Minor in Native American and Indigenous Studies

Native American & Indigenous Studies (NAIS) is an interdisciplinary field that draws on research in many disciplines across the College, from the humanities to the social sciences and sciences. Students minoring in NAIS will explore the histories, cultures and politics of Indigenous populations both within the Americas and beyond by taking courses in a wide array of departments, including, but not limited to: art history, anthropology, Caribbean and Latin American Studies, creative writing, environmental studies, English, global public health, history, music, politics, public policy, and social and cultural analysis. The five-course Native American & Indigenous Studies Minor at NYU will introduce undergraduate students to the main questions and debates concerning the field of Native American & Indigenous Studies. While educating students broadly in the field, it will promote student and faculty scholarship about the complexity and diversity of the cultures and histories of Indigenous peoples in the Americas and around the world. The minor will encourage students to understand and assess the unique relationships between Indigenous people and governments. It will ask students to critique the contributions of Indigenous peoples to the global society and to analyze the difficulties confronting Indigenous peoples and tribal nations. It will also provide students with foundational knowledge to assist them in finding innovative solutions to any number of challenges facing Indigenous populations worldwide. The interdisciplinary structure of the minor will provide its graduates with a strong background in the field while creating an integrated and mutually supportive academic community for both students and faculty. Students might also participate in the activities of the Native Studies Forum.

Please contact the Minor Director for more information: Professor Eugenia Kisin, eugenia.kisin@nyu.edu.

In order to declare the NAIS minor, you must complete the NAIS Minor Declaration Form and submit it to the Undergraduate Program Administrator in the History Department.

Please fill out the NAIS Minor Planning Form to keep track of your courses.

The curriculum of this minor is comprised of five four-credit courses:

A) One required four-credit Introduction to Native American and Indigenous Studies course:                    SCA-UA 747 Introduction to Native American and Indigenous Studies: The Politics of Indigeneity

B) The remaining 16 credits comprising the Native American and Indigenous Studies minor will draw on a variety of courses offered throughout the University. One of the four courses must address Native American or Indigenous communities in a historical context. Students may count one or two Indigenous language courses as electives. Students may also count one Core course as approved by the DUS. Students will be allowed to double count two of these courses toward their major, as long as the department sponsoring the major agrees. Students might substitute one of their four Indigenous studies electives with a course that may not focus on NAIS but that still is relevant to a student’s academic interest in the field. For example, if a student wishes to focus on gender and sexuality in Native American and/or Indigenous communities, the DUS would allow the student to count one course in gender/sexuality studies toward the minor. The DUS will decide on a case-by-case basis which courses qualify as a student’s related fifth course. Students can also petition the DUS to include a related internship course.

Please check Albert to see if the course you're interested in is being offered in any particular semester.

ANTHROPOLOGY

ANTH-UA 1 Culture, Power, Society 4 points.

ANTH-UA 16 Language, Power, Identity 4 points.

ANTH-UA 47 Ethnography and Ethnohistory of the Andes 4 points.

ANTH-UA 82 Social Life of Museums 4 points.

ANTH-UA 102 Contemporary Issues in the Caribbean 4 points.

ANTH-UA 103 Peoples of Latin America 4 points.

ANTH-UA 104 State and Society in South Asia 4 points.

ANTH-UA 112 Anthropology of Gender and Sexuality 4 points.

ANTH-UA 122 Culture, Power, and Visual Representation4 points.

ANTH-UA 123 Media, Culture, and Society4 points.

ANTH-UA 210 Prehistoric Hunters and Gatherers 4 points.

ANTH-UA 320 Decolonizing and Reassembling the Museum (Topical Seminar in Social and Cultural Anthropology I) 4 points.

ANTH-UA 320 Law, Anthropology and Social Justice (Topical Seminar in Social and Cultural Anthropology I) 4 points.

ANTH-UA 323 Race, Difference, and Social Inequality 4 points.

ANTH-UA 325 Reimagining Community: Race, Nation, and the Politics of Belonging 4 points.

ANTH-UA 329 Language and Law 4 points.

ANTH-UA 331 Human Rights and Culture 4 points.

ANTH-UA 332 Violence, Gender, and the Law 4 points.

ANTH-UA 333 The Color of Race in the Americas: Post Racial Mythologies 4 points.

ANTH-UA 400 Anthropology and Transnationalism 4 points.

ANTH-UA 410 Culture Through Food 4 points.

ANTH-UA 9037 Anthropology of Indigenous Australia (NYU Sydney) 4 points.

ANTH-UA 9038 Anthropology of Indigenous Art (NYU Sydney) 4 points.

ANTH-UA 9100 Culture, Identity, and Politics in Latin America (in Spanish) (NYU Buenos Aires) 4 points.

ART HISTORY

ARTH-UA 316 Topics in Latin American Art: Colonial to Modern Indigenous Cinemas 4 points.

ARTH-UA 570 North American Indian Arts 4 points.

CORE

CORE-UA 509 Cultures & Contexts: Caribbean

CORE-UA 515 Cultures & Contexts: Latin America

CORE-UA 519 Cultures & Contexts: Indigenous North America

CORE-UA 536 Cultures & Contexts: Indigenous Australia 4 points.

CORE-UA 539 Cultures & Contexts: Asian/Pacific/American Cultures 4 points.

CORE-UA 541 Cultures & Contexts: New World Encounters 4 points.

CORE-UA 9750.002 Expressive Cultures: Film (NYU Sydney) 4 points.

HISTORY

HIST-UA 9 The U.S. to 1865 4 points.

HIST-UA 55 Africa before Colonialism 4 points.

HIST-UA 87 Native North America 4 points.

HIST-UA 88 Race and Ethnicity in Latin America 4 points.

HIST-UA 441 Native Americans in Early American History 4 points.

HIST-UA 443 Topics: Early American Revolutions 4 points.

HIST-UA 601 American Colonial History 4 points.

HIST-UA 620 American Indian Policy since 1750 4 points.

HIST-UA 651 Culture Wars in America 4 points.

HIST-UA 743 Colonial Latin America 4 points.

HIST-UA 752 History of Mexico 4 points.

HIST-UA 753 History of the Andes 4 points.

HIST-UA 757 Conquest and Origins of Colonialism: Latin America 4 points.

HIST-GA 2707 Crafting Indigenous Histories *Open to undergraduates with permission of the instructor. 4 points.

LATIN AMERICAN AND CARIBBEAN STUDIES

LATC-UA 101 Beginning Quechua I 4 points.

LATC-UA 102 Beginning Quechua II 4 points.

LATC-UA 103 Intermediate Quechua I 4 points.

LATC-UA 104 Intermediate Quechua II 4 points.

LATC-UA 600 Language and Power in Colonial and Postcolonial Latin America 4 points.

LINGUISTICS

LING-UA 9 Indigenous Languages of the Americas 4 points.

LING-UA 30 Language in Latin America 4 points.

LING-UA 9058 Introduction to African Languages 4 points.

MEDIA, CULTURE & COMMUNICATION

MCC-UE 1717 Listening: Noise, Sound and Music 4 points.

SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ANALYSIS

SCA-UA 102 Introduction to Africana Studies 4 points.

SCA-UA 224 Comparative U.S. Ethnic Studies 4 points.

SCA-UA 230 Intersections: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in U.S. History 4 points.

SCA-UA 237 Social Movements and Alternative Futures 4 points.

SCA-UA 280 Topics: Critical Indigenous Theory 4 points.

SCA-UA 380 Food, Land, and Power 4 points.

SCA-UA 9809 The Australian Experience (NYU Sydney) 4 points.

SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES

SPAN-UA 300 The Iberian Atlantic 4 points.

SPAN-UA 370 Pre-Hispanic Literature: The Incas, Aztecs, and Mayas 4 points.

UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY

INDG1001 Introduction to Indigenous Cultures

INDG1002 Introduction to Indigenous History

Courses that are not on the above list must be approved by the DUS.  Students can petition one course to count towards their minor by turning in a course petition form and course syllabus to the DUS. No course is guaranteed.

Rebecca Goetz, Ph.D

Associate Professor of History