This lecture is part of Mediatic Empire: Critical Inquiries into Environment, Technology, and Media Cultures, a five-part public lecture series organized by UBC’s Department of English Language & Literatures and Green College. View the full series schedule.
Presenter
Dr. Tiara Na’puti
Patricia Merivale Scholar in Residence, Green College; Associate Professor, Department of Global & International Studies, University of California Irvine
Tiara R. Na’puti is an Associate Professor of Global & International Studies at University of California Irvine. Professor Na’puti is a first-generation college student who received a master’s and doctorate in Communication Studies and a certificate in Native American & Indigenous Studies (NAIS) from The University of Texas at Austin. She is a Chamoru scholar (Guåhan/Guam) who focuses on issues of Indigenous movements, colonialism, and militarism in the Mariana Islands archipelago and throughout Oceania. Na’puti works with organizations addressing immigration rights and issues facing Native and Indigenous Pacific Islander populations. Her research has been published in venues such as: American Quarterly, AmerAsia, Environmental Communication, Security Dialogue, The Contemporary Pacific, Micronesian Educator, and the Quarterly Journal of Speech.
She is one of six Principal Investigators on a 3-year project, “Archipelagos of Indigenous-led Resurgence for Planetary Health” that was funded by a $2.2 million grant from the Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR). She was the recipient of a 2021-2022 Mellon/ACLS Scholars and Society Fellowship, her project Sovereignty & Climate Change in Guåhan: Creating Sustainable Futures focused on the urgent challenges of climate change and democratic governance in relation to Guåhan’s political status. For this project she was in-residence working with Independent Guåhan, a community group committed to educating the public about the benefits of sovereignty for the island.
Na’puti is currently editing a book volume called Detours Guåhan: A Decolonial Guide, a project that uses the popular guidebook and visitor brochure format to explore and interrogate the dominant narratives that structure representations of the island as the “Tip of the Spear” and “Where America’s Day Begins.” The book crafts alternative itineraries and ways of “visiting” the island as well as concrete examples of how we can move from metaphors of decolonization to material practices and everyday acts of resistance that bring about real change in the lives of everyday people in Guåhan. She has additional experiences that bridge her research work with Pacific Islander communities, and she has worked with undergraduate and graduate students on research and community groups.
Moderator: Dr. Alice Te Punga Somerville, Professor, Department of English Language & Literatures, UBC
Talk abstract
Coming soon. Save the date!
Location
In-person: Green College Coach House (6201 Cecil Green Park Rd, Vancouver)
Online: the Panopto link will be circulated closer to the presentation dates
Organizers:
Sponsors:
Featured sponsor: the Pacific Islands Research Network seeks to trace, affirm, nourish and expand connections between UBC and the Pacific Islands by bringing together researchers at UBC whose heritage and/or work is connected to the Pacific region; gaining a better understanding of Pacific presence in BC; and actively participating in broader conversations about the Pacific in the west coast.
