AIIS Learning Outcomes
Students in the PhD and graduate minor programs in American Indian and Indigenous Studies will gain proficiency in one or more of the department’s core learning outcomes:
Understand how sovereignty is a spiritual, moral, dynamic cultural force that empowers Indigenous individuals and their nations to act socially and politically as self-determining agents in the world.
Engage the diversity of philosophies and cultures of Native people in North America and/or of Indigenous people across the world; Understand American Indian Studies as an interdisciplinary field of knowledge that affirms, reflects on, and synthesizes ways of knowing that exist among Native and Indigenous peoples.
Recognize the continuity and revitalization of Native/Indigenous thought, language, and political and social identities over time and into the present; identify how Indigenous values and ethics inform the types of justice Native and Indigenous peoples seek for their communities.
Acquire skills to help them think about both Native/Indigenous nations and society at large; Accept responsibility to communicate what they have learned verbally, in writing, and/or through other forms of media.
University of Minnesota Policy on Indigenous Research
All researchers at the University of Minnesota are required to adhere to the University of Minnesota Indigenous Research Policy adopted by the Board of Regents at their July 2024 meeting: “This policy is intended to inform and assist University of Minnesota researchers and practitioners, including faculty, staff, research scholars, clinicians, postdoctoral researchers, graduate and undergraduate students who are pursuing work with Tribal partners, Tribal communities, Tribal natural resources, and other Tribally-controlled or Tribal-serving institutions, Indigenous Peoples, places, and objects of cultural significance to Indigenous Peoples, wherever those Indigenous peoples, places, and objects may be.”
This policy is administered by the Office of Native American Affairs, which University researchers with culturally responsive training to guide research projects, pedagogy, scholarship, and academic initiatives that respect Tribal sovereignty.