[akitae]

Overview: This course focuses on the changing nature of ethnicity of Canadian society. You look at various ethnic and religious groups in Canada (ex. African-Canadian, Jewish), immigration and immigration policies, assimilation etc. There was one textbook but various readings assigned on reserve in the library.
There is a 40% term paper assignment + 10% outline, and a 50% final exam. Tutorials were not mandatory.

This class was kind of strange. The prof for instance has a very dry, blunt sense of humour. He likes to ask somewhat challenging questions to students ranging from the news to ethnic issues in society. Shaffir likes to use overheads, and posts absolutely NOTHING online except outlines of the overheads. Everything you gain from the readings and what he says in lecture. The term paper assignment is relatively self explanatory, you have the whole term to do it and the final exam was average.

What I mainly did not enjoy about the course was that you had to get the readings from the library on reserve. Which means you only have 2 hours to look through them, and there were about 5+ books on reserve for this course. There was no option to purchase any of the books, and I can understand that this can save you money, but if the book is already taken out you have to wait until they are finished so...

The material you learn is interesting, but difficult to sit down and enjoy it when you are on a time limit. I probably would not suggest this course to anyone but it is not the worst class you can take. But if you don't mind the prof and his quirks then go for it!