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Classroom Setting |
CURRENT EVENTS
Professor Jay T Johnson will travel to New Zealand in January 2010 for research on the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, site of the initial signing of the Treaty of Waitangi between Maori chiefs and the British Crown 1840. More info
CONTACT:
Global Indigenous Nations Studies
Room 6 Lippincott Hall
1410 Jayhawk Blvd.
Lawrence, KS 66045
phone 785.864.2660
fax 785.864.0370
indigenous@ku.edu
Indigenous Nations Journal
jins@ku.edu
The mission of the Global Indigenous Nations Studies Program at the University of Kansas is to foster and promote scholarship focused on understanding the experiences and improving the lives of Indigenous peoples around the world. The program accomplishes this goal by supporting faculty research, student training, and applied efforts. It promotes cross-cultural perspectives by encouraging critical thinking and the generation of new knowledge concerning issues such as globalization, decolonization, empowerment, tribal sovereignty, ethnic and legal identity, social injustice, traditional beliefs, languages, public health, environmental resource management, and human rights. The program prepares students for careers in education, research, and applied disciplines by providing them with an interdisciplinary perspective on the study of Indigenous peoples.
Global Indigenous Nations Studies (GINSP) was founded in 1997 as an interdisciplinary master’s degree program that equips graduates to conduct theoretical and applied research and to develop innovative solutions to issues facing Indigenous communities. Through a rigorous program of study, GINSP prepares graduates to assume leadership and policy-making roles in a variety of professions. Collaboration with other departments and programs enriches the educational and developmental opportunities of GINSP students.
GINSP possesses long-standing relationships with the Tribal Law and Government Center at the University of Kansas Law School and Haskell Indian Nations University. GINSP also offers a World Indigenous Graduate Exchange Program with University of Oulu, Finland, and University of Newcastle, Australia to expose our students to global Indigenous issues.
In furtherance of our Mission Statement, Global Indigenous Nations Studies focuses on the following academic areas: tribal law and governance; preservation and management of Indigenous resources, including cultural preservation, environmental science and natural resources, and language preservation.
Global Indigenous Nations Studies has identified the following core values and principles as important guidelines in the formulation, assessment, and future development of the Center’s personnel, teaching and research: to assist Indigenous Peoples in addressing economic, political, and social problems; to promote unity within the Program and within Indigenous communities and organizations; to promote and defend the sovereignty of Indigenous Peoples; to behave in a respectful manner; to behave in an honorable manner; to challenge all forms of injustice directed at Indigenous Peoples; to acquire and exhibit competence within individual areas of professional and cultural expertise.
Indigenous Peoples are the descendants of the original habitants of a region prior to colonization. These groups have maintained some or all of their linguistic, cultural and organizational characteristics and consider themselves distinct from the societies currently governing those territories. Throughout the world, Indigenous Peoples have struggled to co-exist with immigrant peoples who have established settlements in their territories. History reflects that in many instances, non-Indigenous Peoples (settler populations and their governments) have not adequately respected or supported the sovereignty or cultural values of Indigenous Peoples, which has threatened the survival of these groups.
Indigenous Peoples continue to face loss of their territories, unwanted mining, dams and settlement, racism, assassinations, disease, military incursion, and poverty. Most are not free to exercise full autonomy, pursue political, economic, and social development on their own terms, consistent their cultural values and beliefs, and instead remain under the control of the colonizing governmental authority. Global Indigenous Nations Studies is concerned with the discrimination faced by Indigenous Peoples and is committed to training our students to support the empowerment and sovereignty of these groups.
