Native American and Indigenous Studies at UT
NAIS fosters and supports teaching and intellectual engagements around the languages, cultures, knowledges, and histories of Indigenous Peoples
Welcome
The Native American and Indigenous Studies (NAIS) program at the University of Texas at Austin has a global, comparative focus with a particular strength in the Americas. NAIS fosters and supports teaching and intellectual engagements around the languages, cultures, knowledges, histories, and current political struggles of indigenous peoples. We are particularly concerned with scholarship and intellectual exchange that contributes to the economic, social, and political advancement of indigenous peoples. We also contribute to efforts to build a diverse campus by actively working on recruitment of indigenous students and faculty.
While NAIS is housed in the College of Liberal Arts, our faculty and course offerings span schools and colleges through the university, including Education, Law, Music, and Information Sciences. The programs offer courses that allow our students to develop a broad and in-depth understanding of indigenous thought and indigenous issues. They also provide a community for NAIS students through social events, a brown bag series in which students present their work, and strong ties to student organizations. Our office in WCP 4.110 also functions as a lounge/meeting space with refreshments and access to educational materials for our students.
NAIS offers both an Undergraduate Certificate and a Graduate Portfolio program. We run an exciting speakers series that provides students, faculty and community members the opportunity to learn from and connect with indigenous intellectuals from around the world. We also provide summer research fellowships for undergraduate and graduate students.
We are located in Room 4.110 on the fourth floor of WCP.
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NAIS Spotlights
NAIS is pleased to announce the Race, Indigenity & Migration Major as part of a collaboration with GRIDS. Find out more here!
Undergraduate Certificate and Graduate Portfolio at NAIS: Undergraduate students interested in the NAIS Undergraduate Certificate Program should contact the NAIS Office at nais@austin.utexas.edu.
Graduate students interested in the Graduate Portfolio Program should contact the Program Advisor, Professor Luis Urrieta, Graduate Portfolio Program Advisor.
Faculty Spotlights
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Jennifer Graber is Associate Professor of Religious Studies, a member of the NAIS Advisory Council and the Academic Advisor of the NAIS Undergraduate Certificate program. Dr. Graber is the author of The Gods of Indian Country: Religion and the Struggle for the American West, which is forthcoming from Oxford University Press in spring 2018. This new book is an in-depth study of religious transformations among Kiowa Indians and Anglo Americans during their conflict over Indian Territory, or what is now known as Oklahoma. Dr. Graber received her PhD in religion from Duke University.
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Luis Urrieta is a Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction in the College of Education at UT, and a faculty affiliate of NAIS. Dr. Urrieta is an Indigenous/P'urhépecha and Latino scholar. During the academic year 2016-2017, Dr. Urrieta was the Anne Ray Fellow at the School for Advanced Research (SAR) in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he worked on his book manuscript titled, Resurgent Indigeneities: Re/Making Indígena and Comunalidad through Education in Rural Mexico. Dr. Urrieta’s book focuses on the development of a P’urhépecha mothers’ community movement for better educational opportunities for their children in a context of neoliberal globalism, neoliberal discursive formations, and the dismantling of subsistence agricultural economies in Michoacán, México.