Units: 3
Prerequisites: None
Acceptable for Credit: CSU, UC
Lecture 3 hours.
Course Typically Offered: Fall, Spring, and Summer

This course introduces the interdisciplinary field of Pacific Islands, Pacific Islander, and Oceania studies. Students examine historical and contemporary issues and experiences related to Asian American and Pacific Islander communities in the United States and across the Pacific diaspora. Students learn island and ocean geographies by studying maps and discussing the cartographic politics that formed the regions of Polynesia, Micronesia, and Melanesia. This course focuses on the experiences of Pacific Islanders from Hawai'i, Samoa, American Samoa, Fiji, Guam, Tonga, Palau, Marshall Islands, Tahiti, and New Zealand. This course examines colonial, postcolonial, and neocolonial histories of the region, history, politics, immigration, environment, decolonization, self-determination, resistance and social movements through Pacific Islander and Oceanic epistemologies. They explore the diverse cultures and identities of the Pacific, highlighting traditional knowledge, customs, arts (storytelling, weaving, tattooing), practices (canoe building, navigation, surfing), religion, and food.