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Pacific Island Worlds: Transpacific Dis/Positions Symposium

R.W. Seale, Carte de la Mer du Sud ou Mer Pacifique, 1748
Saturday, May 5, 2018 - 9:00am
Humanities 1 Room 210
Presented by: 
History of Art and Visual Culture

The Pacific has been the site of complex human interaction for centuries, forming a dynamic space in which diverse communities are connected through kinship, colonial histories, and diaspora. Interactions between Indigenous groups, explorers, settlers, migrants, and economic and military actors have produced a range of movements and identities that create new social, cultural, and political positions as well as dis-positions. 

This symposium navigates the worlds of Pacific places and peoples. We bring together a community of artists and scholars from a range of disciplines—history, race and ethnic studies, theater and performing arts, literature, and visual studies—to explore and celebrate creative expression and research that chart future paths for Pacific Island Studies in the 21st century. Our gathering honors the late Teresia Teaiwa, a preeminent scholar-artist who received her PhD in History of Consciousness at UC Santa Cruz and whose work continues to be immensely generative in Pacific Studies. 

Speaker List: 
James Clifford (UC Santa Cruz)
Diana Looser (Stanford)
Joe Balaz (poet)
Kiri Sailiata (UC Los Angeles)
David Palaita (City College of San Francisco)
Kaili Chun (artist, Kapi‘olani Community College)
Jane Chang-Mi (artist, Pepperdine University and UC Santa Barbara)
David Chang (University of Minnesota)
Jesi Lujan Bennett (University of Hawai‘i)
Rob Wilson (UC Santa Cruz)

This symposium is FREE and open to the public. Metered parking is available in Stevenson College Lot 109.

Support for Pacific Island Worlds has been provided by: University of California Arts Division; Humanities Research Institute; Institute of Art and Sciences; History of Art and Visual Culture Department; Clare M. Wedding Student Enrichment Endowment.