White Settler Dysconsciousness and Ethnicity – Constructing innocence and non-complicity among Mennonites and other white settlers in Canada

• Author / Creator

  Nikkel, Jacob

• This thesis draws on the concept of white settler dysconsciousness, and explores how white settler dysconsciousness is complicated by ethnicity, with the goal of expanding on understandings of whiteness and settler colonialism in Canada. White settler dysconsciousness is an uncritical and dissonant form of consciousness. It is produced through a constant and complex dynamic of self-interested misunderstanding and rationalization, and functions to move white settlers to a position of innocence and non-complicity, regarding the benefits white settlers derive from the historical and ongoing oppression of Indigenous people and other people of colour. The central argument of the thesis is that ethnicity plays an important role in constructing the myriad forms of white settler dysconsciousness present among white settlers. I draw on literature in the fields of settler colonial studies, critical race and whiteness studies, and critical Indigenous studies, as well as the example of Mennonite settlers in the prairies in Canada, to support this work.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • dysconsciousness
  • whiteness
  • ethnicity
  • Settler colonialism
  • Mennonite

• Graduation date

  Fall 2019

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Arts

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-y7bp-8g52

• License

  Permission is hereby granted to the University of Alberta Libraries to reproduce single copies of this thesis and to lend or sell such copies for private, scholarly or scientific research purposes only. Where the thesis is converted to, or otherwise made available in digital form, the University of Alberta will advise potential users of the thesis of these terms. The author reserves all other publication and other rights in association with the copyright in the thesis and, except as herein before provided, neither the thesis nor any substantial portion thereof may be printed or otherwise reproduced in any material form whatsoever without the author's prior written permission.