AIIS is excited to share our expanded Spring 2024 course list. Any course below will be counted toward the AIIS minor requirement. Open enrollment begins November 10.
- AIIS 201: Intro to American Indian and Indigenous Studies (3 credits – Professor Morseau)
- Introduction to the study of American Indian and other Indigenous peoples, including issues related to culture, knowledge, language, governance, colonization, sovereignty, and ongoing revitalization efforts.
- Prerequisites: None
- AIIS 490: Independent Study (1-6 credits – contact Professor arola@msu.edu)
- Special project, directed reading and research arranged by an undergraduate student and a faculty member in areas supplementing regular course offerings.
- Prerequisites: AIIS approval
- AIIS 491: Topics in American Indian and Indigenous Studies Lecture: “Big Auntie Energy: Exploring Kinship Roles in Indigenous Communities” (3 credits – Professor Angie Sanchez)
- What does it mean to be a good relative? Indigenous family systems in the US and Canada have been disrupted by settler colonialism, however, despite these acts of attempted genocide, Indigenous communities have persevered by reclaiming ceremonies, languages, and culture in their communities. In this course, we will look at the ways in which Indigenous communities have been impacted by anti-Indian policies as it pertains to family systems and raising the next generation of Indigenous babies. We will explore the ways in which Indigenous people and communities are undoing the harm caused to their communities. What do family systems look like in various tribes and nations? What are the similarities and differences in the roles that relatives play in different tribes? We will discuss the roles that aunties, uncles, grandparents and other relatives play in Indigenous communities. Additionally, we will cover topics such as birth traditions, coming of age ceremonies, and elder care. Essentially, we will explore how Indigenous people are using Big Auntie Energy to care for, uplift, and heal their communities.
- Prerequisites: None
- AIIS 493: Internship in American Indian and Indigenous Studies (1-6 credits- contact Professor arola@msu.edu)
- Supervised pre-professional field experience in the arts and humanities working with an American Indian or Indigenous elder, community, government, organization, agency, or business.
- Prerequisites: AIIS approval
- ANP 433: Contemporary American Indian Communities (3 credits- Professor Heather Howard)
- American Indian communities today, both reservation and urban, including issues of tribalization, Pan-Indianism, culture change and revitalization, economic development, federal policy, religious freedom, and gender roles.
- Prerequisites: None
- FLM 451: Studies in Postcolonial Cinema (3 credits – Professor Doreste Rodriguez)
- The course will survey a style of filmmaking facilitated by the advent of lightweight and portable film equipment, which allowed for a more mobile, intimate, and (arguably) uncontrolled cinematography. Over time, the style became closely tied to the documentary genre, experimental film, and, ultimately, ethnographic filmmaking. Much like in the case of other regional cinemas of the global South, observational cinema adopted an extractive orientation to its Latin American subjects as Western filmmakers looked for an essential, unmediated truth about its subjects, often reinforcing existing imperialist, anti-indigenous, and anti-Black discourses. This class seeks to trouble the development of this type of filmmaking by placing the cinematic traditions of the North Atlantic (cinéma verité, direct cinema, candid eye, etc.) with its lesser-known Latin American counterparts to rekindle an aesthetic and political dialogue to which Latin American and Latinx participation was always crucial. The class will adopt an intentional approach to its selection of films to survey a broad array of periods and artists. It will feature ethnographic filmmaking in Latin America made by foreigners; travel documentaries; early Latin American experiments in small gauge formats; U.S.-based underground cinema made by or featuring Latinx talent; state-sponsored educational film; radical and/or revolutionary cinema; community media; feminist, Chicanx, Latinx, and Afro-diasporic video work; as well as observational media forms in contemporary digital culture. The goal of the class will be to test the limits of observational cinema as a global style, to excavate a Latin American and Latinx agency in the development of this mode, to broaden its scope beyond mere ethnography, and to remind ourselves to always ask who gets to observe and who gets observed.
- Prerequisites: FLM 230
- HST 391: Environmental History of North America (3 credits – Professor Charenko)
- Interaction of peoples of North America and their natural environments.
- Prerequisites: None
- IAH 201: United States and the World (4 credits; take with Professor Atabay OR Professor Lebeau)
- Major issues in development of U.S. society and culture, presented in international and comparative context. Influences from native Americans, Europeans, Africans, and Asians. Organized historically, with thematic emphasis on literature and the arts.
- Focus (if taking with Lebeau): American Indians from Stereotype to Human Being
- Prerequisites: Completion of Tier 1 writing requirement
- Major issues in development of U.S. society and culture, presented in international and comparative context. Influences from native Americans, Europeans, Africans, and Asians. Organized historically, with thematic emphasis on literature and the arts.
- IAH 203: Latin America and the World (4 credits – Professor Goncalves de Souza)
- Major issues in the development of Latin American societies and cultures, presented in global perspective. Influences from indigenous peoples, Europeans, Africans, and others. Organized thematically and historically, through study of written texts, literature, and the arts.
- Prerequisites: WRA 1004 or designated score on English placement test
- IAH 211C Section 740: Area Studies and Multicultural Civilizations: The Americas (4 credits; take with Professor Lebeau)
- Images of Indians in Law, Politics, and Popular Culture
- Prerequisites: (IAH 201 or IAH 202 or IAH 203 or IAH 204 or IAH 205 or IAH 206 or IAH 207 or IAH 208 or IAH 209 or IAH 210) or (RCAH 202 and completion of Tier I writing requirement) or (AL 210 and completion of Tier I writing requirement) or (AL 110 and AL 210)
- LL 152.001: First-Year Less Commonly Taught Language II: Anishinaabemowin (4 credits)
- Further work on speaking, listening, reading, and writing a less commonly taught language. Continued development of an emphasis on oral proficiency skills.
- Prerequisites: LL 151 or dept approval
- MC 338: Environmental Justice and Global Change (3 credits – Professor Ahlquist)
- Social inequalities and unequal distribution of environmental risks, burdens, and benefits. Cultural politics and power relations informing how such inequalities and their symptoms are normalized, justified, and resisted.
- Prerequisites: 5 spots open to non-JMC students; contact hessk1@msu.edu or dba3@msu.edu to be manually enrolled
- PHL 214: Indigenous Philosophy ( 3 credits – Professor Paredesruvalcaba)
- A survey of historic and contemporary philosophical traditions from Indigenous peoples globally.
- Prerequisites: None
- REL 306: Native American Religions (3 credits)
- Indigenous forms of spirituality among the Native American peoples. Materials from myth, ritual, ceremonial life, and art as ways of obtaining and sharing religious knowledge. Pervasive spiritual and cosmological themes.
- Prerequisites: not open to freshmen
- TE 448: Issues of Diversity in Children’s and Adolescent Literature (3 credits – Professor Jones)
- Theoretical perspectives, controversies, and classroom implications for literature by and about people who have traditionally been underrepresented in children’s and adolescent literature. Literature by and about African Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos and Latinas, American Indians, Middle Eastern Americans, and groups traditionally defined by class, religion, ability, gender, and sexuality.
- Prerequisites: TE 348
For any courses with prerequisites, professors may be flexible for students enrolling for the minor. Please reach out to course professors or aiis@msu.edu if there are any questions or concerns about prerequisites. If you know of any other Spring 2024 courses with 1/3 or more Indigenous-related content, please share with aiis@msu.edu.
