A $600,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is accelerating the work of faculty, staff and students at the University of Utah who are committed to making the institution a national leader in Pacific Islander (PI) Studies and a collaborative resource for PI communities.
After completing the hiring phase of the Pacific Islander Studies Initiative that brought in diverse faculty to the university’s School for Cultural and Social Transformation and the Colleges of Humanities, Education and Health in the last two years, faculty and staff overseeing the initiative are now in the process of preparing curriculum for an undergraduate certificate as well as a summer bridge program geared towards Pacific Islanders from the area’s community colleges.
Utah students and scholars will additionally have the opportunity to conduct interdisciplinary and community-based research within the field of Pacific Islander Studies through fellowships and to develop a mutual relationship with PI communities through cultural and language programming.
“What we’re building here in Pacific Islander Studies is just one note in a much broader network of Pacific Studies programs that have been around for a longer time,” said Dr. Hokulani Aikau, associate professor of Gender and Ethnic Studies at the University of Utah. “We want to be able to provide Pacific Islander students with an intellectual and social space here on campus. … We want to empower our students to know that the academy and the University of Utah is a place where they can develop the skills and knowledge that they need to be successful, while also being relevant to their families and communities.”
Aikau noted that the unique history of Pacific Islanders in Utah began in the mid-1800s as Hawaiians and other Native Islanders immigrated to Utah with Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints missionaries who were returning home. Now, the state has the largest number of Pacific Islanders in the continental U.S., compromised of groups including Samoans, Fijians, Tahitians, Cook Islanders, Tongans and more.
“So while Pacific Islanders have been in Utah for a really long time, and have been at the University of Utah for a really long time, it really wasn’t until the 2016 hiring initiative that the University of Utah committed to programming, starting with faculty and now with curriculum and a summer bridge program,” Aikau, who oversees the Pacific Islander Studies Initiative, said.
“We have Pacific Islanders in engineering, in health, in all of these different disciplines, Aikau added. “So we’re starting with an undergraduate certificate that will allow students to enhance their major by focusing on the Pacific region as well as the diaspora.”
