Native American & Indigenous Studies at PennNAIS Courses for Spring 2025!!
ANTH 0020 Anthropology, Race, and the Making of the Modern World
Anthropology as a field is the study of human beings - past, present, and future. It asks questions about what it means to be human, and whether there are universal aspects to human existence. What do we share and how do we differ? What is "natural" and what is "cultural"? What is the relationship between the past and the present? This course is designed to investigate the ways anthropology, as a discipline, emerged in conjunction with European (and later, American) imperialism, the trans-Atlantic slave trade, and the will to know and categorize difference across the world. We will probe the relationships between anthropology and modern race-making by investigating how anthropologists have studied key institutions and systems that structure human life: family and kinship, inequality and hierarchy, race and ethnicity, ritual and symbolic systems, gender and sexuality, reciprocity and exchange, and globalization and social change. The course fundamentally probes how the material and ideological constellations of any given moment shape the questions we ask and the knowledge we produce about human. Tues 5:15-8:15pm. Prof. N. Sadeghsamim
HIST 1125 NEW Native American History
Course Description: This course will introduce the history of North America’s Indigenous nations from the continent’s first peopling through the close of the twentieth century. We will analyze the basic sequence and consequence of events such as: pre-Columbian migrations; the development of settled North American societies; the establishment and spread of European colonies; the contestation of and alliance with imperial projects by Indigenous nations; the construction of Indian racial and cultural identity; the formation of the United States, the process of “Indian Removal”; the creation of reservations; the growth of assimilative programs through residential schooling; and the rise of modern tribal bureaucracy. Particular attention will be paid to the various strategies employed by Indigenous nations across time to establish and uphold government-to-government relationships with Western powers. Throughout, we will assess the history of Native America as flowing through its own channels—ones now intertwined with, but discrete from, those of the United States. Confers Foundation, CDUS, NAIS Core, Anthropology elective. Mon-Wed 1:45-3:15 PM. Prof. P. Olsen Harbich.
Anth 1490 Introduction to Native American and Indigenous Studies
This course offers a broad introduction to evolving scholarship in the combined fields of Native American Studies and Indigenous Studies worldwide. Students will examine the various ways that Indigenous peoples and academic researchers are currently engaging with Indigenous knowledges, while also exploring the lingering impacts of settler colonialism and the influence of decolonizing methodologies. Students will gain foundational understandings of the cross-disciplinary nature of Native American and Indigenous Studies (NAIS), by studying theoretical interpretations of Indigenous peoples in academic and historical contexts, and by examining practical approaches to Indigenous research in diverse worldwide settings. Students will approach topics from a variety of disciplinary traditions, utilizing historical texts, ethnological studies, oral literature, material culture, and modern media, including websites and databases produced by and for Indigenous communities. Readings will include the work of researchers who bridge the disciplines of anthropology, history, folklore, art, law, science, etc. Students will watch a selection of films by Indigenous filmmakers, and attend lectures by a selection of Indigenous guest speakers. NAIS faculty advisors from various schools at Penn (e.g., School of Arts and Sciences, Education, Law, Nursing) will also present several guest lectures to highlight their unique experiences and research projects with Indigenous communities. Special case studies will focus on: new directions in collaborative research; issues in museum representation and repatriation; heritage site protection and Indigenous archaeology; legal interventions and protections for Indigenous rights; and innovative projects in language restoration and cultural recovery. Confers NAIS Core /Foundation CDUS Tues/Thurs 3:30-5:00 Prof. T. Fragoso.
Music 1500/ANTH 1500 World Music and Cultures
This course examines how we as consumers in the "Western" world engage with musical difference largely through the products of the global entertainment industry. We examine music cultures in contact in a variety of ways-- particularly as traditions in transformation. Students gain an understanding of traditional music as live, meaningful person-to-person music making, by examining the music in its original site of production, and then considering its transformation once it is removed, and recontextualized in a variety of ways. The purpose of the course is to enable students to become informed and critical consumers of "World Music" by telling a series of stories about particular recordings made with, or using the music of, peoples culturally and geographically distant from the US. Students come to understand that not all music downloads containing music from unfamiliar places are the same, and that particular recordings may be embedded in intriguing and controversial narratives of production and consumption. At the very least, students should emerge from the class with a clear understanding that the production, distribution, and consumption of world music is rarely a neutral process. Fulfills College Cross Cultural Foundational Requirement, Arts and Letters Sector. Multiple sections and instructors, check PATH
ANTH 3368 Anthropology of Museums
This course examines museums as sites where issues of Indigenous identity, memory, place and power intersect. Museums have long been engaged in the selective preservation, representation, and contextualization of Indigenous objects, cultures, and histories. We will examine antiquarian impulses that inspired the collecting of curiosities, scientific studies that drove the collection of biological specimens, and nationalist ideals that shaped monuments to house imperialist memories. Museums are now sites for complex, often contentious discourse around Indigenous collections. Students will review histories of local and national collecting processes, with a particular focus on Native American collections and concerns. We will also consider how Indigenous curators and new kinds of museums have developed innovative displays and interpretations. Tues 5:15-8:15 Prof. A. Grossi
Quechua, the language of the Inca Empire and still spoken by approximately 6 million people throughout the Andes, is the most popular indigenous language of South America. The program focuses on the development of written and oral communicative abilities in Quechua through an interactive activity-based approach. Course includes an introduction to Quechua and Andean culture. Students will participate in pair, small-group and whole-class activities. Assessment is based on both students ability to use the language in written and oral tasks and understanding the language and culture. This beginning level Quechua course is designed for students who have little or no previous knowledge of the language. Lectures will be delivered in English and Quechua. TR 5:15pm-6:44pm Prof. J. Guzman.
The course examines Indigenous education and language revitalization from an international perspective, considering questions like: What policies, ideologies, and discourses shape the history of Indigenous education? What roles do pan-Indigenous and international organizations play? What does decolonizing and Ind(By special permission for Penn undergrads) T 2pm-3:59pm Prof R. Moore, H.Brenneman, S. Oh, E. Poinsett
Interested in a Penn Global Seminar with NAIS Credit?https://global.upenn.edu/pennabroad/pgscourses
See Prof. Moore for advice on planning a PGS as a NAIS elective using the PGS programs. These courses have individual prerequisites for language proficiency and background, so read the information carefully. For Spring 2025:
People of the Land: Indigeneity and Politics in Argentina and Chile
Dr. Tulia Falleti, Department of Political Science; School of Arts and Sciences
Perspectives in Afro-Luso-Brazilian Culture
Dr. Mercia Flannery & Dr. Carlos Pio, Department of Spanish and Portuguese; School of Arts and Sciences