Academics | American Indian and Indigenous Studies

Academics

The American Indigenous and Indian Studies Minor allows students to explore the culture and traditions of the American Native peoples. The Minor focuses on the issues facing native populations today and recognizes the importance of all aspects of native culture. Students can find relevant courses in almost every department. Minor required courses and unit counts must be completed by the final quarter and students must meet with there sponsoring department for approval.

Preparation for the Minor:

Religious Studies

14 - Introduction to Native American Religious Studies (4)

This course is designed as an introduction to the contribution that Native American religions make to the general study of religion. Metaphysical and philosophical aspects of North American native culture. Major concepts of belief systems, religion, and medicine. Theories of balance, harmony, knowledge, power, ritual, and ceremony.

English

34NA - Intro to Native American (4)

Designed to serve as a preparatory entry to the American Indian and Indigenous Minor, this course is open to all aspiring English majors and students pursuing the AII Minor. We feature the power of story as a maker of culture, different ways of culturally informed reading, and the practice of reading through knowledge from Indigenous, intra-tribal, and inter-tribal perspectives. In addition to learning the history and the narrative sinews of peoples, English 34NA includes novels, stories, comics, poetry, rap, painting, film, and memoirs, honoring a deep dive into some of the most vital creative work of the late 20th and 21st centuries. Authors may include but are not limited to Miranda, Hogan, Orange, Owens, and Silko.

OR English 134 NA

Upper-Division Minor: 20 units required from 2 or more departments:

Anthropology

108 - Educating the Native (4)

We look at different educational projects, such as Indian boarding Schools, English-only laws, the "indirect rule" of the British colonies. We address the not-always-clear line between education as a form of social control or as a form of liberation.

113 - Indigenous People and the Nation State in the Americas (4)

The changing relationship between indigenous people and the state. Compare the differences and similarities between indigenous peoples' mobilizations in the cases of Canada, the USA, Ecuador, Chile, Guatemala, Bolivia, and Mexico.

116 - Myth, Ritual, and Symbol (4)

Uses ethnographic case studies, films, and performance videos to explore myth, ritual, and symbolism cross-culturally. Compares and contrasts the symbolic dimensions of gender and ethnic identity, world view, social and political organization, and change in different societies.

129 - Ethnographic Research Methods: Ethics and Engagement (4)

Interrogation of ethnographic research, its development, and its ethical implications. Weighing approaches such as participatory action research, engaged and collaborative research, and decolonized methodologies. Students will develop projects based on a critical reading of these models.

131 - North American Indians (4)

The origins, development, and attainments of New World aboriginal cultures north of Mexico. Some emphasis is given to California groups such as the Chumash.

131 CA - California Indigenous Peoples (4)

Investigation of the diversity of California Indian societies at the beginning of European colonization, including social organization, economy, material culture, and ideology. Also considered are origins and historic changes. Emphasis is placed on central and southern California.

133 - Cultural Development in Mesoamerica (4)

The rise and fall of various ancient civilizations such as those of the Maya, Aztecs, Toltecs, Teotihuacanos, and Olmec as well as their cultural antecedents. This course uses self-paced audiovisual modules as well as traditional lecture formats.

139 - Indigenous Peoples (4)

Survey of indigenous societies, including resistance, response, and adaptations to colonial incursions; colonial and postcolonial politics; ethnic and cultural assimilation; indigenous ethnic resistance; indigenous political movements. Other topics explored include ethnocide and ecocide; indigenous property rights; effects of globalization.

143F - Ethics in Archeology (4)

An analysis of ethics in contemporary archaeology. Topics include reburial and repatriation, interpretation of the archaeological record in the context of historically oppressed groups, ethnic minorities, and non-western societies. The course also includes the ethics of collecting and managing cultural property.

155 - Prehistory of California and the Great Basin (4)

A survey of the prehistory of California and the Great Basin, which includes principally the states of Nevada and Utah. Consideration is also given to how archaeologists construct regional cultural developments and attempt to explain the prehistoric cultural change.

168JH - Gauchos, Cowboys and Indians (4)

Focuses on gauchos, cowboys, and indigenous groups, and their cultural practices in relation to the environment. The contrasting ways that they are represented in popular culture and debates about environmental sustainability are examined.

Asian American Studies

107 - Third World Social Movements (4)

Racial comparative analysis of Third World social movements. Study of the impact of historical context, political economy, racial formation, and gender dynamics on the activism of Asian, Black, Chicana/o, Indigenous, Puerto Rican communities in the United States; also attention to global struggles.

150 - Pacific Islander Americans (4)

Examination of the histories, migration patterns, ethnic identities, family dynamics, community organizations, cultures, religions, health and mental health, social service needs, political concerns, and inter-group relations of people from Hawaii, Samoa, Tonga, Guam, Fiji, and other Pacific Islands.

Chicana/o Studies

109 - Indigenous People and the Nation State in the Americas (4)

126 - Educating the Native (4)

We look at different educational projects, such as Indian boarding schools, English-only laws, the "indirect rule" of the British colonies. We address the not-always-clear line between education as a form of social control or as a form of liberation.

161 - Latina/o Youths in Global Perspective (4)

Comparative analysis of Latina and Latino (Latina/o) youths in Europe, Latin America, and the U.S., with special attention to experiences of migration, identity formation, gang membership, race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality, and popular culture and the media.

168 A - History of the Chicano (4)

The history of the Chicanos from the indigenous/colonial past to 1900. Explores the evolving history of Mexican descent people during the Pre-Columbian, Spanish, Mexican, and U.S. periods.

168 B - History of the Chicano (4)

The history of the Chicanos from 1900 to the present. Explores issues such as immigration, second-generation experience, civil rights struggles, the Chicano Movement, the post-Chicano Movement, the role of women in Chicano history, and the new Latino millennials of the 21st century.

178A - Global Migration, Transnationalism in Chicana/o Contexts (4)

This course considers Chicana/o and U.S. Latina/o culture(s) within the context of transnational practices and patterns including both hemispheric and global migration trajectories.

180 - Survey of Chicano Literature (4)

The course encompasses a general overview of all genres (poetry, novel, theater, short story, and essay) of Chicano literature. A people's socio-historical experiences are examined to understand ethnicity, creativity, and worldview.

Comparative Literature

103 - Going Postal: Epistolary Narratives (4)

Investigates reappearance of the letter-novel at particular historical moments, and paradoxes built into the letter-form itself. Range of works emphasizing eighteenth- and later twentieth-century novels, likely works by Austen, Goethe, Hoffman, James, Montesquieu, Choderlos de Laclos, Lydia Davis, Pynchon.

111 - Dreaming in Cultural Context (4)

Explores dreams and dreaming in multiple historical and cultural contexts and pays particular attention to dreams and dream reports as unconscious and intra-psychic as well as social and cultural communications. A variety of historical, ethnographic, psychoanalytic, and literary texts are considered.

East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies

152 - Pedagogical Chinese Grammar (4)

Provides an overview of Chinese grammar and focuses on topics relevant to the CFL teacher. Analyzes inter-language errors in Chinese learners.

English

122NE - Cultural Representations: Nature and the Environment (4)

A study of literary works, paintings, films, and other representational forms as they influence cultural attitudes. The courses offered will focus on such topics as the body, the city, the everyday, the marketplace, and the machine.

134NA - Studies in Literature of Cultural and Ethnic Communities in the United States

Studies in the literature of cultural and ethnic communities in the United States. Courses on writing produced by, or associated with, cultural communities in America such as Afro-Americans, Chicanos, Asian-Americans.

134FC - Floricanto: Chicanx & Indigenous American Poetry Writing & Reading

165LP - Topics In Literature: Literature of the Pacific

Studies of topics not limited to a specific author, period, or literary form. Specific course titles are announced prior to the beginning of each quarter.

Environmental Studies

130A - Un-naturalizing Disasters: Risk, Vulnerability, and Resilience (4)

The course provides an understanding of different approaches to and meanings of disasters, and how people have faced disaster-related challenges in practical ways in a range of social, cultural, and environmental contexts. The course is designed to develop both critical analytical skills and hands-on problem-solving skills.

130B - Global Tourism and Environmental Justice (4)

Focus on the contradictions between international tourism as an economic development strategy and environmental justice and conservation efforts, especially in an era of climate change. One major objective is to help students make more informed decisions about their own tourist experiences.

134CJ - Climate Justice (4)

Overview of the climate change problem and exploration of the meanings of the term "climate justice" as used by scholars and social movement activists to imagine and create a sustainable, equitable, democratic world for future generations.

134EC - Earth in Crisis (4)

Explores the causes and consequences of climate change on a global scale, covering the state of the science in layman's terms, the current and future social impacts of climate change, the global negotiations process, and climate justice activism.

180 - Global Environmental Movements (4)

Examines historical and contemporary environmental and human rights movements around the world. Subject matter includes: policy-driven/reformist environmental movements, radical underground and militant movements, indigenous peoples' movements, environmental movements in the Global South, and coalitions and transnational advocacy networks focused on confronting climate change and resource extraction associated with industrial agriculture, mining, timber harvesting, hydroelectric dam construction, fracking, oil and tar sands, and the international hazardous waste trade. Students learn theories and concepts from the social sciences and environmental humanities.

181 - Power, Justice, and the Environment (4)

Students to the theoretical and historical foundations of research on environmental racism and environmental inequality. Examines social scientific evidence concerning these phenomena and the efforts by community residents, activists, workers, and governments to combat it. Considers the social forces that create environmental inequalities so that we may understand their causes, consequences, and the possibilities for achieving environmental justice. Students will master social scientific theories and concepts related to the subject matter.

185 - Human Environmental Rights (4)

To human environmental rights. Examines the expansion of human rights to include human environmental rights, abuses of human environmental rights, associated social conflicts, and emergent social movements including environmental justice and transnational advocacy networks.

186 - Development, Displacement, and Environmental Justice (4)

look at policies and actions by international development agencies and governments, reviewing critiques of their systemic weaknesses, failures, and impacts on local communities and environments. Focuses on case studies of forced displacement, as well as examples from around the world where communities, activists, citizens, and scholars are advocating for alternative policies and actions to promote human rights and social and environmental justice.

189 - Religion And Ecology In The Americas (4)

Same course as Religious Studies 193. An overview of the growing field of religion and ecology in the Americas. Focus on spiritual traditions and land-based knowledge indigenous to the Western hemisphere.

193TK - Special Topics In Environmental Studies (1-5)

One-time course taught by lecturers or guest professors on a special area of interest in environmental studies. Specific course titles and topics are to be announced by the Environmental Studies program each quarter.

Film and Media Studies

140 - The Western (4)

Establishes the forms and rituals of the western genre, and reflects on changes they have undergone. Attention will also be given to the trend toward realism, and the new moral and political revisions of the western's view of society.

History

101D - Dreaming in Cultural Context (4)

156A - History of Mexico: Pre-Hispanic and Colonial Periods (4)

The history of colonial New Spain, from California to Central America and from the Philippines to the Caribbean. Topics include pre-Columbian societies, including the Aztecs; the formation and development of colonial societies; religion; the economy; and global connections.

168A - History of the Chicanos (4)

History of the Chicanos from the indigenous/colonial past to 1900. Explores the evolving history of Mexican descent people during the Pre-Columbian, Spanish, Mexican, and U.S. periods.

168B - History of the Chicanos (4)

Explores issues such as immigration, second-generation experience, civil rights struggles, the Chicano Movement, the post-Chicano Movement, the role of women in Chicano history, and the new Latino millennials of the 21st century.

179A - Native American History to 1838 (4)

A lecture course on the history of the indigenous peoples of North America from European contact to Cherokee removal. The course stresses comparative cultural responses to European colonization and from American history from a native point of view.

179 B - Native American History, 1838 to the Present (4)

A lecture course on the history of the indigenous peoples of North America from Cherokee removal to the present. The course stresses native history, relations with the U.S. Government and offers American history from a native point of view.

189E - History of the Pacific (4)

Prehistory, early contacts with outside peoples, colonial regimes, the transformation of colonialism, and recent developments. Contemporary issues include regional cooperation, neocolonialism, and emigration.

Linguistics

108 - Introduction to Morphology (4)

How meaning is encoded in words in the languages of the world. Morphological and morphophonemic processes, lexical categories, derivation and inflection, productivity, tense, aspect, mode, case, concord, valence changes (passives, antipassives, benefactives, causatives), morphological typologies.

134 - North American Indian Languages (4)

Survey of the several hundred native languages of North America, including the history of research on these languages, their classification, special structures, and their oral traditions.

150 - Language Documentation (4)

Issues in the creation of lasting multipurpose records of a language. Documentation as a collaborative, community-based initiative. Description and documentation, archive creation, metadata, technologies, materials, ethics, ethnography, orthography, and multimedia. Students participate in a collaborative documentation project as primary coursework.

180 - Language, Race, and Ethnicity (4)

Linguistic practices of major ethnoracial groups in the United States, including African Americans, Asian Americans, European Americans, Latinxs, and Native Americans; examination of the linguistic effects of immigration and colonialism; bilingualism, translanguaging, language shift, and heritage language learning; linguistic interaction and contact between ethnoracial groups; language as a resource for ethnoracial identity; linguistic racism; linguistic activism.

Religious Studies

191A - Latino Religious Thought (4)

Examination of the indigenous, Iberian, and North American sources and influences for distinctly Latino forms of religious thought, speculation, and spiritual construction. Topics include Nahua wisdom traditions, colonial Nepantla, Chicano movement indigenismo, feminist innovation, Latino liberationist theology.

Sociology

130LA - Development and Social Change in Latin America (4)

Examines significant instances of economic, political, cultural, and social change in contemporary Latin America. Employs various perspectives to illuminate such phenomena as changing social structures, industrialization, social movements, the states, multinationals, the military, and international pressures.

144 - The Chicano Community (4)

Origins of the Chicano in rural Mexico; the context of the contact, patterns of settlement in the United States; the Chicano community, social structure, and social change; acculturation and generational patterns; community leadership and change.