Courses
Full course schedules and detailed descriptions can be viewed on CAESAR. Information will be updated on the CNAIR webpage as it becomes available.
Upcoming Courses - Fall 2027
| Course code |
Title |
Description |
Instructor |
Time/Day |
Location |
| SOCIOL 277 |
Native Society: Past and Present |
Provides an overview of the culture and history of Native groups and how these histories influence modern Native America. Explores the current economic and social experiences of Indians and tribes. |
Beth Redbird |
MoWe 3:30PM - 4:50PM |
Harris Hall 107 |
| ENGLISH 274 |
Introduction to Native American and Indigenous Literatures |
The term "literatures" at the end of this course title will serve as a guiding question throughout the quarter — how and why do we establish boundaries between literature and non-textual forms of storytelling by Native American and Indigenous peoples? Following the impulse of this question, the course will pay particular attention to the presence of oral and visual mediums in Native American and Indigenous literature. We will also study the wide variety of forms that make up Native American and Indigenous literatures, including codices, short stories, memoirs, and novels. We will begin by considering the notion that we are currently undergoing a second Native American Renaissance, or a flourishing of publications by Native American authors, and study what the first Native American Renaissance was. Our discussions will interrogate the notion of a renaissance as a revival of something that was previously dormant and consider the centuries-long history of storytelling by Native American and Indigenous authors. Although the course is centered on the United States, it explores the hemispheric ties of Native American authors with Indigenous writers from throughout Abiayala (the Americas). |
Mariajose Rodriguez Pliego |
TuTh 3:30PM - 4:50PM |
Parkes Hall 223 |
| PHIL 390 |
Indigenous Philosophy |
This course will present some of the central themes in Indigenous Philosophy, with a central focus on Native American thought. Topics will include Indigenous perspectives on identity, knowledge, reality and humans' place within it, ethics, justice, and our obligations to the natural world. Readings will include both historical and contemporary perspectives. |
Baron Reed |
T/Th 11:00–12:20 |
TBD |
| HIST 492 |
Topics in History: Native Nations and the State |
Native Nations and the State interrogates the evolving relationship between Indigenous sovereignties and American state formation from the early modern era to the present. Moving beyond conventional narratives that frame Native polities as passive subjects of imperial expansion, this seminar centers Indigenous diplomacy, spatial regimes, and political theory as generative forces that continuously reshaped the juridical and territorial logics of the modern state. Students will juxtapose the structural paradigms of settler colonialism with Indigenous practices of refusal, nested sovereignty, and resurgence. The course materials engage foundational questions of property, jurisdiction, citizenship, and federal bureaucracy. |
Doug Kiel |
Tu 2:00pm-4:50pm |
Harris Hall room 201 |
Past Course Highlights
Indigeneity and Race
The racialization of Indigenous polities in North America has been a key mechanism for undermining Indigenous sovereignty and facilitating settler colonialism. In analytically foregrounding Indigenous sovereignty, this course examines how race has been imposed upon Indigenous peoples and nations so settlers could dispossess them of their lands and their political authority over those lands. Through this course, we will consider how US anthropology contributed to the development of the notion of indigeneity-as-race in North America, the function of Indigenous racialization, and how Indigenous communities have grappled with their racialization throughout time and into the present. Native/Indigenous Feminisms
Native/Indigenous Feminisms are key to understanding settler colonial societies like the United States and Canada. As a field of study, Native/Indigenous Feminisms analytically centers Indigenous sovereignty to understand how settler colonialism evolved to displace Indigenous peoples politically and within their own lands. This course will examine the historical formation and dynamics of settler colonialism to elucidate how it has shaped the lives of all people living within settler societies. 