Designing Indigenous Research Projects For Sustainable and Equitable Futures

This course is an exploration of ways to design research and create a design for a research plan that identifies appropriate source material with an emphasis on indigenous communities, underserved populations and environmental policy issues, especially those relating to environmental and social justice.  We will work beyond official sources to develop strategies for gathering and using references and information for community-relevant original research.  Another focus is on in-depth research papers like capstones, thesis and other formats and examining research strategies for grants, doctoral programs and career goals.

We will work beyond usual academic sources at times to create original research designs that explore the unique issues and concerns of indigenous peoples.  Access to tribal documents and resources, census bureau resources, and alternate indigenous perspectives on qualitative and quantitative research will be explored.  Readings and discussions will cover social and environmental justice and international research and ways to incorporate parallel systems of indigenous knowledge into social and natural science research.  Areas covered include credibility, resilience, indigenous knowledge, authority, protocols and ownership of research with an emphasis on case studies as cultural and environmental narratives.