American Indian Studies BA

Overview

The American Indian Studies BA program is designed to offer a coherent and comprehensive curriculum in American Indian cultures, societies, and contemporary issues in addition to valuable background in more traditional disciplines such as anthropology, art history, economics, education, history, law, linguistics, literature, sociology, and world arts and cultures. Students acquire a critical knowledge of the concepts, theories, and methods that have produced knowledge about American Indians in the traditional disciplines. Students are encouraged to develop a concentration—or special expertise—in these fields to accompany the major.

The curriculum encompasses the cultural, historical, political, and social experiences of Native Americans in the Americas. Through courses on Native American literature, languages, theater, and contemporary societies and through more culturally specific courses on California Indians, cultures of the Pueblo southwest, and so on, the major offers an in-depth and broad knowledge on the experience of Native Americans not only in the U.S. and Canada but in Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America as well.

Given the increasingly multicultural society of the U.S. and the economic revitalization of many Native American communities, a knowledge of American Indian studies greatly enhances the professional and scholarly contributions attainable for those seeking postgraduate degrees in various related disciplines and fields.

The American Indian Studies major is a designated capstone major. Seniors complete a research/service experience and participate in a tutorial where faculty members help them relate their course-derived academic experience to their original research/service efforts involving Native American communities. Through their capstone work, students demonstrate their skills at analyzing and synthesizing knowledge, show their capacity to work collaboratively with peers, and display their capacity to relate their academic research and discourse to Native American community needs and concerns. Students present their work at the academic year-end Research Symposium sponsored by the American Indian Studies Interdepartmental Program.

Learning Outcomes

Demonstrated analysis and knowledge-synthesis skills gained through completion of written capstone thesis

Identification of a key idea or theme of interest drawn from coursework

Effective public presentation of selected theme in final paper and/or project

Relation of academic research and discourse to Native American communities’ needs and concerns

Communication of statistical and quantitative information to appropriate communities

Display capacity to work collectively with peers to effectively analyze and synthesize knowledge

Requirements

Preparation for the Major

Preparation for the Major Policies

Transfer Students

Transfer applicants to the American Indian Studies major with 90 or more units must complete as many of the following introductory courses as possible prior to admission to UCLA: one introduction to American Indian studies course and two courses from culture and society, introduction to gender studies. introduction to American politics, or introduction to statistical methods.

Refer to the UCLA transfer admission guide for up-to-date information regarding transfer selection for admission.

The Major

Requirements are distributed according to certain categories to create a breadth of knowledge. Students are required to take a research methods course to become familiar with scholarly techniques of knowledge production and to critically regard academic research, as well as a course in either ethnic/race/gender relations or comparative indigenous studies. Additional courses are selected in the social sciences and humanities according to a distributional formula that encourages further specialization within either of these two broad areas while simultaneously adding additional breadth. Finally, American Indian Studies C122XP prioritizes the experiential dimension of involvement in Native American communities (either urban, reservation, or rancheria) through work that supplies service experience and/or supervised internship opportunities.

The 12 courses must fit one of the following regional emphasis patterns: (1) Native North America—eight courses, including those mentioned below and additional electives on Native North American topics or (2) indigenous peoples of the Americas—eight courses, including at least four dealing with indigenous people in Central America and/or South America.

Students must complete 12 upper-division courses (48 units) as follows, with no more than 32 units from American Indian studies courses:

Ten core courses (40 units), including (a) American Indian Studies M161, (b) two language courses from Anthropology M150, 155, Linguistics 114, (c) two history or law courses from American Indian Studies 140, 158, C170, History 149A, 149B, 157B, (d) one social sciences course from American Indian Studies C120, C121, C130, C175, C178, Anthropology 160A, or 162, (e) two expressive culture courses from American Indian Studies 180, Art History 137, CM139A, C139B, English 106, Ethnomusicology 106A, 106B, Theater 103F, 107, (f) one methodology course from Anthropology 138P, Art History 100, Community Health Sciences 181, Comparative Literature 100, Linguistics 160, Political Science 170A, Sociology 106A, 113, or World Arts and Cultures 195, and (g) either one ethnic/race/gender relations course (African American Studies M164, Anthropology M145Q, 145S, Asian American Studies 130A, M130B, M130C, 131A, 132A, 133, 134, Chicana/o and Central American Studies CM182, Film and Television 128, Gender Studies 130, 168, Sociology 154, 156, or M162) or one comparative indigenous studies course (Anthropology 143, Geography M126, History 135A, or Sociology 157)
American Indian Studies C122XP (experiential service learning or supervised internship)
American Indian Studies 199C (capstone course)

The Major Policies

Honors Program

The honors program is designed for American Indian Studies majors who are interested in carrying out an independent research project that culminates in an interdepartmental honors thesis of approximately 30 pages. The program gives qualified students the opportunity to work closely with individual professors on an in-depth supervised research and writing project.

All junior and senior American Indian Studies majors who have a cumulative grade-point average of 3.0 or better and at least a cumulative GPA of 3.5 in coursework in the major are eligible to apply. Consult the student affairs officer for more information.

To qualify for graduation with honors, students must (1) complete all requirements for the major, (2) have a cumulative grade-point average of 3.5 or better in the major course requirements and an overall GPA of 3.0 or better, and (3) complete American Indian Studies 198A-198B-198C, taken with a professor who agrees to mentor and guide them through the stages of senior essay design and development during their senior year. Completion of a senior thesis is required.