Ontological Politics: Innu Nation's Policies on Hunting

This is a weekly assignment, read the weekly reading, and come up with thoughts or opinions on the reading.
Week 12: Ontological politics
Main reading: Blaser (2016)

Weekly writing assignments

One of your assignments for the semester is to write your thoughts and questions on the class each week, sometimes including a question posed by your tutor in tutorial, or in the notes for the upcoming week. Each week’s writing is due the day before class. There are dropboxes on Canvas for each week’s response.

A good way to think about each weekly writing is as an entry in a journal. Each week, think back on the semester so far and write your reflections on the class so far. Then, ask yourself how the topic for the upcoming week adds to or extends your thinking about previous topics. What questions do you want to raise for discussion in class? How will you fulfill your role in the class discussion this week? What connections do you see between the topics in class and the research and reading you have done for your thesis project?

These questions are not required elements of a weekly response. A good response is thoughtful and detailed, and includes both a backward look and a forward look to the week and the weeks ahead.

In some of the weeks, you may be asked to address a specific question from Ryan or your tutor, either one mentioned in tutorial or added to the weekly class notes on Canvas, or both. If there is a special question for the week, it is required to answer it. (If there are several discussion questions in the notes, you can just answer one that interests you the most.)

Weekly reflections are not judged on whether they are right or wrong, or how well written or sophisticated they sound. It is OK to be unsure of your ideas and to write about things where you haven’t made up your mind or you are not sure what you think. In fact, writing about things you’re still thinking about is how you think about them better. The special questions for some weeks can be answered the same way. They will either be questions for reflection or open questions for debate, and do not have right or wrong answers.

For that reason, weekly writings are not graded. You receive a point for each sincere, thoughtful effort you submit on time before class each week. Over the semester, you will submit 12. Your grade on your assignment is out of 12 points (so it’s actually pretty easy to get 12/12, or 100%). If you have a formal extension (special consideration) because you are not able to work on the class for a week or more, then you can submit the reflections late for credit. Otherwise, you can submit your reflections late, and I will read them, but they will not count toward your grade on this assignment.