AIISP is a CALS-based unit that provides Indigenous-related academic, student support and outreach services to Cornell University.
Apply to the American Indian & Indigenous Studies Minor
Why you should minor in American Indian & Indigenous Studies
While earning an American Indian and Indigenous Studies (AIIS) undergraduate minor, you'll explore the complex histories and contemporary situations of Indigenous communities in North America and across the globe. Our faculty teach AIIS courses in diverse range of topics, including art, art history, anthropology, archaeology, education, fiber science and apparel design, law, linguistics, literature, natural resources, performing and media arts, and more. With an undergraduate minor in American Indian and Indigenous Studies, you are uniquely competitive as a multidisciplinary and extra-disciplinary thinker. Complete the AIIS Minor Application to get started!
Undergraduate Requirements
Our academic minor in American Indian and Indigenous Studies (AIIS) is available to undergraduate students in any area of study at Cornell. The undergraduate minor is earned upon the completion of five courses (a minimum of 15 credits), which must include:
- Two required courses, AIIS 1100 - Indigenous North America (AMST 1600, ANTHR 1700) and AIIS 1110 - Indigenous Issues in Global Perspectives (AMST 1601)
- Three additional courses:
- One must be from Arts & Humanities and another from Social & Natural Sciences
- One must be at the 3000 or 4000 level. These courses include for example: AIIS 4625 - Contemporary Native American Fiction, ARTH 4774 Indigenous Spaces and materiality, AIIS 3330 - Ways of Knowing: Indigenous and Place-Based Ecological Knowledge, AIIS 3248 - Finger Lakes and Beyond: Archaeology of the Native Northeast and others.
- Only one Independent Study (AIIS 4970) with a AIIS faculty supervisor worth 3 or more credits may count towards the minor
- Courses must be completed with a letter grade of "C" or above
- Course taken for S/U and First-Year Writing Seminars do not count towards the minor
Connect with our staff for any questions about the AIIS minor.
Courses
- AIIS 2100 (AMST 2180, ARTH 2101) - Indigenous Ingenuities as Living Networks
- AIIS 2240 (LING 2248) - Native American Languages
- AIIS 2390 (AMST 2390, HIST 2390) - Seminar in Iroquois History
- AIIS 2600 (AMST 2600, ENGL 2600) - Introduction to Native American Literature
- AIIS 2660 (AMST 2660, HIST 2660) - Everything You Know about Indians is Wrong: Unlearning Native American History
- AIIS 2850 - Indigenous Representation in Still and Motion Photography
- AIIS 3560 (AMST 3562, ENGL 3560) - Thinking from a Different Place: Indigenous Philosophies
- AIIS 4200 (AMST 4220, PHIL 4941) - Locke and the Philosophies of Dispossession: Indigenous America's Interruptions and Resistances
- AIIS 4300 - Indigenous Peoples and Decolonial Philosophies
- AIIS 4625 (AMST 4627, ENGL 4625) - Contemporary Native American Fiction
- AIIS 4670 (AMST 4670, ENGL 4670) - The Indigenous Poetry of Resistance
- AIIS 4674 (AMST 4674, HIST 4674) - Dispossession, Truth, and Reconciliation
- AIIS 4900 (AMST 4900, ENGL 4900) - New World Encounters, 1500-1800
- ARTH 4774 (ART 3874, ANTHR 4774) - Indigenous Spaces and Materiality
- HIST 1950 (LATA 1950) - The Invention of the Americas, 1450-1850
- AIIS 2350 (AMST 2350, ANTHR 2235, ARKEO 2235) - Archaeology of North American Indians
- AIIS 2240 (LING 2248) - Native American Languages
- AIIS 2420 (ANTHR 2420, BSOC 2420) - Nature/Culture: Ethnographic Approaches to Human-Environment Relations
- AIIS 3324 (LING 3324) - Cayuga Language and Culture I
- AIIS 3325 (LING 3325) - Cayuga Language and Culture II
- AIIS 3330 (AMST 3330, NTRES 3330) - Ways of Knowing: Indigenous and Local Ecological Knowledge
- AIIS 3422 (ANTHR 3422) - Culture, Politics, and Environment in the Circumpolar North
- AIIS 3248 (AMST 3248, ANTHR 3248, ARKEO 3248) - Finger Lakes and Beyond: Archaeology of the Native Northeast
- AIIS 4000 - Critical Approaches to American Indian and Indigenous Studies: Intellectual History
- AIIS 4600 (ANTHR 4260, ARKEO 4260) - Analyzing White Springs
- AIIS 4720 (AMST 4272, ANTHR 4272, ARKEO 4272) - Archaeology of Colonialism and Cultural Entanglement
- AIIS 4770 - Haudenosaunee-New York State Relations
- AIIS 4970 - Independent Study (taken with an AIIS faculty supervisor)
AIIS Faculty Spotlight
Meet Our Faculty in American Indian and Indigenous Studies (AIIS). The expertise of AIIS faculty spans multiple fields, including anthropology, archaeology, art, art history, fiber science, history, literature, law, and natural resources, enabling students to develop programs that address their specific interests.
Kurt Jordan
- (607) 255-3109
- kj21 [at] cornell.edu
Associate Professor, History of Art and Visual Studies, American Studies Program, American Indian and Indigenous Studies
Jolene Rickard
- jkr33 [at] cornell.edu
Karim-Aly Kassam
- (607) 255-9757
- ksk28 [at] cornell.edu
Undergraduate Minors in AIIS - Student Spotlight
Peter Thais '25 (Kanien:keha'ka/Mohawk)
- nationalstudentreps [at] aises.org
Biological Engineering (Major)
American Indian and Indigenous Studies (Minor)
Environment and Sustainability (Minor)
Yanenowi Logan '24
Environment & Sustainability (Major)
American Indian and Indigenous Studies (Minor)
Explore recent alumni with the American Indian and Indigenous Studies Undergraduate Minor - Explore Our Alumni page for all alumni of AIISP
- Maria Karihwiiostha Arrieta Lee (Kanien:keha'ka/Mohawk, Tarahumara) B.S. Communications; Minor American Indian and Indigenous Studies 2024
- Samantha Peters B.S. Environmental Science, Minor in American Indian and Indigenous Studies 2024
- Sam Jurado BaSC. Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Minor in American Indian and Indigenous Studies 2024
- Adele Williams (Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina) B.S. Communications; Minors American Indian and Indigenous Studies, Law & Society 2024
- Yanenowi Logan (Onöndowa'ga:'/Seneca) B.S. Environment and Sustainability, Minor American Indian and Indigenous Studies 2024
- Annabel Young (Saginaw Chippewa) B.A. American Studies, English; Minors in American Indian and Indigenous Stides, and Inequality Studies 2022
- Benjamin Oster (Mohawk) B.S. 2017 M.Eng 2018
- Kyle Coulon (Onondaga) B.A. American Studies, minor in American Indian Studies 2011
- Bailee Hopkins (Chahta/Choctaw) B.S. Plant Sciences; Minor in American Indian and Indigenous Studies 2018, M.P.S. 2019 Public Garden Leadership - Horticulture
- Sasha Pachito B.S. Rural Sociology, minors in American Indian Studies and Latino Studies 2003; M.L.S. University of Oklahoma - Indigenous Peoples Law
- Tsiorasa Barreiro (Kanyen’kehá:ka/Mohawk) B.S. Communications; Minor in Native American Studies 2000
- Mindy Magyar (Mi’kmaq, Sipekne’katik First Nation) B.S. Chemical Engineering, minor in American Indian Studies 1997; M.B.A 2009., M.F.A. 2007