Indigenous Studies

College of Liberal Arts
College of Rural and Community Development
School of Education
907-474-7464
www.uaf.edu/cxcs/indigenousphd/

Ph.D. Degree

Downloadable PDF

Minimum Requirements for Degree: 48 credits

Indigenous studies doctoral candidates will participate in research activities across a variety of UAF academic disciplines and applied fields. Students are encouraged to engage in comparative studies with other indigenous peoples around the world and to focus their dissertation research on issues of relevance to Alaska and the Arctic. Using the interdisciplinary Ph.D. model of academic assignment, the student's home base will be in the school or college of the student's major advisor, who also serves as an affiliate faculty member for the program.

The program objectives and its curriculum center around five thematic areas of study: indigenous studies/research, indigenous knowledge systems, indigenous education/pedagogy, indigenous languages and indigenous leadership. Students may focus on one of these areas or draw on multiple themes in collaboration with their graduate committee to develop their areas of knowledge and dissertation research. In collaboration with the graduate committee, each student will develop a program of course work and research that produces a unique intellectual contribution to the applied fields associated with Indigenous Studies.

Graduate Program -- Ph.D. Degree

  1. Complete the general university requirements.
  2. Complete the Ph.D. degree requirements.
    1. Complete required and elective courses.
    2. Complete the following:
      ANL/CCS/ED/RD F608--Indigenous Knowledge Systems--3 credits
      ANL/CCS/ED/RD F690--Seminar in Cross-Cultural Studies--3 credits
    3. Complete two of the following core courses:
      ANL F601--Seminar in Language Revitalization--3 credits
      ANTH F631--Language and Culture Seminar--3 credits
      ANTH F646--Economic Anthropology--3 credits
      ANTH/BIOL/ECON/NRM F647--Regional Sustainability--3 credits
      ANTH/BIOL/ECON/NRM F649--Integrated Assessment and Adaptive Management--3 credits
      ANTH/NORS F610--Northern Indigenous Peoples and Contemporary Issues--3 credits
      CCS F602--Cultural and Intellectual Property Rights--3 credits
      CCS/ED F610--Education and Cultural Processes--3 credits
      CCS/ED F611--Culture, Cognition and Knowledge Acquisition--3 credits
      CCS F612--Traditional Ecological Knowledge--3 credits
      ED/LING F621--Cultural Aspects of Language Acquisition--3 credits
      ED F616--Education and Socio-Economic Change--3 credits
      ED F620--Language, Literacy and Learning--3 credits
      ED F660--Educational Administration in Cultural Perspective--3 credits
      RD F600--Circumpolar Indigenous Leadership Symposium--3 credits
      RD F601--Political Economy of the Circumpolar North--3 credits
      RD F651--Management Strategies for Rural Development--3 credits
      RD F652--Indigenous Organization Management--3 credits
    4. Complete two of the following research courses:
      ANTH F624--Analytical Techniques--3 credits
      ANTH F637--Methods in Ethnohistorical Research--3 credits
      CCS F601--Documenting Indigenous Knowledge--3 credits
      CCS/ED F603--Field Study Research Methods--3 credits
      RD F650--Community-Based Research Methods--3 credits
    5. Complete four specialty elective courses--12 credits
    6. Complete doctoral dissertation
      ANL/CCS/ED/RD F699--Thesis--18 credits
  3. Minimum credits required--48 credits

Completion of 18 distance credits will constitute residency.

Note: Recommended additional academic experience:

Students are encouraged to enroll in a minimum of one semester of course work at a partner institution with program offerings related to their area of specialization. Students are encouraged to make at least one formal academic presentation at a statewide, national or international meeting, as well as a community-level presentation in Alaska. Students are encouraged to study a language other than English, as appropriate for the thematic area in which they are enrolled.