This lecture is part of Mediatic Empire: Critical Inquiries into Environment \, Technology\, and Media Cultures\, a five-part public lecture se ries organized by UBC's Department of English Language & Literatures and Gr een College. View the full series schedule.
This lecture c entres Indigenous responses to climate change by focusing on a US proposal for deep-sea mining in an area bordering the Mariana Trench Marine National Monument and the entangled forms of economic and scientific thinking about the Mariana Trench as a site for extraction. It considers how Indigenous P acific Islanders are mediating responses to mining and commercialization th rough exclusive economic zones. Examining their advocacy for climate justic e from the world's highest court to the deepest ocean on Earth\, this work expands analyses of power through listening to the heroes of Micronesia and their collective protection for oceanic ancestors.
Patricia Merivale Scholar in Residence \, Green College\; Associate Professor\, Department of Global & Internation al Studies\, University of California Irvine
Tiara R. Na’puti is an Associate Professor of Global & International Studies at University of Ca
lifornia 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 Chamo
ru scholar (Guåhan/Guam) who focuses on issues of Indigenous movements\, co
lonialism\, and militarism in the Mariana Islands archipelago and throughou
t Oceania. Na’puti works with organizations addressing immigration rights a
nd issues facing Native and Indigenous Pacific Islander populations. Her re
search 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 p roject\, “Archipelagos of Indigenou s-led Resurgence for Planetary Health” that was funded by a $2.2 million gr ant from the Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR). She was the recipient of a 2021-2022 Mellon/ACLS Scholars and Society Fellowshi p\, her project Sovereignty & Climate Change in Guåhan: Creating Sustainab le Futures focused on the urgen t challenges of climate change and democratic governance in relation to Guå han’s political status. For this project she was in-residence working with Independent Guåhan\, a community group committed to educating the public ab out 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 t o explore and interrogate the dominant narratives that structure representa tions of the island as the “Tip of the Spear” and “Where America’s Day Begi ns.” The book crafts alternative itineraries and ways of “visiting” the isl and as well as concrete examples of how we can move from metaphors of decol onization to material practices and everyday acts of resistance that bring about real change in the lives of everyday people in Guåhan. She has additi onal experiences that bridge her research work with Pacific Islander commun ities\, and she has worked with undergraduate and graduate students on rese arch and community groups.
Moderator: Dr. Alice Te P unga Somerville\, Professor\, Department of English Language & Literatu res\, UBC
In-person: Green College Coach House (6201 Cecil Green Park Rd\, Vancouver)
Online: the Panopto link will be circulated closer to the presentation dates here
Featured s ponsor: the Pacific Islands Research Network seeks to tra ce\, affirm\, nourish and expand connections between UBC and the Pacific Is lands by bringing together researchers at UBC whose heritage and/or work is connected to the Pacific region\; gaining a better understanding of Pacifi c presence in BC\; and actively participating in broader conversations abou t the Pacific in the west coast.
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