Vivian Howard, Associate Dean Academic, Faculty of Management

In 2013, Patricia Doyle-Bedwell (of Dalhousie’s Transition Year Program) and I submitted a successful Academic Innovation funding proposal for the development of an Indigenous Studies Minor. Our vision was to develop an innovative, interdisciplinary Minor which would consist of three full credits, second year and above, with core classes taught by Indigenous scholars and recommended electives drawn from multiple Faculties. Ideally we hoped that this Minor would ultimately be available to students in all undergraduate programs. We saw this Minor as fundamental to several key objectives:

• To increase enrolment, successful transition, and retention of undergraduate Indigenous students.
• To enhance communication and awareness within the community of scholars from across Dalhousie, and potentially from across the city, the province, and the Atlantic region, who research issues related to Indigenous people.
• To increase the visibility of and respect for Indigenous students and Indigenous studies on campus.
• To enhance institutional engagement with the Indigenous community in Nova Scotia.
• To create a learning environment in which Indigenous students will be knowledge leaders.
• To enhance recruitment of Indigenous scholars to Dalhousie.
• To lay a foundation for potential further initiatives, such as a major or graduate program in Indigenous Studies.

One of the great pleasures of being involved with this initiative was working collaboratively with an interdisciplinary development committee consisting of Indigenous scholars and staff, non-Indigenous scholars who research Indigenous issues, Indigenous graduate and undergraduate students and alumni. In addition to Patti Doyle Bedwell and myself, members of the development committee included Dr. Debbie Martin (Health Professions), Dr. Heather Castleden (Resource and Environmental Studies), Dr. Howard Ramos (Sociology and Social Anthropology), Kara Paul (Aboriginal Health Sciences Initiative), Brad Wuetherick (Centre for Learning and Teaching), Dr. Krista Kesselring (Associate Dean Academic, FASS), doctoral student Diana Campbell, undergraduate students Krysta Sero and Rachelle MacKay, and recent graduate Killa Atencio. Our first priority was hiring Lisa Robinson, a graduate student in Sociology with an undergraduate Education degree and strong ties to the urban Aboriginal community, to work with the development committee as curriculum developer. Lisa’s responsibilities were to

• Research Indigenous Studies programs at other institutions and make selective site visits.
• Survey current Dalhousie students and local Indigenous communities to gauge potential interest/vision for the Minor.
• Identify existing Dalhousie classes which could be included in the Minor as recommended electives.
• Identify gaps in current course offerings and propose new core and/or elective classes.
• Identify opportunities for experiential learning.

The formal program proposal for the Minor is now being drafted and FASS has successfully secured funding for both tenure track and limited-term hires of Indigenous scholars, through the Dalhousie Diversity Faculty Award and the Strategic Initiatives Fund. It has been a busy year for the Indigenous Studies Minor development committee, and it is exhilarating to see the Minor becoming a reality, something that most likely would not have happened without the support of Academic Innovation funding. We are confident that this new Minor will lead to further opportunities for collaboration, consultation and relationship-building with the Indigenous community…the future for this innovative program is exciting!