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Native American and Indigenous Studies

NAIS

Native American and Indigenous Studies (NAIS) engages Indigenous knowledges and methodologies to study the world, potentially touching all areas of intellectual work across the college. The NAIS minor can contribute to building an intellectual community among students, staff, and faculty across the Barnard community who are dedicated to the critical analysis of colonialism. Given its location in a feminist institution of higher education, NAIS at Barnard raises particular questions about gender, sexuality, and feminist struggle in relationship to colonialism and Indigenous sovereignty. Moreover, NAIS addresses New York City as an Indigenous space, home to the largest urban population of Native Americans and Indigenous people in the US, and a major location for Native American and Indigenous histories in the arts, politics, and activism. NAIS is intended to facilitate the development of new generations of thinkers, whose work will contribute to the well-being of Indigenous nations and communities.

To sign up, contact Manu Karuka, NAIS Director.

Requirements

The concentration and minor consist of five courses to be distributed as follows:

Introductory Level (1 course)

Select 1 from the following:

  • AHIS UN2702, “Pre-Columbian Art and Architecture”
  • ANTH UN2141, "Frontiers Imaginaries"
  • HIST BC1488, “Indigenous History of North America”
  • HIST UN1512, “The Battle for North America: An Indigenous History of the Seven Years War, the American Revolution, and the War of 1812”
  • HIST BC2548, "Early America to 1763"
  • MUSIC UN2021, "Music in Contemporary Native America"
  • RELI UN2779, “Introduction to Native American Religious Thought”

Intermediate Level (2 courses)

Select 2 from the following:

  • AHIS UN3708, "Beyond El Dorado: Materials, Values and Aesthetics in Pre-Columbian Art History"
  • AHIS X3853, "Exhibiting Modern Inuit Sculpture"
  • AMST BC3300, "The Wealth of Natives"
  • AMST UN3925, "Indigenous Peoples of New York and New England"
  • ANTH BC2011, “Field Methods in Archaeology”
  • ANTH BC2012, “Laboratory Methods in Archaeology”
  • ANTH BC3234, “Indigenous Place-Thought”
  • ANTH BC3300, "Pre-Columbian Histories of Native America"
  • ANTH UN3821, “Native America”
  • CSER UN3444, "The Decolonial Appeal: Desiring Decoloniality"

  • CSER UN3946, "Indigenous Theatre, Performance & Politics"

  • CSER UN3964, "Maya Guatemala—Neoliberalism and Resistance"

  • ENGL BC3242, “Anti-Colonial Literature Before 1900”
  • HIST BC3058, “Colonial Gotham”
  • HIST UN3501, “Indians and Empires in North America”
  • HIST UN3502, “The Struggle for Indigenous Sovereignty”
  • RELI UN3771, “Early Modern Indigenous Thought”
  • RELI UN3881, “The Doctrine of Discovery: Religion, Law, and the Legacies of 1492”

Advanced Level (2 courses)

Select 2 from the following:

  • AHST GU4089, “Native American Art”
  • ANTH GU4118, “Settler Colonialism in North America”
  • ANTH GR5480, “Critical Native/Indigenous Studies”
  • ANTH GU4653, "Art Beyond Aesthetics: Decolonizing Approaches"
  • CSER GU4241, "Epistemologies of Dispossession"
  • CSER GU4482, "Indigenous Peoples: Movements/Rights"
  • RELI GU4207, “Religion and the Afro-Native Experience”
  • RELI GU4998, “Religion and the Indian Wars”
  • RELI GU4999, “Global Indigenous Religious Histories”
  • WMST GU4235, “Indigenous Feminisms”