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HUM 335 Land, Knowledge, and Identity Through Indigenous Languages

This course introduces students to place-based knowledge accrued by Indigenous intellectuals over time. Students will learn the way language is vital to Indigenous knowledge and how knowledge of landscapes and caring for places are embedded in Indigenous languages. Art, maps, dance, music, and material culture are part of these knowledge systems bridging land, identity, and place. This course also covers how knowledge has been suppressed and marginalized by White Eurocentric knowledge systems. Note: This course may include being outside on self-guided and group field trips in many different types of weather. This course may also include hands-on activities. The course gives significant focus to issues of race and racism.

Special information

Note: This course may include being outside on self-guided and group field trips in many different types of weather. This course may also include hands-on activities. The course gives significant focus to issues of race and racism.
4 Undergraduate credits

Effective May 2, 2023 to present

Meets graduation requirements for

Learning outcomes

General

  • Describe various ways Indigenous languages hold place-based knowledge.
  • Explain with detailed examples connections among environmental knowledge and Indigenous languages.
  • Investigate one Indigenous community-based program whose work links languages and ecological knowledge.
  • Analyze how art, music, and material culture connect to Indigenous knowledge and identity, and how these are linked to anti-racism.
  • Critique racism and multiple harms to Indigenous lands and knowledge.
  • Demonstrate the connections between Indigenous language(s), places, and Indigenous knowledge with an anti-racist lens.

Minnesota Transfer Curriculum

Goal 6: The Humanities and Fine Arts

  • Demonstrate awareness of the scope and variety of works in the arts and humanities.
  • Understand those works as expressions of individual and human values within a historical and social context.
  • Respond critically to works in the arts and humanities.
  • Engage in the creative process or interpretive performance.
  • Articulate an informed personal reaction to works in the arts and humanities.

Goal 10: People and the Environment

  • Explain the basic structure and function of various natural ecosystems and of human adaptive strategies within those systems.
  • Discern patterns and interrelationships of bio-physical and socio-cultural systems.
  • Describe the basic institutional arrangements (social, legal, political, economic, religious) that are evolving to deal with environmental and natural resource challenges.
  • Evaluate critically environmental and natural resource issues in light of understandings about interrelationships, ecosystems, and institutions.
  • Propose and assess alternative solutions to environmental problems.
  • Articulate and defend the actions they would take on various environmental issues.

Summer 2024

Section Title Instructor books eservices
50 Land, Knowledge, and Identity Through Indigenous Languages Vaughan, Margaret AM Books for HUM-335-50 Summer 2024 Course details for HUM-335-50 Summer 2024