Borderlands and Ethnic Studies
The Borderlands and Ethnic Studies Department offers courses in the following areas: Borderlands and Ethnic Studies (BEST), Chicana/o Studies (CCST), Native American Studies (NATV), Palestine Studies, and Decolonial Methodologies.
Program Information
The Borderlands and Ethnic Studies Department offers an Undergraduate Minor in Borderlands and Ethnic Studies, an Undergraduate Minor in Chicana/o Studies, an Undergraduate Minor in Native American Studies, a Graduate Minor in Native American Studies, and a Graduate Certificate in Borderlands and Ethnic Studies.
The interdisciplinary faculty in BEST outline and analyze the history, cultural production, politics, and consequences of racialization and identity formation from a diasporic and transnational/transborder approach that remains rooted in a place-based, Borderlands imperative.
Professor, Dulcinea Lara, Department Head
Professors Hamzeh, Lara; Associate Professor Garay; Assistant Professor Badoni.
G. Badoni, Ph.D. (U of Arizona)-- Native American Studies, Native American visual culture, Native American education; R. J. Garay, Ph.D. (Arizona State)-- Latina/o/e/x and African American Literatures; M. Hamzeh, Ph.D. (New Mexico State)-- Decolonial methodologies, Palestine Studies; D. Lara, Department Head, Ph.D. (Berkeley)-- Relational Ethnic Studies, Chicana/o Studies, Chicana/o History
Borderlands and Ethnic Studies
BEST 1110G. Introduction to Borderlands and Ethnic Studies
3 Credits (3)
The field of Ethnic Studies is about 1) critical knowing and 2) unapologetic imagining and creation of a better, more just world. This course explores the roots, logics, and administrations of racism within the U.S. context, locally along the border, and framed within a larger global and historical context. The past few decades have borne witness to increasing global diversity and cross- border migrations, which has led many in the U.S. to imagine the nation as “post-racial.” Simultaneously, increasing clashes that can only be described as “racist” have led people to wonder about the dark racist underpinnings of a society that believes it has achieved the goals put forth by the distinct and intersecting Civil Rights Movements of the 1960s.Perhaps now, more than any other time in history, there is earnest desire to talk about race and racism and unpack these constructs/activities/outcomes. This course is designed to inform us about how colonization, racism, and hegemony function. Secondly, it is designed for self and collective exploration of these somewhat broad and abstract concepts in an applied manner. Finally, it is designed for us to arrive at a shared understanding of the decolonial turn, or a re-humanization imperative. How do we understand, apply, and heal as these activities each relate to coloniality of power
Learning Outcomes
- Learn and understand broad histories of social struggles, social movements, and ensuing human relationships.
- Meaningfully engage classical and new materials from the Borderlands and Ethnic Studies “canon.”
- Articulate observations using key terms, theories, and concepts in Borderlands and Ethnic Studies.
- Apply key concepts in “everyday life” via course activities.
- Gain a better understanding of your own worldviews and opinions towards issues of race, class, gender, nationalism, migration, borders, social movements, and resistance.
- Learn mindful and constructive ways to engage peers about sometimes “difficult” topics like race, power, and privilege.
BEST 300. History and Theories in Borderlands and Ethnic Studies
3 Credits (3)
This course provides a basic understanding of the history and theoretical foundations of Borderlands and Ethnic Studies. It engages in an in-depth analysis of the concepts and history that resulted in reshaping the way we understand race, national borders, immigration, education, and the law. It examines borderlands theorizing to critically engage the border not simply as a physical barrier meant to regulate migration, but the economic, cultural, spatial, and metaphorical borderlands that informs us on larger processes of membership, belonging, identity, politics, and dehumanization linked to social structures and institutions. It explores the history of social movements in the U.S. that sought to illuminate social inequalities and social justice issues and investigates the underlying causes and sources of these social movements as they relate to reconceptualizing race and the borderlands and their overall impact on society at large. Throughout the course we will ask the following questions: How does the idea of race permeate our everyday lives? How does education reinforce our understandings of race? How do historical struggles over economic resources and political power illuminate the formation and development of the borderlands? How does law relate to power relations and mechanisms of social control?
Learning Outcomes
- Explain how race and ethnicity has been historically socially constructed in the U.S.
- Understand how the social construction of race and ethnicity is related to issues of social control.
- Understand how the idea of race helps to reinforce existing power arrangement.
- Connect historical struggles for justice and equality in the U.S. to current social and political issues dealing with the Borderlands.
- Explain hegemony and its link to shifting borders and nationalism.
- Identify how racial beliefs are tied to laws, policies, and practices of social institutions and organizations.
- Understand how race relates to the development of the border.
- Analyze the ways race, class, and gender serve as interlocking systems of oppression.
- Gain a better understanding of your own worldviews and opinions towards issues of race, class, , gender, nationalism, migration, borders, social movements, and resistance. 1
- Critically engage and “think outside the box” when discussing the conceptualization and history of the idea of race.
BEST 400. Capstone in Borderlands and Ethnic Studies
3 Credits (3)
This seminar is designed to culminate the undergraduate minor by summarizing knowledge and experience garnered in pre-courses: Intro to Borderlands & Ethnic Studies, History & Theories of Ethnic Studies, as well as the chosen gender course, the chosen race, history & education course, and the chosen elective course. Students will be asked to write a reflective essay at the start of the course that highlights 1) materials and ideas that have most impacted the student throughout the core courses, 2) discuss how the elective course complemented and expanded materials and ideas from BEST core classes, 3) what materials and ideas remain challenging to grasp, and 4) what kind of culminating project the student would like to complete. This essay will be the foundational document to carry the student through the semester, along with close guidance provided by the instructor as well as peer feedback.
Prerequisite/Corequisite: BEST 1110G, BEST 300, and either (AFST 2140G, CCST 3120V, or NATV 4110) and either (AFST 4110, CCST 3110, or NATV 4210).
Learning Outcomes
- Design and develop a semester-long project that draws upon all previous BEST in collaboration with instruction and peers.
- Re-explain vis-a-vis previous courses how race and ethnicity has been historically socially constructed in the U.S.
- Critically engage and “think outside the box” when discussing the conceptualization and history of the idea of race.
- Work with a community organization, agency, or other group to collaborate on the final project.
- Present project to class as a final product.
BEST 450. Special Topics in Borderlands and Ethnic Studies
3 Credits (3)
This course is a focused and intensive study of particular historical, aesthetic, cultural, political, or social issues and contexts within the discipline of Borderlands and Ethnic Studies. Repeatable under different subtitles. May be repeated up to 9 credits.
Learning Outcomes
- Define and articulate the fundamental characteristics and issues related to the topic of focus.
- Contextualize the topic of focus within the broader field of Ethnic Studies, Chicanx Studies, Africana Studies, and/or Native American Studies.
- Develop compelling and logical arguments for class discussion, individual and group presentations and writing assignments, based on course readings and discussions.
- Interpret, understand, and engage texts within cultural, social and historical contexts.
- Gather, analyze, and evaluate information from a variety of sources.
- Compose texts in a variety of media formats.
BEST 455. Borderlands Representations
3 Credits (3)
In this course, we will explore contemporary portrayals of border spaces and peoples in literature, film, visual art, and theory. We will engage an interdisciplinary and cross-genre exploration to examine the flexibility, tensions, and range of border-focused textual/artistic production. The Mexico-U.S. border will be the foundation and we will extend from this most familiar border to borders globally, with particular attention to the Canada-U.S. border, the Haitian-Dominican border, the Palestine/Israel nation states. Questions that will guide the course: How do representations of the Mexico-U.S. border reflect/converse with historical and contemporary political tensions? How do the perspectives and vantage points of Mexican, Chicano, and U.S. Anglo producers of cultural artifacts, including literature, diverge, collide, and coalesce? And, finally, how do perceptions and portrayals of geopolitical borders converse with understandings of the Mexico-U.S. border, what can we bring from our border-knowing to global borders, and what are specificities of particular border spaces?
Learning Outcomes
- Express knowledge of major economic, political, social and cultural realities of multiple global borderlands.
- Explain the multidisciplinary diversity and intellectual rigor that compose cultural productions of these borderlands.
- Develop compelling and logical arguments for class discussion, individual and group presentations and writing assignments, based on course readings and discussions.
- Interpret, understand, and engage texts within cultural, social and historical contexts.
- Gather, analyze, and evaluate information from a variety of sources.
- Compose texts in a variety of media formats.
BEST 470. Literary Explorations of Race & Justice
3 Credits (3)
While this course is, as the title suggests, a survey of literary texts emphasizing race and justice, an exploration like this one posits an argument about which works of a literary tradition are most important, most fundamental, and, especially, how works that are deemed “political" feature in literary traditions. How have some authors and their texts become popularized, for whom, and what are some of the consequences (both positive and negative) of how the processes (both organic and inorganic) of popularization (canonicity, if you will) establish the parameters of ethnic literary traditions? We will work with these questions as you read and respond in discussion and in writing to some of what I, and others, consider a handful of the most prominent U.S. writers of color, their works, and their representations of race and justice. Other questions that will help us explore the multiplicity and richness of these literary texts: How do these texts converse with broader traditions of literatures? What are the conversations between and tensions within these texts and among its writers? How do aesthetics, politics, and community intersect? How do issues, including race and justice, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and self-representation manifest within texts? What histories impact literary production and publication of these texts? How are these literary explorations of race and justice evolving and what does the future hold? The course will be writing-intensive, reading-intensive, and genre-inclusive, as we connect the "creative" realm of textual representation in fiction, poetry, and nonfiction to the "theoretical" realm of criticism and scholarship that provides ways for us to see and read textual representation critically, imaginatively, differently. The course promises to incite provocative discussions, as it engages the relevance of a rapidly changing U.S. population.
Learning Outcomes
- Summarize the major economic, political, social and cultural forces influencing the composition, publication, and reception of literary texts focusing upon race and justice.
- Explain the multidisciplinary diversity and intellectual rigor that compose these texts.
- Develop compelling and logical arguments for class discussion, individual and group presentations and writing assignments, based on course readings and discussions.
- Interpret, understand, and engage texts within cultural, social and historical contexts.
- Gather, analyze, and evaluate information from a variety of sources.
- Compose texts in a variety of media formats.
BEST 480V. Narratives and Representations of Palestinians: Media, Music, Film, and Art
3 Credits (3)
This course is an undergraduate (that fulfills requirements for VWW) and graduate Palestine Studies course that draws on Palestine, settler-colonial studies, and decolonial Arab feminisms as an intersectional set of knowledges, methodologies, and practices. It also draws on various examples of contemporary Palestinian arts–paintings, fashion, land-based ceremonies/rituals, music, and film. The course is structured to connect the themes addressed throughout the semester with their iterations in world media, Palestinian art creation, and representation. The course aims to help the learners address 1) how Palestinian art creation is a resistance tool to the erasures imposed by the Zionist settler-colonial state of Israel on Palestinians and 2) how art creation in all its forms act to counter the Zionist’s narratives and propaganda about Palestinian history, heritage, identity and right to their land. It also introduces and engages liberatory and decolonial visions of art/knowledge creation, as well as, global resistance and solidarity with Palestinian artists.
Learning Outcomes
- How Palestinian art creation is a resistance tool to the erasures imposed by the Zionist settler-colonial state of Israel on Palestinians.
- How art creation in all its forms act to counter the Zionist’s narratives and propaganda about Palestinian history, heritage, identity and right to their land. It also introduces and engages liberatory and decolonial visions of art/knowledge creation, as well as, global resistance and solidarity with Palestinian artists.
BEST 510. Foundations in Borderlands & Ethnic Studies
3 Credits (3)
This seminar explores the roots, logics, and administrations of racism within the U.S. context, locally along the border, and framed within a larger global and historical context. In addition to race, other social locations such as gender, class, and sexual orientation are explored as intersectional. The course uses traditional lecture format, multi-media, guest lecturers, and engaging activities inside and outside the classroom to apply materials in tangible and impactful ways. May be repeated up to 6 credits.
Learning Outcomes
- Identify, compare and contrast broad histories of social struggles, social movements, and ensuing human relationships.
- Meaningfully engage classical and new materials from the Borderlands and Ethnic Studies “canon.”
- Articulate observations using key terms, theories, and concepts in Borderlands and Ethnic Studies.
- Apply key concepts in “everyday life” via course activities.
- Demonstrate mindful and constructive ways to engage peers about sometimes “difficult” topics like race, power, and privilege.
BEST 511. Methodologies in Borderlands and Ethnic Studies
3 Credits (3)
This seminar introduces the practice of indigenizing research methods by looking beyond the canon of Eurocentric methodologies that have often trapped marginalized communities outside of normative time frames. Through the deconstruction of colonial apparatuses and their influence on research methods, the class explores key concepts in decolonizing research to move us to new understandings of communities according to indigenous traditions that privilege ancestral ways of knowing. May be repeated up to 6 credits.
Learning Outcomes
- Explain how producing research is connected to producing knowledge.
- Identify and describe the impact of colonialism and imperialism on disrupting ways of knowing.
- Recognize political and cultural implications of the world seen as a colonial, constructed narrative
- Describe how a social reality can have set political and ideological conditions.
- Distinguish how indigenous methodologies relate to decolonizing methods.
- Describe how decolonizing methods are a different approach to research.
- Identify decolonizing methods that have been used in research.
- Critically engage with research lenses stemming from a decolonizing standpoint.
BEST 512. Theories in Borderlands and Ethnic Studies
3 Credits (3)
This seminar provides a basic understanding of theoretical foundations of Borderlands and Ethnic Studies. It also examines borderlands theorizing to critically engage the border not simply as a physical barrier meant to regulate migration, but the economic, cultural, spatial, and metaphorical borderlands that informs us on larger processes of membership, belonging, identity, politics, and dehumanization linked to social structures and institutions. Social movements in the U.S. that sought to illuminate social inequalities and social justice issues are explored. The course investigates the underlying causes and sources of these social movements as they relate to reconceptualizing race and the borderlands and their overall impact on society at large. May be repeated up to 6 credits.
Learning Outcomes
- Explain how race and ethnicity has been socially constructed in the U.S.
- Recognize how the social construction of race and ethnicity is related to issues of social control
- Describe how the idea of race helps to reinforce existing power arrangements
- Connect historical struggles for justice and equality in the U.S. to current social and political issues dealing with the borderlands
- Explain hegemony and its link to shifting borders and nationalism
- Identify how racial beliefs are tied to laws, policies, and practices of social institutions and organizations
- Distinguish how biopolitics relates to the development of the border.
- Analyze the ways race, class, and gender serve as interlocking systems of oppression.
- Gain an understanding of and be able to evaluate your own worldviews and opinions towards issues of race, class, gender, nationalism, migration, borders, social movements, and resistance. 1
- Critically engage and “think outside the box” when discussing the conceptualization and development of the idea of race.
BEST 513. Capstone in Borderlands and Ethnic Studies
3 Credits (3)
This seminar is designed to culminate the graduate certificate by summarizing knowledge and experience garnered in pre-courses: BEST 510, 511, 512. Students will be asked to write a reflective essay at the start of the course that highlights 1) materials and ideas that have most impacted the student throughout the core courses, 2) discuss how the elective course complemented and expanded materials and ideas from BEST core classes, 3) what materials and ideas remain challenging to grasp, and 4) what kind of culminating project the student would like to complete. This essay will be the foundational document to carry the student through the semester, along with close guidance provided by the instructor as well as peer feedback. May be repeated up to 6 credits.
Prerequisite: BEST 510; BEST 511; BEST 512.
Learning Outcomes
- Summarize, concisely, key concepts and frameworks learned in BEST seminars.
- Express, reflectively, what these concepts and frameworks mean in the context of historical and contemporary social issues related to power dynamics created and exacerbated by hierarchies associated with racial, gender, class, sexual orientation and other positionalities.
- Design a culminating project that encapsulates a nuanced understanding of Borderlands and Ethnic Studies, ensuring its impact on a broader audience.
- Generously evaluate cohort mates’ projects as they progress during semester.
- Receive feedback about one’s own project and apply those comments and critiques in useful ways and in collaboration with instructor.
- Create/generate a culminating project that aligns with rubrics in the most effective manner possible.
- Present work to cohort and instructor in an effective way.
BEST 550. Advanced Special Topics in Borderlands and Ethnic Studies
3 Credits (3)
This course is a focused and intensive study of particular historical, aesthetic, cultural, political, or social issues and contexts within the discipline of Borderlands and Ethnic Studies. Repeatable under different subtitles. May be repeated up to 9 credits.
Learning Outcomes
- Define and articulate the fundamental characteristics and issues related to the topic of focus.
- Contextualize the topic of focus within the broader field of Ethnic Studies, Chicanx Studies, Africana Studies, and/or Native American Studies.
- Develop compelling and logical arguments for class discussion, individual and group presentations and writing assignments, based on course readings and discussions.
- Interpret, understand, and engage texts within cultural, social and historical contexts.
- Gather, analyze, and evaluate information from a variety of sources.
- Compose texts in a variety of media formats.
Chicana and Chicano Studies
CCST 2110G. Introduction to Chicana and Chicano Studies
3 Credits (3)
An introductory survey of the Mexican American experience in the United States, with special reference to New Mexico. The course includes exploration of historical, political, social and cultural dimensions. NMSU Specific It seeks to review the historical causes and consequences of the formation of the Chicano identity and to understand its relation to the development of the Chicano experience as a distinct culture. The course explores the social and political impact that Chicana/o thought and theory has had on the United States over time, specifically developing concepts related to identity, community, social movements, and social justice. Ultimately, the course will facilitate understanding the historical ways in which Chicana/os have negotiated the pressures of their surroundings and in the process shaped or redefined American conceptions of identity, race, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, education, protest, and resistance.
Learning Outcomes
- Apply various transdisciplinary perspectives and processes to understand humanist expressions through a variety of creative productions.
- Assess and apply social, historical, economic and cultural perspectives as they impact diverse populations over a period of time.
- Explain the ways in which narratives help people understand one another more clearly and profoundly across ethnic and cultural groups.
- Design projects that foster and increase a full understanding of a subject in order to promote change in their own and listeners' attitudes, values, beliefs, or behaviors.
- Apply qualitative and numerical data to explain diverse human actions in an everyday context of life.
CCST 3110. Chicana/o History
3 Credits (3)
This course is an exploration and discuss the history of Mexican Americans in the U.S., with emphasis on their contributions to society and the political, economic and cultural forces that exemplify their experiences as a population. Beginning in 1492, at the onset of European “contact” with indigenous people living in what is now called Mexico, students will study the early beginnings of Mexicans as a mestizo (mixed) race and follow this group on a rough timeline through the present. Films, music, images and poetry are included to supplement lecture material. With special attention to New Mexico and the borderlands specifically, students will endeavor to make relevant, contemporary connections to the material. Additionally, the course will contextualize this history of a population and experiences within the establishment of Chicana/o Studies as an evolving discipline.
Learning Outcomes
- Summarize the major economic, political, social and cultural histories defining and effected by the Mexican American population.
- Gain understanding of how these histories evolved in political solidarity with other minority populations in the United States.
- Understand the multidisciplinary diversity and intellectual rigor that effected and currently compose Chicana/o Studies as an academic discipline.
- Develop compelling and logical arguments for class discussion, individual and group presentations and writing assignments, based on course readings and discussions.
- Interpret, understand, and engage texts within cultural, social and historical contexts.
- Gather, analyze, and evaluate information from a variety of sources.
- Compose texts in a variety of media formats.
CCST 3120V. Chicana/o Genders and Sexualities
3 Credits (3)
This survey course introduces students to Chicanx genders and sexual identities and representations as socially and culturally constructed in transnational Latinx communities and contexts. Through a lens of Chicana feminist and queer theories, students will gain familiarity with gender- and sexuality-related stereotypes and cultural expectations, as well as the histories of individual and group resistance to these norms. Course materials will highlight the revolutionary challenges to limitations and contributions to social, political, and cultural change made by queer Chicanx individuals and groups, women, and men resisting confining constructions of masculinity. This course will be both reading and writing intensive.
Learning Outcomes
- Explain the multidisciplinary diversity and intellectual rigor that compose Chicanx feminist and queer theoretical traditions
- Develop compelling and logical arguments for class discussion, individual and group presentations and writing assignments, based on course readings and discussions
- Interpret, understand, and engage texts within cultural, social and historical contexts
- Gather, analyze, and evaluate information from a variety of sources
- Compose texts in a variety of media formats.
CCST 3130. Chicana/o Education
3 Credits (3)
This course deconstructs the history of education through the lens of culture and race. Using a framework of intersectionality, the creation of public education, and the impact of historical shifts within the law concerning education will be examined. Special emphasis is placed on the role of ethnicity in the development of the United States and its education system. Includes an overview of multicultural/multilingual curricula with a special focus on culturally / linguistically responsive instruction and assessment practices. This course provides a critical examination of race and culture using multicultural theoretical frameworks to analyze the conditions of education today. Additionally, this course will particularly foreground Latinx and Chicanx resistance and revolution in the realm of education and what this history and activism teaches us about our own identity, worldviews, environment, and ways of understanding in the contexts of both informal and formal processes and experiences of education.
Learning Outcomes
- Analyze and interpret the historical, philosophical, economic, and sociocultural elements of education as it relates to race and culture.
- Evaluate and interpret the ways in which education policies influence and are influenced by equity issues.
- Describe multicultural education initiatives and assumptions about teaching, learning, and knowing.
- Understand how cultural groups and students' cultural identities affect language learning and education overall, especially for Latinx and Chicanx students.
- Explain and provide examples of anti-bias teaching strategies and education practices.
Native American Studies
NATV 1150G. Introduction to Native American Studies
3 Credits
This course surveys the significance of Native American Studies through an inter-disciplinary approach to two areas of academic concentration: Indigenous Learning Communities, and Leadership and Building Native Nations.
Learning Outcomes
- Students will develop a general understanding of the various concentration areas in Native American Studies throughout the United States.
- Students will identify the contributions of various academic disciplines to Native American Studies.
- Students will understand the intricacies and intersections of Indigenous scholarship in Native American Studies.
- Students will articulate the importance of Native American Studies as a stand-alone discipline in academia.
- Students will be able to connect community issues in both Native and Non-Native America to concepts taught in Native American Studies.
NATV 2120. Native American Experience
3 Credits (3)
Introductory survey of Native American History, culture an contemporary issues. Students read literature by and about Native Americans covering a variety of topics including tribal sovereignty, federal policy, activism, economic development, education and community life.
Learning Outcomes
- Apply cultural and historical context to text about Native Americans (by Natives and non-Natives).
- Analyze texts about Native Americans in relation to tribal sovereignty, federal policy, activism, economic development, education and community life.
- Evaluate texts by and about Native Americans from an NAS perspective.
NATV 3120. An Indigenous Peoples History of the United States
3 Credits (3)
This course is a history of United States as experienced by the Indigenous people. It delineates the Indigenous experience as reflected in Native American scholarship and research. The Indigenized and decolonized Native perspective provides an educative authenticity of Indigenous knowledge comprehensible to all, particularly the non-Indian.
Learning Outcomes
- The student can identify and describe significant historic periods as experienced by the Indigenous inhabitants in United States.
- The student is able to identify and differentiate aspects of the Native American historic experience in relationship to the standard linear chronicle timeline as reflected in U.S. history.
- The student it able to compose a brief summary review of the Native American historic periods as evidenced in scholarship and research.
NATV 4110. Native American Women
3 Credits (3)
Students investigate the status, experience, and contributions of Native American women from pre-contact to contemporary times. Identifying the contribution of Native American women to societies, communities, and Nations as keepers of knowledge, teachings, and traditions. Crosslisted with: ANTH 553.
Learning Outcomes
- Explore and examine the roles of American Indian women within a tribal society and analyze the impact of colonization and decolonization upon their place / roles over time.
- Evaluate historical and contemporary issues of importance to American Indian women and their communities.
- Assess a topic, book or issue of importance to Native women through a research paper, case study, or exam demonstrating in-depth knowledge and understanding.
- Demonstrate in-depth knowledge and understanding of Native American women histories and contemporary issues.
- Formulate a paper on Native woman/tribal women from historical or contemporary sources and share with class (undergraduates).
- Demonstrate in-depth knowledge and understanding of Native American women through an exam/final (undergraduates).
NATV 4120V. Native American Visual Culture
3 Credits (3)
This course examines the various theoretical and methodological challenges inherent to the study of indigenous art, including the issues of identity, sovereignty, gender, cultural critique, and the role of the artist.
Learning Outcomes
- Identify NA / Indigenous, film/video writers and directors.
- Locate NA / Indigenous nations with their geo-physical location.
- Consider issues of identity concerning Indigenous population.
- Apply “colonizing” / “decolonizing” methodologies.
- To practice writing short analytical journal entries.
- To learn effective group discussion techniques
NATV 4130. Indigenous Ways of Knowing
3 Credits (3)
This course examines Indigenous knowledge and ways of knowing to gain an appreciation of an epistemology and ontology that may be outside the boundaries of Eurocentric theory, concepts, and principles. The course explores and analyzes the nature and ways that Native Americans’ develop knowledge as well as the concepts and composition of metaphysics and cosmology. Students analyze knowledge development through mythology and storytelling by emphasizing the nature of difference rather than comparative analysis.
Learning Outcomes
- By the end of the semester, through dialogue and interaction, reading, writing, exercises, out of classroom experiences, auto/visual aids and computer technologies, the student is able to describe and explain characters and ways that Native Americans’ develop knowledge (epistemology); as measured by reports, critiques, reflective summaries, learning logs, analysis techniques and assessments.
- By the end of the semester, through dialogue and interaction, reading, writing, exercises, out of classroom experiences, auto/visual aids and computer technologies, the student is able to describe and explain concepts and composition of the metaphysics and cosmology (ontology) of Native American knowledge; as measured by reports, critiques, reflective summaries, learning logs, analysis techniques, and assessments.
NATV 4210. Native American Education
3 Credits (3)
This is a survey course that explores the education of Natives from multiple perspectives; the perspectives of Native theories and practices, the colonizers’-imposed education theories and practices, U.S. federal educational policies and practices, tribal systems of education, and responses from those experiencing the education. Starting with traditional education, the course will examine colonial education, federal and tribal efforts, contemporary models of Indian education including issues and challenges, and the educational sovereignty of tribes.
Learning Outcomes
- Describe (verbally and written) traditional methods of education used by Native Americans.
- Discuss and interpret (verbally and written) the theories and practices of educating Natives in different eras.
- Compare (verbally and written) the different systems of education for Native Americans.
- Articulate (verbally and written) contemporary Native American educational issues and challenges.
- Be able to articulate (verbally and written) support for educational sovereignty of tribes.
- Research, analyze and orally present a written a paper about an American Indian boarding school and its legacy.
NATV 4220. Federal Indian Policy
3 Credits (3)
This course provides a basic historic overview of federal Indian policy. As preexisting sovereign nations, the U. S. Constitution acknowledges only states, foreign nations, and Indian tribes as sovereign governments. The purpose is to provide a fundamental understanding of the unique position Indian tribes occupy in this country. It examines impacts and effects on culture and contemporary livelihood.
Learning Outcomes
- The student can recall and identity fundamental laws, policies, and court actions affecting Indian tribes.
- The student can describe and explain the effects of federal Indian policy on activities and interactions between Native American and the overall society.
- The student can analyze and interpret the impacts and effects of federal Indian policy on culture and contemporary lives of Native Americans
NATV 4310. Indigenizing Methodologies in Native American Studies
3 Credits (3)
This course utilizes decolonizing (indigenizing) methodologies and praxis to gain insight into the complex effects of oppression and colonization. The course uses critical and indigenous concepts to identify and analyze hegemonic, ethnocentric, historic and contemporary human rights and social justice issues of indigenous people. Emphasis includes research theory and methodology, such as community participatory action research, that is collaborative, inclusive, and pragmatic to ethics, intellectual property, and cultural boundaries of indigenous people. Crosslisted with: ANTH 541.
Learning Outcomes
- The student is able to describe and explain some of the complex effects of oppression and colonization on indigenous peoples.
- The student is able to identify historic and contemporary issues that have influenced and affected the study and research of indigenous peoples.
- The student is able to convey particular research theory and methodology that is collaborative, inclusive, and pragmatic to ethics and cultural boundaries of indigenous people.
NATV 5110. Advanced Indigenizing Methodologies in Native American Studies
3 Credits (3)
This course utilizes indigenizing methodologies and praxis to gain insight into the complex effects of oppression and colonization. Critical and indigenous concepts are used to identify and analyze hegemonic, ethnocentric, historic and contemporary human rights and social justice issues of indigenous people. Research theory and methodology such as community participatory action research that is collaborative, inclusive, and pragmatic to ethics, intellectual property, and cultural boundaries of indigenous people is emphasized.
Learning Outcomes
- Explain how producing research is connected to producing knowledge.
- Identify and describe the impact of colonialism and imperialism on disrupting ways of knowing.
- Recognize political and cultural implications of the world seen as a colonial, constructed narrative.
- Describe how a social reality can have set political and ideological conditions.
- Distinguish how indigenous methodologies relate to decolonizing methods.
- Describe how decolonizing methods are a different approach to research.
- Identify decolonizing methods that have been used in research.
- Critically engage with research lenses stemming from a decolonizing standpoint.
NATV 5120. Advanced Indigenous Peoples History of the United States
3 Credits (3)
This course is a history of United States as experienced by the Indigenous people. It delineates the Indigenous experience as reflected in Native American scholarship and research. The Indigenized and decolonized Native perspective provides an educative authenticity of Indigenous knowledge comprehensible to all, particularly the non-Indian.
Learning Outcomes
- The student can identify and describe significant historic periods as experienced by the Indigenous inhabitants in United States
- The student is able to identify and differentiate aspects of the Native American historic experience in relationship to the standard linear chronicle timeline as reflected in U.S. history.
- The student it able to compose a brief summary review of the Native American historic periods as evidenced in scholarship and research.
NATV 5210. Advanced Native American Education
3 Credits (3)
This is a survey course that explores the education of Natives from multiple perspectives; the perspectives of Native theories and practices, the colonizers’-imposed education theories and practices, U.S. federal educational policies and practices, tribal systems of education, and responses from those experiencing the education. Starting with traditional education, the course will examine colonial education, federal and tribal efforts, contemporary models of Indian education including issues and challenges, and the educational sovereignty of tribes.
Learning Outcomes
- Describe (verbally and written) traditional methods of education used by Native Americans.
- Discuss and interpret (verbally and written) the theories and practices of educating Natives in different eras.
- Compare (verbally and written) the different systems of education for Native Americans.
- Articulate (verbally and written) contemporary Native American educational issues and challenges.
- Be able to articulate (verbally and written) support for educational sovereignty of tribes.
- Research, analyze and orally present a written a paper about an American Indian boarding school and its legacy.
NATV 5220. Advanced Native American Visual Cultures
3 Credits (3)
This course examines the various theoretical and methodological challenges inherent to the study of indigenous art, including the issues of identity, sovereignty, gender, cultural critique, and the role of the artist.
Learning Outcomes
- Identify NA/Indigenous, film/video writers and directors.
- Locate NA/Indigenous nations with their geo-physical locations.
- Consider issues of identity concerning Indigenous populations.
- Apply "colonizing"/ "decolonizing" methodologies.
- To Practice writing short analytical journal entries.
- To learn effective group discussion techniques.
NATV 5520. Advanced Native American Women
3 Credits (3)
Students investigate the status, experience, and contributions of Native American women from pre-contact to contemporary times. Identifying the contribution of Native American women to societies, communities, and Nations as keepers of knowledge, teachings, and traditions.
Learning Outcomes
- Explore and examine the roles of American Indian women within a tribal society and analyze the impact of colonization and decolonization upon their place / roles over time.
- Evaluate historical and contemporary issues of importance to American Indian women and their communities.
- Assess a topic, book or issue of importance to Native women through a research paper, case study, or exam demonstrating in-depth knowledge and understanding.
- Demonstrate in-depth knowledge and understanding of Native American women histories and contemporary issues.
- Formulate a paper on Native woman/tribal women from historical or contemporary sources and share with class (undergraduates).
- Demonstrate in-depth knowledge and understanding of Native American women through an exam/final (undergraduates).
Department Head: Dulcinea Lara
242 Garcia Center
(575) 646-3649
Administrative Assistant: Aleena Jackson
246A Garcia Center
(575) 646-3524
Department website: https://best.nmsu.edu/