Graduate Minor in American Indian and Indigenous Studies
Questions?
For information about this graduate minor, contact the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS), Jean O'Brien, at obrie002@umn.edu.
Grounded by a strong commitment to the worlds, histories, representations, and political struggles of Indigenous peoples locally and globally, the intellectual project of American Indian and Indigenous Studies (AIIS) uses interdisciplinary methods of critical inquiry as a means through which students engage research and scholarship in their major fields of study.
An AIIS minor is composed of graduate coursework with core and affiliated Indigenous studies faculty in the Department of American Indian Studies and other departments. Students receive foundational training in one of three required courses: Indigenous Critical Theory, Problems in American Indian History, or American Colonialism and Indigenous Histories.
In addition, students choose (in consultation with the director of graduate studies) from graduate courses in a range of disciplines committed to Indigenous studies to tailor their work to their own scholarly needs. The AIIS graduate minor strengthens student work in their major field of study as AIIS minors will learn how to best integrate American Indian and Indigenous Studies into their existing work as well as how to complement their research to include indigenous methodologies.
The AIIS graduate minor is offered at the master’s and doctoral levels and is selected in consultation with the director of graduate studies (DGS):
- Masters: 6 credits of coursework, including a required core course (3 credits) and one elective course (3 credits).
- Doctoral: 12 credits of coursework, including a required core course (3 credits) and electives (9 credits). At least one elective course taken with an AMIN designator is recommended.
College Resources for Graduate Students
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