Critical Pacific Islands Studies Library Guide: Welcome

Welcome to the Critical Pacific Islands Studies Library Guide!

Please note this library guide was created in 2018 and we are in the process of updating it.

The library guide serves as a starting point for researchers, community members, and students interested in Critical Pacific Islands Studies. It highlights resources from the UC Berkeley library collections but also provides links to materials found at other institutions and freely accessible elsewhere. While it is intended to help users navigate the UC Berkeley Library system, it is also intended to provide resources for community members on learning more about Critical Pacific Islands Studies in general. This guide prioritizes resources by and for Pacific Islanders. 

As described by the City College of San Francisco, "Critical Pacific Islands Studies is the critical analysis of Pacific peoples and cultures in the U.S. diaspora and beyond examining colonization, imperialism, militarization, social movements, and immigration through academic and community-based scholarship and practices." The discipline privileges the diverse voices of native Pacific Islanders and is interdisciplinary at its core. There is also growing use of the term “Oceania” to describe Pacific communities and their relationship with the land and ocean, not simply as island people but also Ocean people and not just as island nations, but Ocean nations, departing from the language of colonization.

While Pacific Islands courses and seminars exist within Education, Literature, Ethnic Studies, Anthropology, and other departments, there is currently no formal academic program for Critical Pacific Islands Studies at UC Berkeley. Students and alumni throughout the years have advocated and fought for an established program which continues to this day.

To create a research guide on Critical Pacific Islands Studies also brings into question what "research" really means and how Western research has been an integral part of the violence of colonization. Knowing that academia has tended to privilege the written and printed word, this guide also acknowledges and uplifts oral histories and traditions, art, music, and other ways of knowing and sharing knowledge as just as, if not more, important as peer-reviewed scholarly work. One may notice that traditional academic disciplines such as Anthropology and History are not as prevalent in this guide. Rather than uncritically highlight resources in these fields which have tended to exploit and misrepresent Pacific Islands communities, this guide prioritizes work by and for Pacific Islands people and communities, especially in fields such as Ethnic Studies. Please check back often as this library guide will be continually updated.

Please note that at the Ethnic Studies Library, Pacific Islands Studies-related books are located in Native American Studies, with additional resources in Comparative Ethnic Studies and Asian American Studies. This guide as well as collection development for Pacific Islander materials at the Ethnic Studies Library are managed by Native American Studies Librarian Melissa Stoner in collaboration with Comparative Ethnic Studies Librarian Sine Hwang Jensen.