Arts & Native Studies Courses That Have Significant Indigenous Content
Winter 2021 in the Faculty of Arts at UAlberta
Earlier this year Dan Levy, a Canadian actor, writer, director, and producer, took a 13 week course with the Faculty of Native studies. The reason why he took the course is because “If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that we need to actively relearn history — history that wasn’t taught to us in school — to better understand and contextualize our lives and how we can better support and be of service to each other,” he said on Instagram.
If you’re like Dan Levy and are interested in learning more about the histories, ways of life, and culture of Indigenous peoples, you’re in the right place. We have grouped together courses from the faculties of Arts and Native Studies you can take this January that have significant Indigenous content. (N.B. For Arts students, courses offered by the Faculty of Native Studies are not considered ‘non-Arts courses’.)
*Please note that course content, delivery method and instructors are subject to change. Refer to the course syllabus for full and final details.
Native Studies 115 (NS 115) — Indigenous Peoples and Technoscience
This Course Has Significant Indigenous Content
Number of Sections Offered: 1
Professor/Instructor: Dr. Kim TallBear
Delivery Method: Entirely asynchronous/any-time learning
Course Time: N/A
Pre-requisite: None
Course Description: This course introduces students to the long and complicated relationships between science and technology fields, broader dynamics of colonialism, and increasing demands for Indigenous governance of the sciences and technologies that affect them.
Other Themes Covered: Identity (race, gender, sexuality, culture, age, etc.) | Conflict & adversity| Power & authority| Social concerns and issues| Social change | Nature and the environment |Beliefs and values| Hero’s and leaders |Fantasy and imagination| Time, cycles of life| Equity, diversity, inclusivity and decolonization
Other faculties/programs that would take this as an option course: ALES | Business | Education | Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation |Native Studies | Science | Computing Science
Anthropology 386 (ANTHR 386-B2) (45669) — TOPICS BIOL ANTHRO OR ARCHLGY (Seminar): Indian Country in the American Imagination
This Course Has Significant Indigenous Content
Number of Sections Offered: 1
Professor/Instructor: Maggie Spivey-Faulkner
Delivery Method: A combination of synchronous/real-time and asynchronous/any-time learning
Course Time: M/W/F from 2:00–2:50pm MT
Pre-requisite: none
Course Description: 18th and 19th Century Western conceptions of Native American cultures form the foundations of modern Native American life in the United States. In this course, we will examine the laws and opinions that comprise early Federal Indian Law and extract the axioms on Native American cultures embedded within them. Those axioms will then be critically examined against our current understandings of Native American cultures via anthropological data and interpretation. The resulting societal fallout from the gap between the American imaginations of Native Americans and the Native lived reality will be evaluated. This course heavily draws from literature written by Native American authors.
Other Themes Covered: Identity (race, gender, sexuality, culture, age, etc.)| Nature and the environment| Industry, invention, progress| Beliefs and values| Fantasy and imagination| Time, cycles of life| Equity, diversity, inclusivity and decolonization
Other faculties/programs that would take this as an option course: Education | Native Studies
Native Studies 161 (NS 161) — Countering Stereotypes of Indigenous Peoples
This Course Has Significant Indigenous Content
Number of Sections Offered: 1
Professor/Instructor: Dr. Tasha Hubbard
Delivery Method: Entirely asynchronous/any-time learning
Course Time: N/A
Pre-requisite: None
Course Description: This course pulls the rug from underneath settler-based constructions of Indigeneity. Taking up the most prevalent stereotypes of Indigenous people, the course will provide context and reflection-based learning to give students the ability to unpack and challenge the narratives that both skew the lived experience of Indigenous peoples and allow the replication of stereotypes that reinforce colonial relationships.
Other Themes Covered: Identity (race, gender, sexuality, culture, age, etc.) | Conflict and adversity| Power and authority| Social concerns and issues| Social change | Beliefs and values| Heroes and leaders |Fantasy and imagination| Time, cycles of life| Equity, diversity, inclusivity and decolonization
Other faculties/programs that would take this as an option course: ALES | Business | Education | Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation |Native Studies | Science | Computing Science
Women’s and Gender Studies 298 (WGS 298) — Critical Issues: Decolonizing Fashion
This Course Has Significant Indigenous Content
Number of Sections Offered: 1
Professor/Instructor: Dr. Lana Whiskeyjack
Delivery Method: Entirely or mostly synchronous/real-time
Course Time: T/R from 11–12:20pm MT
Pre-requisite: None
Course Description: This course offers an introduction to select topics in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Fashion offers students a vivid, familiar, and fresh perspective to critically explore issues surrounding colonization, identity, gendered intersections, from an Indigenous perspective.
Other Themes Covered: Identity (race, gender, sexuality, culture, age, etc.)| Power and authority| Social concerns and issues| Social change | Beliefs and values| Fantasy and imagination| Time, cycles of life| Equity, diversity, inclusivity and decolonization
Other faculties/programs that would take this as an option course: ALES | Business | Education | Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation |Native Studies | Science | Computing Science
Anthropology 484 (ANTHR 484-B2) (45387) — TOPICS IN ARCH/BIOL ANTHRO (Seminar): Native American Science
This Course Has Significant Indigenous Content
Number of Sections Offered: 1
Professor/Instructor: Maggie Spivey-Faulkner
Delivery Method: A combination of synchronous/real-time and asynchronous/any-time learning
Course Time: T from 2–4:50pm MT
Pre-requisite: none
Course Description: Critical observation of the world is a fundamental part of Native North American cultures. In this course, we investigate Native American scientific epistemologies in spacetime, ecology, mathematics, astronomy, agriculture, and forestry. Due to the fragmented nature of evidence remnant from settler colonialism, we are forced to take a multi-national view of Native American science, using case studies from multiple regions, peoples, and Native Nations. We pay special attention to evaluating phenomena of the world through Indigenous, emic paradigms of thought and will require the student to demonstrate mastery of this material through the completion of problem sets.
Other Themes Covered: Identity (race, gender, sexuality, culture, age, etc.)| Nature and the environment| Industry, invention, progress| Beliefs and values| Fantasy and imagination| Time, cycles of life| Equity, diversity, inclusivity and decolonization
Other faculties/programs that would take this as an option course: ALES | Native Studies | Science | Computing Science
