, students will examine the rise of nationalism and the Québécois endeavor to create a collective identity but also the tension resulting in its attempt to redefine itself as a diverse society. This program offers opportunities for civic engagement in Montreal’s patchwork of immigrant and cultural communities: Jewish, Irish, Italian, Polish, Ukrainian, Haitian, Greek and Portuguese, not to mention the Anglophone neighborhoods where the descendants from the British settlers still live exclusively. By developing and following a special interest, each student will contribute to presenting one of the many perspectives on Montreal and Quebec society for the group to grapple with and analyze.
DIRECTOR
Stephanie Cox, Visiting Assistant Professor of French.
Professor Cox is a member of Carleton’s French and Francophone Studies department and the Cross-Cultural Studies department. She is a specialist in Quebec Studies and writes primarily on immigrant writers. An American who grew up in France, she lived in Quebec for three years and she has taught courses on issues of identity politics in literature and growing up cross-culturally. She led study abroad programs to France before teaching at Carleton and now looks forward to taking Carleton Students on an interdisciplinary program to a fascinating location that brings together her research, her teaching, and her cultural background.
