ETHN 106 Oceania & the Arts

Course Description

This course uses ethnic studies theory and methodology as the basis for analytical engagements with Oceania-based cultural texts. We focus on how Pacific Islanders – including the Indigenous peoples of US-occupied territories such as Hawaii, Guam, and American Samoa, as well as Pacific Islander diasporic populations living in the continental United States – have used expressive cultural forms to contest racialization and colonization, reclaim and reinvent traditional practices and narratives, build contemporary social movements, and assert personal and community values and identities. Our examination of Oceania-based cultural production spans multiple artistic forms and genres, including but not limited to literature, music, dance, theater, film, and studio art. By centering the “PI” (Pacific Islander) component of “AAPI” (Asian American and Pacific Islander) panethnicity, we highlight an important element within the broad-based composite field of Asian American studies, simultaneously introducing students to this area of ethnic studies and encouraging a critical re-thinking of AAPI panethnicity itself.