Certificate directors: Ned Blackhawk and Claire Bowern

This certificate offers a curated range of courses across departments and programs in Yale College that center on Indigenous content and offers a community of students, faculty, and researchers engaged in common intellectual and academic development. Students have the opportunity to strengthen their knowledge of Indigenous languages, cultures, sovereignty, history, literatures, and lifeways across the curriculum. 

Students make connections across the curriculum within departments in the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Natural Sciences and are encouraged to think about relationships between past and contemporary issues and how themes of Indigeneity (such as sovereignty and environment) emerge across disciplines. Students are encouraged to engage in independent research and to participate in local and wider community events.

Requirements

See Links to the attributes indicating courses approved for the certificate requirements.

Students must successfully complete five courses (5 credits) on Indigenous topics, drawn from the list of approved courses posted each semester on the Indigenous Studies website or tagged in Yale Course Search. Courses should be drawn from at least three of the following five areas of focus, with no more than two courses from any single area:

• language and culture (YC NAIS Language & Culture)

• literature and arts (YC NAIS Literature & Arts)

• environment and politics (YC NAIS Environment & Politics)

• history, society, and law (YC NAIS History Society & Law)

• science and education (YC NAIS Science & Education)

Students may complete a capstone project, which counts as one credit towards the certificate. The capstone can be done either as part of an independent study (e.g. LING 4710, ENGL 3100, AMST 9000, SOCY 4100) or in an upper-division core seminar (ER&M 4020). Students should submit a 1-page project proposal to the Certificate coordinators in the spring of their junior year or early in the fall of their senior year before beginning the project. In the spring semester of senior year, students will have the opportunity to present their research at a public event. 

Additionally, students are expected to participate in at least three Indigenous community events and submit a write-up of 1-2 pages per event. A list of local events may be found on the NAIS certificate website or in the circulars from the Native American Cultural Center. For events outside of Yale, please check with the certificate coordinators.

No more than two course credits may overlap in the fulfillment of the requirements of the Indigenous Studies Certificate or of a major, a simultaneous degree, or another certificate. Additionally, no course credit may be applied toward the requirements of more than two curricular programs. For example, the same course credit may not be used to fulfill the requirements of two certificates and a major. Graduate and professional school courses may count toward the certificate.

Credit/D/Fail No courses taken Credit/D/Fail may be counted toward the certificate.

Declaration of Candidacy

Students interested in applying to the certificate program should complete the Qualtrics survey linked from the Indigenous Studies website. This should be done as early as the fall of sophomore year and no later than the beginning of the student’s junior year.

Students must declare their intent to earn a certificate by January 15 or September 15 in their final term of enrollment. Declaring the intent to earn the certificate is done on the Declare Major, Concentration within the Major, Certificate page on Yale Hub. Once declared, Degree Audit will track students' progress toward completion of the certificate. 

Requirements of the Certificate

Number of courses: 5 course credits

Distribution of courses: courses are drawn from at least 3 of 5 areas of focus, with no more than 2 courses in any one area

Optional capstone project: completed in an individual study course or within an upper division core seminar with certificate director approval

Additional requirements: attendance at 3 Indigenous studies and/or community events, each followed by a 1–2 page account of the event