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Native American and Indigenous Studies Requirements

  • The minor in Native American and Indigenous Studies (NAIS) invites students to consider Indigenous peoples’ and nations’ experiences across time and place. Courses offer students the opportunity to study Indigenous histories alongside both the present and Indigenous futures, foregrounding questions of nationhood and sovereignty, personhood, creativity, materiality, and culture. Applied and experiential learning is a cornerstone of the minor. Students are required to contribute to two NAIS-related partnerships; one is as an active participant in the college’s Welcome Home Project (a partnership with the Delaware Tribe of Indians and Perkiomen Valley School District) and the other is of their design and choosing in consultation with the coordinator and NAIS faculty. In addition to these experiences, students will complete 20 credit hours of coursework.

    Requirements for Minor

    A minor in Native American and Indigenous Studies (NAIS) consists of a minimum of 20 semester hours of credit. The requirements are as follows:

    • Two courses from the following: ANTH-226; ART-220/320; HIST-225 (the other may be taken as an elective)

    • One elective course each from the following groups*:
      • Group 1: ART-220/320, 230/330, 240/340, 280/380

      • Group 2: ANTH-221, ANTH/HSOC-283; ENVS-428W, 425; RELS-261

      • Group 3: ANTH-226; HIST-225; PHIL-110

    * Credit will be accepted from the following courses if the topic is on Native American and Indigenous Studies topics: ANTH 251; ART-250/350; FS-252; MCS-375; MS-250; HIST-150, 250, 350; RELS-309; SPAN-340, 440W. Other relevant topics courses in other departments and independent study projects will also count towards the minor with the approval of the coordinator, who will assign them to appropriate elective groups. Similarly, courses taken during a study abroad or off campus program may also count towards this minor with approval from the NAIS coordinator.

    • To fulfill the minor, students must also complete an applied learning or experiential component the focus of which is germane to NAIS, from among the following options (use of Bonner Leaders, Melrose Fellows, Model UN, Parlee Center Fellows, U-Imagine, or Summer Fellows to fulfill the applied learning requirement of the NAIS minor requires the joint approval of the NAIS coordinator and the director or advisor of the respective program):
      • Internships
      • Office of Sustainability Fellows Program (Food Forest, Campus Farm)
      • Semester-long research (directed, independent, or honors) with participating NAIS faculty
      • Bonner Leaders Program
      • Melrose Fellows
      • Model UN o Parlee Center for Science and the Common Good Fellows
      • U-Imagine
      • Summer Fellows research
      • Study Abroad in ANTH/HSOC 283
      • Sustained work on the Welcome Home Project (determined in consultation with the NAIS coordinator)

    • To fulfill the NAIS minor, students must also participate in and contribute to the Welcome Home Project (in consultation with the NAIS coordinator)

      • This requirement may be fulfilled via coursework or via one of the applied learning experiences outlined above

      • An example of this might be conducting an oral history interview in a course for the minor that is then added to the Welcome Home archive

    At least eight of the 20 credits for the minor must be in addition to credits already counting toward the student’s major(s) and/or another minor.