Cross-Cultural Studies
Center for Cross-Cultural Studies
M.A., Ph.D., Indigenous Studies
The Indigenous studies M.A. degree program emphasizes Indigenous knowledge systems. The program is designed to provide graduate students from various fields of interest an opportunity to pursue in-depth study of the role and contributions of Indigenous knowledge in the contemporary world. Students are expected to demonstrate the ability to work effectively with Indigenous people in their studies.
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 worldwide and to focus their dissertation research on issues of relevance to Indigenous communities. 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 six areas of concentration: Indigenous research, Indigenous knowledge systems, Indigenous education and pedagogy, Indigenous languages, Indigenous leadership, and Indigenous sustainability. 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 coursework and research that produces a unique intellectual contribution to the applied fields associated with Indigenous studies
Minimum Requirements for Indigenous Studies Degrees: M.A.: 36 credits; Ph.D.: 45 credits
Courses
Cross-Cultural Studies (CCS)
CCS F602 Cultural and Intellectual Property Rights
3 Credits
Offered Spring
Examines issues associated with recognizing and respecting cultural and intellectual property rights with respect to the documentation, publication and display of knowledge, practices, beliefs and artifacts of cultural traditions. Appropriate research principles, ethical guidelines and legal protections will be reviewed for their application to cross-cultural studies.
Prerequisites: Graduate standing.
Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0
Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus
CCS F603 Field Study Research Methods
3 Credits
Offered Spring and Summer
Focus on techniques for conducting both quantitative and qualitative field research. Particular emphasis on considerations for conducting field research in cross-cultural settings.
Prerequisites: Graduate standing.
Cross-listed with ED F603.
Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0
Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus
CCS F604 Documenting Indigenous Knowledge
3 Credits
Offered Fall
A thorough grounding in research methodologies and issues associated with documenting and conveying the depth and breadth of Indigenous knowledge systems and their epistemological structures. Includes a survey of oral and literate data-gathering techniques, a review of various modes of analysis and presentation, and a practical experience in real-life settings.
Recommended: Graduate-level survey course in research methods.
Cross-listed with ED F604.
Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0
Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus
CCS F605 Indigenous Food Security and Sovereignty
3 Credits
Offered Spring
Food security includes physical and economic access to food that meets people's dietary needs as well as their food preferences. Indigenous food sovereignty is a policy approach to addressing the issues impacting Indigenous peoples’ ability to respond to needs for healthy, culturally adapted Indigenous foods. This course comprehensively reviews both.
Prerequisites: Permission of instructor.
Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0
Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus
CCS F606 Indigenous Ways of Healing
3 Credits
Offered As Demand Warrants
Explores healing from a variety of Indigenous perspectives, particularly from an Alaska Native perspective. Emphasizes the preparation and education of healers, their roles and work and integration within the community. Students will have the opportunity to examine the possible integration of clinical and community psychology with indigenous approaches to healing.
Prerequisites: Graduate standing in Psychology.
Crosslisted with PSY F606.
Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0
Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus
CCS F608 Indigenous Knowledge Systems
3 Credits
Offered Fall
A comparative survey and analysis of the epistemological properties, world views and modes of transmission associated with various Indigenous knowledge systems. Emphasis on knowledge systems practiced in Alaska.
Prerequisites: Graduate standing.
Cross-listed with RD F608; ED F608; ANL F608.
Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0
Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus
CCS F610 Education and Cultural Processes
3 Credits
Offered Fall Even-numbered Years
Advanced study of the function of education as a cultural process and its relation to other aspects of a cultural system. Students will be required to prepare a study in which they examine some aspect of education in a particular cultural context.
Cross-listed with ED F610.
Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0
Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus
CCS F611 Culture, Cognition and Knowledge Acquisition
3 Credits
Offered Fall Odd-numbered Years
An examination of the relationship between learning, thinking and perception in multicultural contexts. Particular emphasis will be on the implications of these relationships for schooling. Content will focus on cultural influences on perception, conceptual processes, learning, memory and problem solving. Content will also reflect concern for practical teaching problems.
Cross-listed with ED F611.
Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0
Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus
CCS F612 Traditional Ecological Knowledge
3 Credits
Offered Spring
Examines the acquisition and utilization of knowledge associated with long-term inhabitation of particular ecological systems and adaptations that arise from the accumulation of such knowledge. Attention will be given to the contemporary significance of traditional ecological knowledge as a complement to academic fields of study.
Prerequisites: Graduate standing.
Cross-listed with RD F612.
Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0
Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus
CCS F613 Alaska Standards for Culturally Responsive Schools
3 Credits
Offered As Demand Warrants
Guidelines, rationale and resources for adapting educational policies, programs and practices to better address the cultural well-being of the students and communities they serve. Content will be grounded in the "Alaska Standards for Culturally Responsive Schools" including standards for students, teachers, curriculum, schools and communities.
Cross-listed with ED F613.
Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0
Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus
CCS F616 Education and Socioeconomic Change
3 Credits
Offered Fall
An examination of social change processes, particularly in relation to the deliberate development of new institutions and resulting forms of new consciousness. Emphasis is placed on the role of education and schooling in this development dynamic.
Cross-listed with ED F616.
Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0
Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus
CCS F619 Cultural Atlases as a Pedagogical Strategy
3 Credits
Offered Spring Even-numbered Years
The course provides an in-depth look at how teachers can utilize technology and academics with oral traditions and offers a vehicle for helping communities define themselves and their unique cultural identity.
Prerequisites: Graduate standing.
Cross-listed with ED F619.
Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0
Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus
CCS F621 Indigenous Ways of Knowing
3 Credits
Offered Fall
Covers the appropriate and valid ways of describing and explaining human behavior by using the social context, culture and history of Indigenous groups. Includes Indigenous approaches to values, health, the interconnection of family and community; the nature of spirituality and Indigenous healing; and the importance of Elders and spiritual healers.
Prerequisites: Admittance to the Indigenous Studies or the Psychology Ph.D. program.
Cross-listed with PSY F621.
Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0
Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus
CCS F622 Indigenous Language Renewal, Revitalization and Resurgence
3 Credits
Offered Spring
This course will explore Indigenous language revitalization, renewal and resurgence, particularly as positioned within a framework of relationality and viewed through a lens of continuity and resilience. Course topics include current and critical issues in Indigenous language revitalization, as situated within Indigenous contexts, principles and orientations of relationality.
Prerequisites: Graduate standing.
Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0
Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus
CCS F631 Culture, Community and the Curriculum
3 Credits
Offered As Demand Warrants
Salient issues involved with the development of effective programs of instruction in small schools, including foundational design, conceptual models, organizational strategies, technical skills, current issues and trends, and their implications and application to the environment of rural Alaska.
Cross-listed with ED F631.
Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0
Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus
CCS F656 Sustainable Livelihoods and Community Well-being (s)
3 Credits
Offered Fall
Review principles governing the sustainability of systems, cultural practices and behaviors that enhance or degrade sustainable livelihoods and community wellbeing. Emphasis is on historical context of sustainability, nature and magnitude of the social, economic and ecological dimensions of contemporary change, and "best practices" for communities to respond effectively to change.
Prerequisites: Graduate standing.
Cross-listed with NRM F656.
Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0
Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus
CCS F681 Place-based Education
3 Credits
Offered As Demand Warrants
An examination of the relationship between local landscape and community and the development of human perception. Emphasis on the importance of the development of ecologically appropriate community-based educational programs in rural and urban schools.
Prerequisites: Graduate standing.
Cross-listed with ED F681.
Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0
Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus
CCS F682 Rethinking Multicultural Education
3 Credits
Offered Spring Odd-numbered Years
This multi-disciplinary course focuses on two parts: 1) critically analyze and reflect on current multicultural education issues at the national, state, and local level; 2) translate/apply what is learned to individual classrooms, schools, school districts and beyond. Fieldwork required.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing.
Crosslisted with ED F682.
Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 1
Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus
Repeatable for Credit: May be taken 1 time for up to 6 credits
CCS F690 Seminar in Cross-Cultural Studies
3 Credits
Offered Fall
Investigation of current issues in cross-cultural contexts. Opportunity for students to synthesize prior graduate studies and research. Seminar is taken near the terminus of a graduate program.
Prerequisites: Advancement to candidacy; permission of student's graduate committee.
Cross-listed with ANL F690; ED F690; RD F690.
Lecture + Lab + Other: 3 + 0 + 0
Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus
Repeatable for Credit: May be taken 2 times for up to 6 credits
CCS F692 Seminar
1-6 Credits
Lecture + Lab + Other: 0 + 0 + 0
Grading System: Letter Grades with option of Plus/Minus
Repeatable for Credit: May be taken 98 times for up to unlimited credits
CCS F692P Seminar
1-6 Credits
Lecture + Lab + Other: 0 + 0 + 0
Grading System: Pass/Fail Grades
Repeatable for Credit: May be taken 98 times for up to unlimited credits
CCS F698 Non-thesis Research/Project
1-12 Credits
Lecture + Lab + Other: 0 + 0 + 1-12
Grading System: Pass/Fail Grades
Repeatable for Credit: May be taken 98 times for up to unlimited credits
CCS F699 Thesis
1-12 Credits
Lecture + Lab + Other: 1-12 + 0 + 0
Grading System: Pass/Fail Grades
Repeatable for Credit: May be taken unlimited times for up to 99 credits
Faculty
Asikłuk Topkok, Ph.D.
Director
Center for Cross-Cultural Studiescstopkok@alaska.edu
907-474-5537
306B Brooks Building
Troth Yeddha' Campus
Chris Cannon, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Center for Cross-Cultural Studiescmcannon2@alaska.edu
907-474-6389
306C Brooks Building
Troth Yeddha' Campus
Amanda Holmes, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Center for Cross-Cultural Studiesalholmes3@alaska.edu
306D Brooks Building
Troth Yeddha' Campus
Michael Koskey, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Center for Cross-Cultural Studiesmskoskey@alaska.edu
907-474-6992
306F Brooks Building
Troth Yeddha' Campus
Yoko Kugo, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Center for Cross-Cultural Studiesykugo@alaska.edu
306E Brooks Building
Troth Yeddha' Campus