NATAM-MIN - Native American Studies (Minor)

The Interdepartmental Program in Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (CSRE) explores how race and ethnicity shape global history, undergird our social systems, and touch every aspect of our lives. Our courses empower students with the tools to assess and build inclusivity, equity, diversity, accessibility, and justice. CCSRE programs—encompassing Asian American Studies, Chicana/o-Latina/o Studies, Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, Jewish Studies, and Native American Studies—take an interdisciplinary approach to considering how gender, sexuality, ability, capital, technology, education, politics, and the environment structure our bodies, experiences, and communities. Students have the option to focus on particular racial and ethnic groups and on issues that move across peoples and places. 

The interdisciplinary nature of the academic programs empowers students to enroll in a wide variety of courses. CCSRE listings can be found in Anthropology, Art and Art History, Education, History, Linguistics, Literature, Music, Philosophy, Political Science, Psychology, Religious Studies, Sociology, Theater and Performance Studies, and more. Majors and minors in CCSRE engage with various perspectives and methodologies and grapple with pivotal themes, including decolonization, indigeneity, intersectionality, movement-building, resistance, solidarity, and wellness. By analyzing interlocking structures of identity and difference, CCSRE students interrogate the role of power, reimagine the world, and reclaim the future.

Native American Studies (NAS) provides an intensive approach to understanding the historical and contemporary experiences of Native American people. Attention is paid to the special relationship between sovereign nations and the federal government and issues across national boundaries, including tribal nations within Canada and North, Central, and South America. In using the term Native American, the NAS faculty recognize the heterogeneous nature of this population. The NAS program understands Native Americans to include the Alaska Native population, which comprises Aleuts, Inuits, Yupiks, and other Native Americans residing in Alaska, as well as First Nations, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities. 

The purpose of the Native American Studies minor is to introduce students to approaches in the academic study of Indigenous peoples, history, and culture. Students who minor in Native American Studies have the opportunity to do advanced work in related fields, including archaeology, anthropology, history, education, law, literature, psychology, and sociology. All courses in the program promote the discussion of how academic knowledge about Native Americans relates to the historical and contemporary experiences of Native American peoples and communities.

Visit the Native American Studies website for more information about the program and how to declare the minor.

Program Learning Outcomes:

The Program in Native American Studies expects that undergraduate minors concluding their course of study will be able to:

• Mobilize comparative frameworks for analyzing how race and ethnicity develop historically, cross-culturally, and transnationally

• Understand, interpret, and utilize trans- and interdisciplinary theories and methods in the study of race and ethnicity

• Critically engage with primary and secondary sources and use both types of evidence in research and argumentation

• Effectively communicate data, research, and arguments to diverse audiences

• Apply a core inventory of theories, methods, and concepts to local and global contexts

• Analyze and evaluate the impact of historical events on contemporary issues faced by Native Americans in urban, reservation, island, and rural locales

• Explore and apply Native American approaches to decolonization that center frameworks of Indigenous knowledge, scholarship, and creative practices