Coordinator
Godfrey Baldacchino, Canada Research Chair (Island Studies)

Coordinating Committee
Marina Silva-Opps, Biology
Tim Carroll, Business 
Carlo Lavoie, Canadian Studies
Mian Ali, Economics 
Suzanne Thomas, Education
Andrew Trivett, Engineering
Brent MacLaine, English
Carolyn Peach Brown, Environmental Studies
Edward MacDonald, History
Director, Institute of Island Studies 
Pamela Courtenay-Hall, Philosophy
Jean Mitchell, Sociology & Anthropology
Sessional, Island Studies 201

Departmental Website

Island Studies is an interdisciplinary program designed to promote an understanding of selected features of the world's small islands, including their geographies, ecologies, cultures, political systems, histories, and societies.

The Island Studies program has three primary goals:

• first, to engage students in an emerging, international academic discussion of islands' distinctive characteristics, challenges, and opportunities;
• second, to study Prince Edward Island as a specific example of an island bearing these characteristics and playing out these challenges and opportunities;
• and, third, to study islands in a comparative and international framework.

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Requirements for a Minor in Island Studies
A minor in Island Studies consists of twenty-one (21) semester hours of credit taken from the list of approved courses, and including Island Studies 201. Among the elective courses, students must complete at least two courses (six semester hours) specific to Prince Edward Island and at least two courses (six semester hours) which are comparative. Students intending to complete a minor in Island Studies are encouraged to complete Island Studies 201 early in their course of studies. Students minoring in Island Studies must choose at least 4 courses in subject areas other than those in which they are majoring.

ISLAND STUDIES CORE COURSES

201 INTRODUCTION TO ISLAND STUDIES
This course introduces students to the emerging interdisciplinary and comparative study of islands and archipelagoes. It examines their cultures, geography, economies, historical development, environmental concerns, and systems of governance. It focuses on jurisdictions with varying degrees of self-government such as Barbados, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, the Isle of Man, Malta, and Prince Edward Island.

202 CASE STUDIES IN ISLAND STUDIES
This course will expose students to particular case studies involving research from a variety of perspectives that involve islands, islanders and islandness. The objective is to familiarize the students with the case study method of research and how the island setting facilitates an understanding of specific processes and dynamics, which then have applicability to other islands, but also to the wider world. Case material to be reviewed in the course would include: Darwin and the Galapagos Finches; Margaret Mead in Samoa; the standing statues of Easter Island; the phosphate mines of Nauru; the ethnic tensions on Fiji; gentrification and space wars on the Islands of Sweden, Labour versus Greens in Tasmania; environmental diplomacy, AOSIS, sea level rise and Tuvalu; the unique status of Taiwan; PEI and the impact of the Confederation Bridge on PEI.

209 SPECIAL TOPICS

291 DIRECTED STUDIES
This course provides an opportunity for students to study a current topic relevant to islands, under the supervision of a faculty member. Alternatively, credit for this course may be claimed by fulfilling an overseas assignment with a recognized volunteer-sending agency (e.g., CUSO) on a small island in the developing world.
Three hours per week

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309 SPECIAL TOPICS

374 TOURISM
See Sociology/Anthropology 374
PREREQUISITE:  Island Studies 201

409 SPECIAL TOPICS

491-492 DIRECTED STUDIES
In response to individual student needs, Directed Studies courses will be designed in the areas of directed readings or directed research. In addition, "Special topics" courses will be offered from time to time by members of the faculty or visiting instructors.

Note 1
Other courses not specifically focused on islands may, with prior approval of the instructor, the Coordinator of Island Studies, and the Dean of Arts, be credited toward an Island Studies minor. In such a case, the students will complete substantial individual work on topics related to islands.

Note 2
Students minoring in Island Studies must choose at least 4 courses in subject areas other than those in which they are majoring.

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