Spring 2024 Courses

Instructor: Dr. Gerald Friesen

This course will discuss the history of some of Manitoba’s founding peoples and how they came to terms with evolving provincial, national, and global circumstances in the late nineteenth century. It will include (one in each of the six meetings), First Nations, Selkirk settlers, Michif/French-speaking Métis, Orange Order Canadians, first-wave Mennonites, and Bungee/English-speaking people of mixed ancestry. In addition to a lecture, the sessions will feature conversations with authors who have written about the groups, including Jean Friesen, Robert Lower, Philippe Mailhot, Tom Brodbeck, and Roy Loewen. The last meeting will consider Manitoba as it appeared in 1887, John Norquay’s last year as premier.

Dr. Gerald Friesen

Gerald Friesen retired more than a decade ago from the Department of History at the University of Manitoba. He has written and edited books and articles, including a history of the Canadian prairies and an essay on the social changes that accompanied revolutions in communication technology. A former president of the Canadian Historical Association, he has lectured frequently in Canada and internationally and has given talks and classes to Manitoba union members and secondary school teachers. His new book, The Honourable John Norquay: Indigenous Premier, Canadian Statesmen, will be published by University of Manitoba Press in April 2024.

Instructor: Dr. Jim Silver

This course will examine poverty, and in particular what is called “complex poverty,” in Winnipeg.  Winnipeg is home to a high incidence of complex poverty, and this has become increasingly obvious in recent years, so the course will have relevance to the daily experiences of students.

Ideas and concepts that the course will address, in addition to complex poverty, include low-income rental housing and homelessness, colonialism and racism, the criminalization of poverty, the social determinants of health, the growth and consequences of inequality, the “blaming the victim” phenomenon, the high cost of allowing poverty to persist, and community development, employment strategies and universal social programs as means of solving poverty.

*Room 3M64 is located on the third floor of Manitoba Hall (see map).

Dr. Jim Silver

Jim Silver is Professor Emeritus at the University of Winnipeg, where he has taught for more than 40 years. He has written extensively on poverty, particularly poverty in Winnipeg, and he has worked closely with community groups in Winnipeg’s inner city for about 30 years. He is a founding member and continues to be an active Board member
of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives-MB, an independent public policy research institute with a particular interest in poverty and inequality.