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Grounded by a strong commitment to the histories, representations, and political struggles of Indigenous peoples, the intellectual focus of the American Indian Studies minor will use interdisciplinary methods of critical inquiry as a means through which students engage research and scholarship in their major fields of studies.
Students in the American Indian Studies minor will develop an increased awareness of their own culture and the cultures of Indigenous peoples, will learn to identify and articulate critical questions and approaches that respect and utilize Indigenous paradigms and the common theoretical assumptions of Indigenous cultures. Students will develop facility in communicating with and between Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations and groups in the execution of their academic and professional duties.
It is the hope of the American Indian Studies faculty that the minor will promote an appreciation of Indigenous pluralistic societies and sovereign rights. Students pursuing the minor are expected to participate in the intellectual life of Indigenous peoples, which will host speaker series, conferences and symposia, and cultural workshops.
With the American Indian Studies Minor, students will:
- Learn to assess socially meaningful identities in a variety of cultural and critical contexts, and to communicate across social boundaries in a multi-cultural world.
- Learn how to integrate and link ethnic, gender and labor studies.
- Develop comparative research and critical thinking skills for understanding the range of lived experiences within Indigenous communities and to understand how power operates in society.
- Develop research and writing skills in an integrative learning approach including a range of humanities and social science perspectives.
- Understand various analytical and/or rhetorical frameworks related to various areas of study within ethnic, gender and labor studies and relevant to the world of work, civic engagement and community development.
American Indian Studies minor course requirements beginning Winter 2017
The minor is open to students from all majors. All minors must be completed with a 2.0 minor GPA. Only 10 credits of courses may count towards both this minor and your major. Please see an advisor for more information.
Students must complete 25 credit hours. A minimum of 10 credits must be upper-division courses.
If student takes all 15 credits in Foundational Coursework, 5 credits may count towards Topical Coursework
- TEGL 202 Introduction to American Indian Contemporary Issues
- TEGL 210 Introduction to Qualitative Methodology and Research Ethics
- TEGL 271 American Indians in Film
- TEGL 301 Introduction to Indigenous Women and Feminism
- TEGL 302 Tribal Critical Race Theory and Critical Race Theory
- TEGL 303 Introduction to American Indian Education
- TEGL 305 The American Indian Movement
- TEGL 306 Introduction to Peoples of the Pacific
- TEGL 365 Indigenous Ethnobiology
- TEGL 401 Critical and Indigenous Methodologies
- TEGL 464 Indigenous Health, Political Ethnoecology, and Governance
- TLIT 431 Contemporary Native American Women’s Literature
- TLIT 432 American Indian Literature
- TLIT 433 Native American Literature and Federal Indian Law
View American Indian Studies minor course requirements prior to Winter 2017.
Declare a minor by completing the Request to Declare/Change a Major or Minor form and submitting it to the Office of the Registrar. You must have earned a minimum of 45 credits and declared a major before declaring a minor. If you have any questions about this process, please see your advisor.
For questions about the minor, contact the American Indian Studies minor coordinators, Associate Professors Michelle Montgomery and Danica Miller.
