MA in American Indian Studies in Tucson United States | University of Arizona

The University of Arizona's Master of Arts in American Indian Studies - the nation's first program of its kind - is a two-year graduate program offering students and scholars a distinctive platform to critically examine matters vital to Native American communities at local, state, and national levels. The AIS MA program emphasizes three interconnected principles:
Prioritizing Indigenous perspectives - UA's American Indian Studies Graduate Interdisciplinary Program (AIS GIDP) foregrounds Native communities - their knowledge systems, worldviews, values, histories, lived experiences, cultural practices, and future aspirations - in academic research, education, and community service. The program approaches scholarship through Indigenous frameworks, positioning Native ways of knowing, being, valuing, researching, and teaching as central to intellectual endeavors aimed at comprehending, educating about, and supporting Indigenous populations. AIS GIDP employs Peoplehood as a fundamental analytical framework to view the world through Indigenous lenses.
- Peoplehood framework - The Peoplehood paradigm provides a crucial analytical tool for examining both shared characteristics and diversity among Native American and Indigenous communities. First developed by UA's American Indian Studies faculty and students in 2003, this conceptual model has emerged as a vital framework for redefining Indigenous identity, offering a non-Western perspective that accommodates cultural evolution while maintaining continuity (Corntassel, 2003). The Peoplehood model encapsulates broad understandings of Indigenous identity while acknowledging the unique characteristics of specific Native communities across the U.S. and globally.
- Community partnership and responsibility - Indigenous scholarship fundamentally emphasizes relational accountability. This principle requires the AIS discipline and the AIS GIDP to not only incorporate Indigenous knowledge systems in academic work but also to establish meaningful connections with Native communities, maintain accountability to these relationships, and make substantive contributions to Indigenous wellbeing. The nature of this engagement and service varies significantly as faculty and students pursue diverse specializations, reflecting our shared dedication to supporting the multifaceted dimensions of Indigenous Peoplehood.