Faculty
Marianne Kongerslev

Course Coordinator
Merete Borch

To enroll in this course, students must have a basic knowledge of American society and history as well as sufficient English proficiency skills to be able to actively engage in discussions.

This course will introduce students to Native American history since the late 19th century after Wounded Knee. Throughout the semester the course will explore themes and political, economic and cultural developments in Native American history in the 20th and 21st centuries. Some of the themes and case studies to be discussed are: ’the Indian New Deal’, the Red Power movement, political representation and self-determination.

The course consists of 10 weeks with two weekly lessons.

Teaching will be in seminar form with short lectures, group work and possibly student presentations. Furthermore, students are expected to participate actively.

This course provides the student with a different perspective on and broader understanding of the complex history and society of the US.

Students will acquire the following academic competences:

- Knowledge about the connection between politics and identity

- Knowledge about central issues and problems within Native American studies

- Deeper insight into the history, politics, culture and society of the US

- Knowledge about diverse American Indian cultures and identities

- Analytical skills

The student must demonstrate a thorough knowledge of the covered themes and developments and specifically have the skills to discuss an issue pertaining to Native American studies on an academically appropriate level. Furthermore, the student must demonstrate an ability to gather diverse sources of information to produce a coherent written analysis that contains academically acceptable arguments while observing the genre conventions of academic writing. The exam-paper must be well organized, strongly coherent, cohesive, well argued, and stylistically appropriate. In it, the student demonstrates a high degree of ability in analyzing cultural/social/political developments, i.e. the student has understood the social, political and/or cultural context of the chosen theme and can manage a complex analysis of it.

Individual written 8-page home assignment on a topic/thesis statement chosen by the student. Topics are subject to approval by the supervisor. Grade according to the 7-point scale, no second examiner.

Kan & Strong (2006). New Perspectives on Native North America. Exact study plan and syllabus to be announced before the beginning of the semester.