War and Peace in Europe

This course is concerned with the impact of war and with the struggle for peace, with Europe as the focus region. With its distinct history of national powerplays, political alliances, competing world empires and fascist forms of extreme nationalism, the “old continent” serves as a focal point for applied research and en passant learning of what war really means and how peace can be secured.

Ever since the second world war (WWII), Europe has transitioned from a continent of hostile enemies to a union of like-minded countries. Dividing borders have turned into connecting bridges, language barriers have become a cultural treasure, and the European Union (EU) has taken up a number of state responsibilities that used to be strictly reserved for national governments.

Yet, the growing influence of populist leaders, renewed tendencies of closing borders, and the devastating war that Russia has waged on Ukraine are a stark reminder that the peace which Europe has achieved over decades is not “perpetual”, as Immanuel Kant had said, but still fragile and in constant need of protection and promotion. The course therefore not only confronts students with theoretic understandings from peace and conflict studies, but also supplements such knowledge with first-hand experiences by visiting various sites of commemoration of war and peace in Europe in a unique, and probably unforgettable, way.

The trip will present students the prodigious and horrible aspects of Europe’s past and present in a fascinating and long-lasting manner. While the first two weeks will focus on Germany, with Berlin, Leipzig, Nuremberg and Cologne as host cities, the third week will be in Belgium with a focus on Brussels and a one-day excursion to the “Flanders fields” near Ypres.

This course is offered in English to undergraduate students from May 3, 2025 to May 23, 2025.

P.S. : Please note that dates are subject to change, especially preparatory meetings dates.

Professor's contact information

Jan Völkel
Graduate School of Public and International Affairs

E-mail: Jvolkel@uOttawa.ca
Room: FSS 6081

Office hours: Wednesdays 9:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m., or by appointment.

Course outline

• Belgium / Germany 2025 (PDF, 0.2 MB)

Anthropology of medicine - Field Research Course Cameroon

This field research course in anthropology of medicine is bilingual (French and English) and covers themes such as global health, pandemics, witchcraft, biopower, medical pluralism, immunity, sound and performative therapies, humanitarian and indigenous health. Through anthropological approaches it explores ancestral and contemporary medicine at the heart of their Cameroonian practices with a focus in Bantu medicine. Known as “Africa in miniature”, Cameroon assembles people from all of Africa enabling to understand a panoply of medical traditions, including biomedical ones, in their indissociable cultural, epistemological, political and environmental assemblages.

The host institution Association for Research in Anthropology of Traditional medicine (ARAM, www.aram-vie.org) in Etoa, Yaoundé is a place to stock medicinal plants, prepare remedies, for consultations and for healing. Roger Amos Kañaa is the director and main Bantu healer of the association formed by a permanent team, and which represents a Cameroonian conservative current of ancestral medicinal practices from plants, minerals and others, aiming to better the life of the ill organism. Hence the students will participate in a lively manner to the understanding of his expertise, enabling them to learn from experience as people come to consult him. 

The headquarters of ARAM provides a place to live, to receive guests, and this where the Open House will occur at the end of the course. This practical way of ARAM continues on 3 sites (Antennas) where other there are other host teams. Antenna Lamal Pouguè in the forest of Bassinglègè and Antenna Makak in the forest of Guatè, are situated in the Central region of Cameroun in the Department Nyong-et-Kellé, respectively at 70 and 150 km from Yaoundé in the direction of Douala; they are strong links of reforestation, regenation and sustainability of medicinal plants enabling to follow the process from collection of plants to their transformation into remedies. Antenna Kribi is on the coast of Cameroon South of Douala and enables participation to some sound therapy practices of the Madjan tradition, with their musicians and traditional instruments.

This course is a bilingual course offered in French and English to undergraduate students from May 20, 2025 to June 10, 2025.

P.S. : Please note that dates are subject to change and will be finalized in October.

Professor's contact information

Julie Laplante
School of Sociological and Anthropological Studies

E-mail: jlaplan2@uOttawa.ca

Office hours : By appointment

Course outline

• Cameroon 2025 (PDF, 0.2 MB)

Legal And Criminological perspectives on wrongful convictions

This course will allow students to gain a greater understanding of the phenomenon of wrongful convictions, and their sequela, as they occur in Canada and in the state of Louisiana.  Students’ experiences in this field research course will be both pedagogical and practical. Classroom instruction will provide students with an introduction to wrongful convictions as well as provide a greater understanding of how they may occur within both Canadian and American criminal justice systems.  

Students will be exposed to research on the many contributing factors to wrongful conviction, including eyewitness misidentification, the role of jailhouse informants, false confessions, police/prosecutorial misconduct and faulty forensic science and expert testimony. The course will also focus on wrongful convictions as they occur in the southern United States and on the role of the death penalty.  In addition to classroom instructions, students will undertake a field placement in a community organization in New Orleans Parrish that focuses on wrongful convictions, their aftermath and related issues.  Combining a field placement with classroom instruction will provide the students with a theoretical and practical understanding of how the criminal justice system can both create and address miscarriages of justice.

This course is offered in English to undergraduate students from May 3, 2025 to May 24, 2025.

P.S. : Please note that dates are subject to change and will be finalized in October.

Professor's contact information

Kathryn M. Campbell
Department of Criminology

E-mail: katcampOttawa.ca
Telephone: 613 562 5800 ext. 1818
Room: FSS 14039

Office hours : Mondays 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. (or by appointment)

Course outline

• United States 2025 (PDF, 0.2 MB)

Engaged research-creation for multispecies justice: Changing representations of an “invasive” plant in Ottawa

The exceptionally poor air quality in Ottawa last June, caused by forest fires further north, was a powerful reminder of the urgent need to transform our relationships with the other life forms around us. The aim of this field research course is to teach you a few theoretical and methodological tools that will enable you to make an active contribution to this transformation. Taught by an anthropologist, an urban designer and an ecologist, it will introduce you to critical multispecies ethnography, as well as to engaged research-creation, through a collective field research on the interrelationships between a plant conventionally considered “invasive”, the Japanese knotweed, and the residents of Dijon, France. The International Union for Conservation of Nature, which classifies the Japanese knotweed as one of the world's 100 species of greatest concern, defines an "invasive alien species" as one that has been introduced by humans outside its natural range, and whose establishment and spread threaten ecosystems, habitats or so-called "native" species (IUCN 2000). However, the Japanese knotweed is not without its qualities, including the ability to regenerate contaminated soil. Hence our research question: how does uprooting Japanese knotweeds contribute, or not, to cleaning up the environment in which the people of Dijon live? The first week will take place at the École nationale supérieure des arts de Dijon. Lecturers from a variety of disciplines will introduce you to the controversies surrounding the Japanese knotweed, critical multi-species ethnography and engaged research and creation. Then we'll move on to Au Maquis, Dijon's leading centre for the production and dissemination of engaged creative research, which is also surrounded by Japanese knotweeds. There, we'll deepen what we've learned in the first week through practical training workshops, carry out our fieldwork on the relationship between the people of Dijon and the Japanese knotweed, and present the results to the public in the form of a story, a video production, or any other form you would like to employ. Undergraduate and Graduate students are invited to apply.

This course is a bilingual course offered in French and English to undergraduate students from June 12, 2025 to July 11, 2025.

P.S. : Please note that dates are subject to change and will be finalized in October. 

Professor's contact information

Professor Karine Vanthuyne
School of Sociological and Anthropological Studies

Email: kvanthuy@uOttawa.ca
Telephone: 613-562-5800 ext. 1193
Room: FSS 10029

Office hours: by appointment

Course outline

• Ottawa 2025 (PDF, 1.5 MB)

Food Politics, Gender and Environmental Justice in Mexico

This three-week field research course in Mexico will offer students the opportunity to explore the complex and major issues of food politics, gender and environmental justice in Mexico City and the state of Oaxaca. Moving from urban to rural areas, you will be introduced to engaged research methodology, collective knowledge production and mutual learning. With SURCO, our Mexico-based partner, we will visit civil society organizations, meaningful sites and communities who are organizing around these important issues for their daily life. With SURCO’s long experience working with university groups in Mexico, we will make your security our priority.

In Mexico City, you will visit the Central de abastos, the mega-food market for food provisioning of one of the largest cities in the world, as well as small scale, agroecological food producers, a farmers’ market, and an urban community garden. You will also meet activist-researchers to learn about their research and various community initiatives. Together, we will learn about the different actors and responses that they are promoting to improve the agrifood systems, environmental conditions, and people’s quality of life across the mega-city.

We will then travel to Oaxaca where we will pursue our learning activities with various guest speakers and field visits, but this time in rural areas, including Indigenous (mining) communities, fair trade coffee, organic vegetable and artisanal mezcal producers. Gender, food, and environmental perspectives will contribute to deepen our understanding of the working conditions, the cultural riches, and the challenges that communities are facing. During our visits, you will have the opportunity to learn about and undertake (non)participant observation, note-taking, oral history, and interview technics. Class discussions and debriefing will help to prepare for community visits, and to think critically about the different topics for final research projects. In small groups, students will have the opportunity to lead an interview with one of the partners’ organizations. Translation services will be provided but Spanish speaking is an asset. Undergraduate and master’s students are welcome!

This course is offered in English to undergraduate students from May 5 - 25, 2025.

P.S. : Please note that dates are subject to change and will be finalized in October. 

Professor's contact information

Marie-Josée Massicotte
School of Political Studies

E-mail: Marie-Josee.Massicotte@uOttawa.ca
Telephone: 613 562 5800 ext. 1273
Room: FSS 7041

Office hours : Thursdays 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. (Preferably by appointment)

Course outline

• Mexico 2025 (PDF, 1.5 MB)

• Program 2025 (PDF, 0.2 MB) 

Barriers or opportunities? Multilingualism in the socio-educational pathways of young people in Senegal

This field research course is a follow-up of a series of journeys in Casamance, Senegal, on the topic of youth socio-educational trajectories and professional integration. In a country where over 60% of the population is less than 25 years-old, youth experience a huge pression as they carry the weight of the country’s hopes for future development.  The formal educational system (from elementary to post-secondary levels) is facing numerous challenges and those who end their schooling do not always have the skills expected to face the contemporary globalized context. The ethno-linguistic issues remain a dimension that is still poorly studied: Senegal, like many other African countries, is a mosaic of languages and most of its population grows up in a multilingual environment. However, as a heritage of the colonial period, the official language remains French and young pupils have to learn writing, reading and counting in that language although most of them hardly practice. How can boys and girls expect a good learning experience in such a context? What are the consequences on their further educational and professional training trajectories? Is it necessary to master French or is it possible to progress in one’s own path without speaking it?

Students will explore these complex issues in the city of Ziguinchor and in the village of Mlomp, sharing families’ as well as teachers’ and trainers’ daily lives and challenges. They will combine participant observations with in depth interviews conducted among a diversity of local actors and share their results with first line educational  leaders.

Both undergraduate and Master students are welcome in this course which mobilizes both research and “know how to be” skills.

This course is offered in French to undergraduate students from May 12, 2025 to June 6, 2025.

Professor's contact information

Nathalie Mondain
Sociological and Anthropological Studies

Email: nmondain@uOttawa.ca
Telephone: 613-562-5800 ext. 1269

Office hours : by appointment, please contact by email.  

Course outline

• Senegal 2025 (PDF, 1.5 MB) in French only

For more information regarding the International Summer school in Germany, please visit the following link: International Summer School | Faculty of Social Sciences (uOttawa.ca)