Instructors: Dr. John Belec, University of the Fraser Valley and Dr. Patrick Buckley, Western Washington University
Overview
This course has been developed to study the geography of borders and borderland regions both locally and from a wider national and international perspective. This year, the course will be focusing on the cultural and environmental ecology of one particular borderlands region—the Fraser Valley lowlands—with a consideration of the impact the US-Canada border has on settlement and land use patterns and environment, both today and over the past 150 years. The focus is on the central Fraser Valley and Whatcom County.
Organization
Class will meet seven Fridays at the assigned classroom for either discussion or departure on a field trip to our partner school in Canada. In addition there are two Saturday field trips (no Friday meeting those weeks) and a trip to the Western Division of the Canadian Association of Geographers Meeting (see schedule). For travel across the border into Canada students should ensure they have proof of citizenship for crossing the border and have no weapons or contraband in their possession.
Log book & Participation 20%
Responses to readings 30%
Field reports 20%
Final project 30%
Letter grades*:
|
A |
A- |
B+ |
B |
B- |
C+ |
C |
C- |
D+ |
D |
D- |
|
90 |
85 |
80 |
75 |
70 |
65 |
60 |
55 |
50 |
45 |
40 |
*note: This is based on the Canadian scale although they also have an A+ at 95 points.
The readings list is enclosed, and most of the readings will be placed on reserve or available electronically.
Log book or journal for details click Here
Trips into the field
There will be a total of six trips into the field including the WDCAG conference. See schedule for exact dates -- click Here. Three of these (all on Fridays leaving WWU at 1pm arriving back around 6pm) will take us to UFV and the surrounding area. Two will be on Saturdays (no friday class). The first focused on the Fraser Valley in Canada and the second on Whatcom County. These will leave WWU behind Arntzen Hall at 9am and return around 4pm. The final field trip will take us to the 51st Annual Meeting of the Western Division of the Canadian Association of Geographers (WDCAG) hosted by Vancouver Island University in Nanaimo, British Columbia, March 6-7, 2009. The most likely scenario for this trip is to leave on Friday afternoon and return on Saturday evening (again no friday class). Although the dates for all of these trips are not 100% at this point in time, see schedule web page for expected dates of travel. Finally, we wish to thank the Canadian Government for a generous grant that has helped offset these travel expenses
After each Saturday field trip and the trip to the WDCAG conference students will write a short field report. Each field report should be 2-6 pages, and should include dates, times, and places visited; synopsis of information presented; and critical discussion of information given or observations made and reference relevant material from the readings. All field reports must be thoroughly proofread, and all figures must be appropriately labeled and sourced. You are encouraged to take photos and/or make sketches to use in your field reports. Field reports are due by class time on Fridays, on the week following each field trip. While on these field trips students should be taking field notes:
Field Trip Data Collection (this can be done by hand in a traditional note book if you prefer)
While on a field trip, be sure you are taking down observations, making sketches, taking photograghs with your cell phone... Be sure if you use these multiple data collection modes that you organize each input so it is easily found and remains as whole. Such field notes can use the following format:
Title of Field Trip with date and place
Stop 1: Short Title
Description of information learned at the stop
Pictures, sketches, diagrams....
Discussion -- what does this mean?
Stop 2: Short Title
Description of information learned at the stop
Pictures, sketches, diagrams....
Discussion -- what does this mean?
etc....
Group Research Project
The major reason for our field trip to the WDCAG conference is for students to present posters or papers detailing the research they will be doing in this course. Since the quarter is short, it is necessary for students to quickly team-up (a team should have both American and Canadian students) and in consultation with the instructors quickly select a research topic (suggested topics click here). Thus, at the second class meeting each student will determine the nature of the research project they wish to pursue (suggestions are provided) and join a research team. Research teams will consist of 2 to5 members (ideal is 3) and should have a mixture of participants by major and class ranking.
During the quarter two reports will be made on the project. The first is the proposal in week 3 which will define the topic to be pursued and a proposed timeline and the second will be a progress report in week 7. Projects can be presented as papers or posters and can have multimedia content if desired (such as videos, recordings...). Week 8 class meeting will be devoted to putting the final touches on the project. Presentation of the research project will at the WDCAG during week 9.
Two responses will be collected during the quarter replacing more traditional examinations. In weeks 5 (replacing a midterm) and Finals Week or week 11 ( replacing a final). To be clear, these responses will replace any formal essay examinations in the class. Second these responses enable you to take your brief thoughts from your journal and turn them into short essays. More details will be provided in week 4, but below are a some general points to keep in mind.
Included in these responses should be:
· First, and most important, a discussion of the major themes of these readings or subsets of them. This does not mean moving from reading to reading, but rather identify the ideas that compliment or contrast with one another, many of the readings represent developments around similar themes, and many times even between weekly themes similar ideas or theses are raised.
· Second, a critical evaluation of the points made in these readings, how well does each author make and defend their ideas.
· Third, a discussion as to the role the international boundary plays, how does being in Canada or the USA effect the idea, or how central to the idea is it?
Make certain that citations or quotes in your report are properly entered. Use a technique such as the APA or Chicago (scientific) style guidelines.
Readings
Individual articles will also be placed on reserve or available electonically:
H -- Huxley Library hard copy
W -- Wilson Library available Electronically
WWW -- available on the web
Readings List
Week 1: Introduction (UFV)
Welsh, Jennifer M. (2000). “Is a North American Generation Emerging?” ISUMA, 1 (1), Spring 2000 downloaded from http://www.igloo.org/community.igloo?r0=community&r0_script=/scripts/library/browse.script&r0_pathinfo=/%7Bd4569d73-0d1c-4195-9faf-b77a2d328e0a%7D/Browse/Culture%20and%20Education&r0_guid=%7B89702BE3-3427-42AB-9B74-5A5F7A3C4EBB%7D&r0_actiondata=%7B8C0573FB-CCF8-42cc-A6A6-6DC96871776F%7D&r0_searchcriteria=subject&r0_output=xml WWW
Week 2: Separate American and Canadian Identities? (WWU -- read for week 2)
Lipset, Seymour. 1990. "Chapter 2: The American Ideology" in Continental Divide: The Values and Institutions of the United States and Canada. New York: Routledge, pp. 19-41. H
Lipset, Seymour. 1990. "Chapter 3: The Canadian Identity" in Continental Divide: The Values and Institutions of the United States and Canada. New York: Routledge, pp. 42-56. H
Week 3: The Fraser Lowlands—Physical Geography (UFV)
Armstrong, John E (1990). "Vancouver Landscape," from Vancouver Geology H
Fleischner, Thomas L., and Saul Weisberg (1993). "Tidewater to Timberline, Forest to Steppe: Natural History of the Greater North Cascades Ecosystem," in Cascadia Wild: Protecting and International Ecosystem, ed. by Mitch Friedman and Paul Lindholdt, 4-21. Bellingham, WA: Greater Ecosystem Alliance. H
Mitchell, Robert et al. Abbotsford-Sumas Acquifer Monitoring Project Final Report, Bellingham: Western Washington University H
Week 4: The North American City(s) ? (WWU)
Herzog, Lawrence A. 1997, "The Transfrontier Metropolis", Harvard Design Magazine, Winter/Spring 1997, Number 1, pp. 1-5 W
Goldberg, Michael & Mercer, John. 1986. "Chapter 1: On Comparing American and Canadian Cities". in The Myth of the North American City: Continentalism Challenged. Vancouver: UBC Press. 1-11. H
Goldberg, Michael & Mercer, John. 1986."Chapter 10: Making the Plain Difference", in The Myth of the North American City:Continentalism Challenged. Vancouver: UBC Press. 246-259. H
Smith, Bob (2004). "The Reclamation of the Sumas Lake Lands," in Neufeldt, H.; Siemens, R. D.; and Martens, R. editors. First Nations and First Settlers in the Fraser Valley. Pandora Press: Kitchner, Ontario. 21-37.
King, Thomas (1993). "Borders", exceprted from One Good Story, That One: Stories", Toronto : HarperPerennial. 129-146.
Garrish, Brad, “Unscrambling the Omelette: Understanding British Columbia’s Agricultural Land Reserve,” BC Studies Winter 2002/2003, 25-55. W
Paster, Elisa, “Preservation of Agricultural Lands Through Land Use Planning Tools and Techniques,” Natural Resources Journal 44 (2004) 283-318. H
Abbott, Carl, “Footprints and Pathways: The Urban Imprint on the Pacific Northwest,” in Goble, Dale D., and Hirt, Paul W. editors. 1999. Northwest Lands, Northwest Peoples: Readings in Environmental History. Seattle: University of Washington Press. pp. 111-124. H
Alper, Donald (1996). The Idea of Cascadia: Emergent Transborder Regionalisms in the Pacific Northwest-Western Canada, Journal of Borderland Studies, 11(2) 1-22. H
Sparke, Matthew (2000). “Excavating the future in Cascadia: Geoeconomics and the imagined geographies of a cross-border region,” BC Studies i127, 5-44. W
Konrad, Victor (2008). Beyond Walls: Re-inventing the Canada-United States Borderlands. Ashgate Publishing Ltd: Burlington, VT.
Chapter 1: The Canada-United States Borderlands in the 21st Century pp. 1-20.
Chapter 4: Borderland Regions and Transnational Communities pp. 97-130.
Reading should be completed by the week noted above, and students should arrive in class with their log books containing major points from the reading. Students should be prepared to share these points during class discussion
Due Dates, materials due at beginning of class period for assigned week unless otherwise noted
Week 1: ---
Week 2: Choose Research Project during class period
Week 3: Project Proposal and Timeline
Week 4:
Week 5: Reading Response for Weeks 1, 2, 3 and 4
Week 6: Field Trip Report 1 -- Fraser Valley
Week 7: Progress Report on Research Project
Week 8: Field Trip Report 2 -- Whatcom County
Week 9: Poster/Paper Presentation for WDCAG
Week 10: Field Trip Report 3 -- WDCAG conference
Finals Week: Reading Response for entire course
In addition remember that there will be a log submission each week