NAIS Course Offerings J-Term & Spring 2026
J-Term 2026
Indigenous Speculative Fiction
Indigenous Speculative Fiction is designed to explore our own identities, worldviews and writing styles, the stories we come back to again and again, and how writing fiction helps explain the world around us. Together we will analyze literary works from Walking The Clouds: An Anthology of Indigenous Science Fiction, edited by Grace Dillon, alongside other selected readings by Indigenous authors from across the globe. Through written reflections, online discussion posts, and class seminars, students will examine how the Indigenous worldview and writer create a cultural and historical vantage point that Grace Dillon calls “Indigenous futurisms” (2003). She argues that all forms of Indigenous futurisms “involve discovering how personally one is affected by colonization, discarding the emotional and psychological baggage carried from its impact, and recovering ancestral traditions in order to adapt in our post–Native Apocalypse world.” Join us in reading science fiction as a tool of decolonization.
Note course counts for IT & GE when taken as ENG 216.
Instructor: Dawn Barron
Spring 2026
Literatures of the Pacific Northwest (IT)
How can literature serve as a vehicle for reflecting on the complex multicultural history of the Pacific Northwest? In this course, students will read and critically analyze a diverse collection of literatures of and about the Pacific Northwest, paying critical attention to authors’ representation of settler colonialism, and the ways literature imagines diverse acts of resistance and healing. We begin by studying texts by white settler authors in order to grapple with the terms of power and inequality that have shaped the social and cultural development of our region. We soon shift to reading and bearing witness to Native American writers, as well as writers of color, to explore how storytelling, poetry and speculative fiction can serve as tools for truth-telling, community building and repair. Beyond the historical and political frame of the course, we will engage with existential and communal questions that touch all of us: How do we define and understand home? How is our identity shaped by where we live and the ecosystem of which we are a part? How can literature contribute to the cultivation of community, a regional identity, and one’s sense of place?
Instructor: Jenny James
Interconnections
A weekly meeting with program students and faculty to discuss progress, challenges, and the intersection of Indigenous approaches and the university experience. Students are encouraged to attend for no credit in subsequent semesters. Graded A/Pass/Fail. (1)
Instructor: Nicole Juliano
Storied Survivance: Seminar on Indigenous Literatures (IT, GE)
Stories have an immense importance for Indigenous people globally and that importance is reflected in the many Indigenous literatures that have emerged since Colonization. This seminar exposes students to Indigenous literature and critical approaches from around the world, helping them to understand why Indigenous literatures matter. (4)
Instructor: Claudia Castro Luna
Healthcare Diversity
Focuses on core knowledge and competencies necessary to give culturally congruent care to people from diverse populations. Open to non-nursing students with instructor permission. (4)
Instructor: SarahAnn McFadden
Native American Theologies (VW, GE)
This course will examine Native American philosophies, rituals, and culture. Special attention will be paid to contemporary developments in the intersections between Christianity and Native religion.
Instructor: Michael Zbaraschuk
Indigenous Traditions of the Pacific Northwest
This course explores the religious and cultural diversity of Indigenous communities in the Pacific Northwest, from Alaska to northern California, and east to northern Idaho. Emphasis is placed on the history and impacts of colonialism; the relationship between Indigenous people and place as reflected in food systems, ceremonies, visual arts, and oral traditions; and the relevance of traditional ecological knowledge in addressing environmental concerns. (4)
Instructor: Suzanne Crawford-O’Brien