Noah Romero

This course offers a survey of Critical Indigenous studies- transnational and transdisciplinary theorizing from a new and emerging generation of Indigenous scholars. As a field, Critical Indigenous studies makes crucial interventions in our collective understanding of colonialism, empire, race, gender, sexuality, identity, democracy, personhood, migration, environmental justice, human rights, and multiculturalism. Centering the fact that Indigenous knowledge is vibrant, dynamic, and pertinent to issues of universal concern, this course aims to develop a broad and deep appreciation for Indigenous modes of analysis and contestation that allow us to transgress and transcend colonial traumas, borders, states, and fictions Keywords:Gender, race, indigeneity, critical theory

What if a settler future is already dead? This course explores Indigenous nihilism as both a philosophical provocation and a set of material conditions under world systems built to sustain Euro-American colonial conquest. Drawing from critical Indigenous studies, and Black, Indigenous, and non-European anarchisms, we will examine how anti-colonial nihilism (or doubts about the existence of meaning, purpose, and progress under modern/colonial conditions) emerges out of dispossession, racial terror, and a sober analysis of what is even possible under prevailing conditions. We will engage with key texts (which includes formal scholarship as well as zines, art, films, documentaries, and music) that interrogate our understanding of meaning, meaninglessness, despair, futility, futurity, and negation. We will consider how these ideas are deepened and complicated when read through Indigenous cosmologies, practices, pedagogies, and desires. These provocations will encourage us to destabilize dominant, concessionary, and settler-driven narratives of resilience, reconciliation, justice, and revolution. In doing so, we will consider what it means to think, teach, learn, relate, and act after hope. Keywords:Native American, Indigenous, Nihilism, Anarchism

This course explores the interrelations between critical Indigenous studies and anarchism, examining how Indigenous communities resist colonialism and assert autonomy through decentralized, egalitarian practices. Students will investigate historical and contemporary examples of Indigenous resistance, focusing on how these movements challenge oppressive structures and promote self-determination.

How has compulsory education been used to perpetuate colonialism and its associated discourses, like racism, cisheteronormativity, white supremacy, anti-Blackness, ableism, and Indigenous dispossession? Conversely, how can radical and ancestral approaches to teaching and learning insurrect subjugated knowledge and unite people in a shared struggle for liberation? This course introduces students to the critical study of education through the historical examination of colonial schooling, as well as Indigenous efforts to reclaim Land+, languages, and lifeways through community-sustaining pedagogy.

This course offers a theoretical overview and practical application of decolonizing pedagogy-an approach to teaching and learning that promotes reciprocity, balance, healing, sustainability, and the inherent sovereignty of Indigenous and dispossessed peoples. Founded on pedagogical work from Indigenous, Black, queer, feminist, and person-of-color scholars and practitioners, this course aims to support all students interested in curriculum and instruction in developing a strong practical and theoretical foundation from which to actualize reparative educational processes. Students will explore how community-sustaining, decolonial, and relational teaching practices can enhance student learning while working to redress historical traumas and build solidarities between schools, families, and communities. Keywords:Native American and Indigenous Studies, education, teaching

What do punk rock, heavy metal, skateboarding, hip-hop, and comedy have to teach us about Indigenous liberation? This course frames subcultural communities led by historically colonized but inherently sovereign people as vital movements that teach us about justice, equity, and anti-racism. Bringing Native American and Indigenous Studies in conversation with theories of subcultural sociality, this course aims to foster a deep understanding of how Indigenous and minoritized people agitate for autonomy while dynamically preserving ancestral knowledge

This course offers a survey of Indigenous liberation movements, struggles, histories, and aspirations in the Global South. Utilizing theoretical lenses like decolonial theory, international human rights law, environmental justice, Indigenous abolition, and Indigenous anarchism, students will gain a broad appreciation for autonomy and resistance movements in Abya Yala (the Americas), the Pacific, Southeast Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa. Keywords:ndigenous studies, Global South, decolonization, human rights

How has compulsory education been used to perpetuate harmful conditions associated with racism, cisheteronormativity, white supremacy, anti-Blackness, ableism, and global capitalism? Conversely, how can radical and ancestral approaches to teaching and learning insurrect subjugated knowledge and unite people in a shared struggle for liberation? This Division I seminar introduces students to the critical study of education along with introducing the ways in which Indigenous, decolonizing, rights affirming, and community-sustaining approaches to education can helps teachers and learners actualize more just and equitable futures. Keywords:critical pedagogy, decolonizing education, Indigenous studies, human rights, teaching