New course on Indigenous feminisms coming to UTM’s teaching lodge
It’s a bit of a walk from the centre of the University of Toronto Mississauga campus to the Indigenous teaching lodge, which sits in a quiet spot among the trees off Principal’s Road. The short excursion into nature will be an integral part of the student experience in Maria Hupfield’s new winter session course, the first at UTM to take place predominantly in the teaching lodge.
“This small journey will start the process of moving students away from their usual way of thinking,” says Hupfield, an assistant professor cross-appointed to UTM’s English and visual studies departments. “Then, once they get into the lodge, it defamiliarizes them because they’re not in the usual lecture hall or seminar room. It opens up how they respond to the teaching and how they approach the content.”
The third-year English course “Indigenous Feminisms” will rely on traditional and innovative Indigenous texts, media and performances. Whenever possible, classes will be in the teaching lodge, which has a wood stove and has hosted numerous events including workshops, conferences and guest speakers since it was erected in September 2023. Classes requiring advanced digital technology will move to the Multimedia (MIST) Studio Theatre. Other faculty members have occasionally held classes – but not full courses – in the UTM teaching lodge, or in the teaching lodge at New College on the St. George campus.
