Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Note: This is a HYBRID class. We will meet in-person at Cascade Campus on Wednesdays from 1-4pm, and we will have an additional 1 hour of Online work each week. Students who register for this class are expected to attend in-person on Wednesdays in order to participate in and pass the class. 

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Osiyo / Hello! ENG-NAS 240 is a 200-level literature course focusing on works of writing produced in English by Native American / Indigenous writers working within the what is now the United States.

My specialty as a researcher and teacher is Native American and Indigenous literatures. I'm a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, I earned a PhD in English from UC Berkeley with an emphasis on Native literatures, and I'm a founding instructor of Native American Studies at PCC. I've published fiction and scholarship within this field, and as a teacher I hope to inspire future generations of writers/audiences to create/read new Indigenous stories.

There are three (3) required books for the class:

• The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich -- a novel, file under historical fiction/literary realism
• The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones -- a novel, file under SF/horror
• Postcolonial Love Poem by Natalie Diaz -- a book-length work of poetry 

All of these books were published in the early 2020s.

All other course readings, viewings, and audio recordings will be available for free through our course website.

In Winter 2025, our course in Native American Lit will be an IN-PERSON + ONLINE HYBRID class -- meaning, it will meet in-person on campus at PCC Cascade, once per week, every Wednesday from 1-4 pm. And there will also be some additional asynchronous Online work (meaning, some weekly Online Discussions and Surveys).

Because this class meets in-person on campus, please know that you are required to attend class in-person on Wednesdays in order to fully participate and succeed.

"The work" for each week is assigned with the idea that this is a 4-credit course. And like any 4-credit course in the USA, this class will require roughly 12 hours of work each week. Included in "the work" is the amount of time it will take you to complete class assignments. 

Assignments include:

• Weekly readings and viewings
• In-person discussions at PCC Cascade on Wednesdays
• Online discussions in D2L/Brightspace 
• Weekly Surveys about the course content
• Initial, Midterm, and Final Self-Assessments
• A Term Project of your choice  

If you want to learn more about the remarkable diversity of Native American literatures, and if you can put in the time and effort this course requires, then you can and will succeed in ENG-NAS 240. And you'll learn lots of interesting things in the process!

Also -- please know that ENG 240 and NAS 240 are the same class, combined into the same course website, and they will both fulfill the same PCC graduation requirements (Arts & Letters Gen Ed requirements for Associates Degrees). Please sign up for the one that you prefer to have on your transcript, either "English" or "Native American Studies." If you're more interested in pursuing a major or minor in English, then take ENG 240. If you're more interested in pursuing a major or minor in Native American / Indigenous Studies, then take NAS 240. And if a future major or minor is less important to you than simply being exposed to the content in this course, then please take the one that you want on your transcript for whatever reason.

Please contact me if you have any questions about this course: blake.hausman@pcc.edu.

Wado / Thanks!

Dr H

This course will require the basics for taking college classes in the 2020's -- internet access, and a functioning computer or tablet.

You'll read several short works on computer or tablet, and you'll use your device to produce written assignments for the class such as weekly Surveys, Online Discussions, and the Term Project. Students who do not have their own computer or tablet could use PCC computer labs to participate in this class; however, it will be much easier for you to do your work on your own time if you have your own functioning computer or tablet.