This course aims to give students coming from outside Pacific Studies a deeper understanding of Pacific Studies as an (inter)discipline, an understanding of its constituent parts, its intellectual and institutional genealogies, as well as its diversities and its challenges. The course begins with an exploration of Pacific Studies genealogies, discussions on indigenous knowledge and frameworks, and engagement with the wider politics of knowledge production about the Pacific. We then turn to key topics and debates, which may include gender and sexualities; cultural production; racialization; political contests and sovereignties; diaspora and transnationalism; globalization, commodities, and extractive policies; and the futures of Pacific Studies and Pacific communities, among other relevant topics. By turning to some of the ideological and theoretical underpinnings of Pacific Studies, attending to its development and history, and examining key topics and debates, Pacific 716 is designed to give students a robust foundation for future study.
Together we will explore:
- What is Pacific Studies? What makes it distinctive, and how are Pacific Studies approaches useful for working in and with Pacific communities?
- What are the intellectual and institutional genealogies of Pacific Studies?
- What are its relationships to other key disciplines? Taken together, how do they shape today's work?
- What are some of the key debates in Pacific Studies, what are they about and why are they significant?
- What are some current and emerging areas of scholarship?