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American Indian & Indigenous Studies - Courses

We are proud to offer numerous courses every semester that range in content and engage various departments across campus. If you are interested in how fields such as art, art history, archaeology, English, horticulture, law, linguistics, or natural resources engage Indigenous issues, we have a course for you (Explore our full course catalog). Discover and meet Our Faculty here. 
A declaration to complete the American Indian and Indigenous Studies minor can be submitted at any point in your Cornell career. See here for details on the Undergraduate Minor or the Graduate Minor in American Indian and Indigenous Studies.

Apply to the American Indian and Indigenous Studies Minor

Explore the AIIS courses offered this semester

Taking a course in American Indian and Indigenous Studies enriches your educational experience while learning about Indigenous communities, experiences, and issues, historical and contemporary.

View the Fall 2024 course roster
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Photo: Cornell's clock tower in spring, Ben Maracle (2022).

AIIS 1100/AMST1600/ANTHR 1700: Indigenous North America

Professor Paul Nadasdy

Tuesdays & Thursdays | 2:55-410pm, plus weekly discussion session

Learn more here.

AIIS/AMST 2350, ANTHR/ARKEO 2235 : Archaeology of Indigenous North America

Professor Kurt Jordan

Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays | 10:10-11am

Learn more here.

AIIS/ANTHR/BSOC 2420 - Nature-Culture: Ethnographic Approaches to Human Environment Relations

Professor Paul Nadasdy

Mondays & Wednesdays | 10:10-11:25 am, plus weekly discussion section

Learn more here.
AIIS/LING 3324: Cayuga Language and Culture I

Professor - Jessica Martin (Gayogo̱hó:nǫˀ/Cayuga)
Mondays | 3:00 - 5:30PM
Hybrid

AIIS/AMST/NTRES 3330: Ways of Knowing: Indigenous and Place-Based Ecological Kn…

Professor Karim Aly-Kassam
Tuesdays & Thursdays | 10:10-11:25am

AIIS/ENGL 3560, AMST 3562: Thinking from a Different Place: Indigenous Philosop…

Professor Eric Cheyfitz
Tuesdays & Thursdays | 2:55-4:10pm

AIIS/ENGL 4625, AMST 4627: Contemporary Native American Fiction

Professor Eric Cheyfitz
Tuesdays & Thursdays | 10:10 - 11:25AM

AIIS 4720/AMST/HIST/ANTHR/ARKEO: Archaeology of Colonialism and Cultural Entang…

AIIS 7720, AMST 4272, AMST 6272, ANTHR 4272, ANTHR 7272, ARKEO 4272, ARKEO 7272
Professor Kurt Jordan
Tuesdays & Thursdays | 10:10 - 11:25AM

AIIS/LAW 6451: Indigenous Peoples and American Law

Professor Robert Odawi Porter (Seneca)

Thursdays | 3:25-5:20pm

AIIS 7720: Archaeology of Colonialism and Cultural Entanglement

AIIS 4720, AMST 4272, AMST 6272, ANTHR 4272, ANTHR 7272, ARKEO 4272, ARKEO 7272
Professor Kurt Jordan
Tuesdays & Thursdays | 10:10am-11:25am

AIIS 4970 - Independent Study - American Indian and Indigenous Studies

American Indian & Indigenous Studies Faculty Spotlight

Jolene Rickard
Jolene Rickard

Associate Professor, History of Art and Visual Studies, American Studies Program, American Indian and Indigenous Studies

Jolene Rickard
  • jkr33 [at] cornell.edu
Kurt Jordan
Kurt Jordan

Associate Professor, Anthropology,

American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program

Kurt Jordan
Man in Sweater
Karim-Aly Kassam

Professor

Natural Resources and the Environment

Karim-Aly Kassam
Two men, in a green and grey jacket, speak with two students.

Articles about AIIS Courses

Through community, Indigenous students thrive in STEM
Coming home: Gayogohó:nǫˀ language programs expand reach
Art brings science to life along the Mohawk River

Courses with Indigenous content

These courses are not formally cross-listed, but may count towards the AIIS minor. Please contact the Director of Undergraduate Studies for AIIS if you have questions.

A man in a field looks into digital equipment
ENGL 2400 Introduction to U.S. Latinx Literature
CHERO 1110 Beginning Cherokee I
FSAD 4025 Design for Change: Imagining Decolonial Futures
QUECH 1210 Elementary Quechua I
HIST 1180 Viking America
HIST 1950 The Invention of the Americas
HIST 2391 From Terra Incognita to Territories of Nation-States: Early American …
HIST 3770 Latinos and the United States, 1492-1880
ARTH 4774 Indigenous Spaces and Materiality

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