Critical Pacific Islander Studies Artist and Scholar Residencies

The Asian American Research Center, Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies, the Pacific Islander Initiative at UC Berkeley, and Asian Pacific American Student Development are pleased to announce our inaugural Critical Pacific Islander Studies artist and scholar residencies. 

Each semester, we will host a scholar or artist in the field of Pacific Islander Studies for a short-term residency to share their expertise with the UC Berkeley campus and the broader Bay Area community.

The Critical Pacific Islander Studies Residency program is funded by the Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institution (AANAPISI) Grant that UC Berkeley was awarded in September 2023.

Inaugural Critical Pacific Islander Studies Artist-in-Residence: Terisa Siagatonu

March 18th - 20th, 2025

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About Terisa Siagatonu

Terisa Siagatonu (See-ang-gah-toe-new) is an award-winning touring poet, speaker, educator, and community organizer born and rooted in the Bay Area. Her voice in the poetry world as a queer Sāmoan woman has granted her opportunities to perform in places such as the UN Conference on Climate Change in Paris, the Asia Pacific Triennial in Brisbane, Australia, and the 2019 SF Women’s March. Terisa’s writing/teaching blends the personal, cultural, and political in a way that calls for healing, courage, justice, and truth. A 2022 Emerson Collective Fellow, her work has been published in Poetry Magazine and The Academy of American Poets and has been featured on Button Poetry, CNN, NBCNews, NPR, KQED, Huffington Post, Everyday Feminism, The Guardian, and more.

Offstage, Terisa is a community organizer and creates and facilitates workshops, leads artistic and professional development training, provides mental health support, and delivers keynote speeches across the country on issues that inform her 15+ years of community work involving: youth advocacy, educational attainment, mental health, Pacific Islander/Indigenous rights, climate change, and others. Currently, Terisa is working on a YA novel about the hidden costs of climate change as told through the life of a Samoan-American teen from the Bay Area. Her debut children’s book, The Vastness of Us, will be published by Penguin and released in Fall 2025.

Co-sponsored by the Critical Pacific Island Studies Collective (CPISC), The Arts Research Center (ARC), The American Cultures Center, The Gender Equity Resource Center. and The Multicultural Community Center.

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Learn more about our co-sponsors

Past Critical Pacific Islander Artist and Studies Scholar Residencies

Inaugural Critical Pacific Islander Studies Scholar in Residence: Ponipate Rokolekutu

October 22nd - 24th, 2025

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Learn about Critical Pacific Islands and Oceania Studies (CPIOS) in the Department of Race and Resistance Studies at San Francisco State University

About our Fall 2024 Scholar-In-Residence

Ponipate Rokolekutu is Assistant Professor of Critical Pacific Islands and Oceania Studies in the Department of Race and Resistance Studies, College of Ethnic Studies, San Francisco State University. Dr. Rokolekutu’s genealogical roots as an iTaukei from Fiji deeply informs his work. He is from the lineage of the Mata ni Vanua to the Tui Kuku, within the iTokatoka of Vosatoranikuku, of the Vanua of Nailagolaba. He completed his undergraduate degree in history, politics, and sociology at the University of the South Pacific. He furthered his education at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, earning a PhD in political science.

Dr. Rokolekutu’s research is rooted in post-colonial theory, focusing on the impact of colonialism on indigenous land rights and marginalization. His work critically examines British colonial land legislation in Fiji, particularly their effects on the iTaukei people. His broader research addresses race, indigeneity, and colonialism in Oceania, significantly influencing debates on land dispossession and iTaukei economic development. Recently, Dr. Rokolekutu co-edited a special issue of the Okinawa Journal of Island Studies titled "Our Sharpest Tools: Unsettling Empire from Islands and Ocean." The issue includes his own article, "Interrogating British Colonial Benevolence and the Annexation of the Fijian Islands," which explores the complexities of colonial narratives and their impact on Fijian land and sovereignty.

Dr. Rokolekutu is an advocate for Pacific Islander communities and students in the San Francisco Bay Area, actively participating in initiatives like the 2020 Census Advocacy, COVID-19 awareness campaigns, and the establishment of a Pacific Islander Cultural District in San Francisco. He is also part of the Pacific Islander Stakeholder Round Table and Listening Session with the White House. He serves as the Principal Investigator (PI) for the Oceania Scholars Program at SFSU. This program supports Pacific Islander students' retention, graduation, and success by addressing educational equity and providing culturally relevant support.

Textured beige flier with brown text that reads “INAUGURAL CRITICAL PACIFIC ISLANDER STUDIES SCHOLAR IN RESIDENCE PROGRAM AT UC BERKELEY FALL 2024” in the top left corner. Centered on the flier is bold text that reads “Ponipate Rokolekutu” followed by a s
Textured beige flier with brown text that reads”DECOLONIZING POSITIONALITY: ARTICULATING THE VANUA AND GROUNDING CRITICAL PACIFIC ISLANDER STUDIES ON LAND-BASED PEDAGOGY INAUGURAL CRITICAL PACIFIC ISLANDER STUDIES SCHOLAR IN RESIDENCE PROGRAM AT UC BERKEL