Mentored Undergraduate Research Fellowships in Critical Pacific Islander and Southeast Asian American Studies 2026
The Mentored Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program in Critical Pacific Islander (PI) and Southeast Asian American Studies (SEA) strengthens Critical PI and SEAA Studies at UC Berkeley by supporting research and increasing research opportunities for UC Berkeley undergraduates. More on this program here.
2026 Research Projects
Kourtney Kawano, Education, with undergraduate fellow Quynh Nguyen “Exploring Resistance to Internalized Oppression among California-Based Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Students and Families”
Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders (NHPI) are not only erased from national education discourses due to their “statistical insignificance” (Shotton et al., 2012) but are also invisibilized by the aggregate term “Asian American and Pacific Islander” (AAPI) on college campuses (Gogue et al., 2022). However, NHPI students continue to make their presence known at higher education institutions in California, a state with a disproportionately high number of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander-serving institutions (AANAPISI) and Alaska Native/Native Hawaiian-serving institutions (ANNH) compared to the rest of the U.S. continent (Kawano, 2024). Given this demographic context and the enduring commitment by this state to serve NHPI college students in the face of federal tactics to divide Communities of Color
over “scarce” financial resources, this project embraces an anti-colonial approach by thinking expansively and intergenerationally about the histories and stories that NHPI students bring to their college campuses in California. Specifically, this project examines NHPI families’ experiences with resistance to internalized oppression, defined as the conscious and unconscious acceptance of intersecting social hierarchies that reinforce and reproduce discrimination, prejudice, stereotypes, and stigmas. Through a combination of family interviews, community observations, and material collection of family artifacts, this project will contribute to the sparse literature on the social contexts of education among NHPI students and expand opportunities for interdisciplinary and intersegmental supports for diverse NHPI families.
SanSan Kwan, Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies, with undergraduate fellow Liam Quinn “Stories of the Reef: Communicating Coral Reef Degradation through Traditional Tahitian Dance in French Polynesia”
Environmental degradation across the Pacific threatens marine ecosystems, with coral reef decline posing a major risk to biodiversity, food security, and cultural heritage. In French Polynesia, where ecological knowledge and cultural identity are deeply intertwined, traditional Tahitian dance (Ori Tahiti) has long served as a form of environmental storytelling and cosmological expression. This project investigates how Ori Tahiti choreography communicates narratives of coral reef loss and marine conservation. By combining ethnographic observation, textual analysis of dance lyrics and movement, and interviews with cultural practitioners, this study explores how dance embodies ecological relationships and conveys environmental crises through culturally resonant forms. The project will identify two to three dances that thematically represent coral reefs and examine how gestures, costume, and performance context express ecological transformation. In highlighting the intersections of art, ecology, and Indigenous epistemology, this research contributes to Critical Pacific Islander Studies by examining performance as both an archive of environmental knowledge and an act of cultural resilience. Ultimately, the findings will illuminate how Ori Tahiti functions as a pedagogical and activist medium, translating scientific narratives of reef decline into embodied expressions that inspire conservation awareness within and beyond Oceania.
Khatharya Um and Julian Chow, Ethnic Studies, "The socio-economic impact of COVID-19 on vulnerable Asian American communities and the potentiality of a multigenerational, culturally informed solidarity economy as critical intervention"
Though faced with a triple crisis of health vulnerability, economic insecurity, and anti-Asian violence throughout the pandemic, Asian Americans have been relatively invisible in the research and policy discourse on the pandemic. The large body of scholarship on COVID-19 notwithstanding, we know relatively little of its social and economic impact on Asian Americans, and even less on the more vulnerable and less visible sub-groups such as low-wage workers, newer refugees, and the undocumented. Of the few studies that exist on Asian Americans, most adopt a pan-Asian framework without consideration of sub-group differences and disparities among and within communities that inform both the impact and the individual and collective coping strategies during the pandemic. Virtually all studies merely identify the problems without proffering viable interventions. Our project aims to address this knowledge gap by 1) assessing the research landscape on the impact of COVID on AA communities 2) generating the missing data on the impact of the pandemic on the economic, health, and social wellbeing of South and Southeast Asian lower-skill, low-wage workers and new refugee communities who are among the most vulnerable Asian Americans and 3) engaging our community partners in exploring the potentiality of culturally informed solidarity economy as critical interventions. Findings from the multi-sited and multi-group interviews and focus groups will contribute to a more granular understanding of the impact of the pandemic on Asian Americans and allow for exploration of some community engaged interventions. The research findings will be shared with policy makers, researchers, and our community partners for their own advocacy and program development.
Clancy Wilmott, Geography, with graduate student Sophia Perez and undergraduate fellows Sofia McCabe, Erythrina Ngirkelau, Richard Villagomez “Oceanic Imaginaries”
This project investigates how “the Pacific” has been imagined and the material effects of these many imaginaries, with the goal of supporting more equitable and Indigenous-centered understandings across diverse “Pacific Worlds.” The Pacific—fluid both physically and conceptually—poses unique challenges to those who attempt to represent it. Dominant narratives, often rooted in colonial thought, have historically erased the ocean’s vitality and the histories of its peoples. As historian David Igler notes, oceans often “hardly register on historians’ mental maps,” while Pacific Islander scholars such as Teresia Teaiwa remind us that the region’s linguistic and cultural diversity resists any singular authority or totalizing view. Building on critical interventions by scholars like Epeli Hau‘ofa, who reimagined the region as a “Sea of Islands,” and Matt Matsuda, who conceptualized multiple “Pacific worlds,” this project will engage with the growing field of Critical Pacific Islands Studies to analyze how such frameworks reshape understandings of oceanic space, mobility, and belonging. Through a literature review, mentorship, and dialogue with Pacific scholars including Dr. Maile Arvin (UH Mānoa), the team will produce two key outputs: a scholarly review article and a UC Library subject guide. Together, these outputs will contribute to the academic and Pacific Islander communities by reimagining “the Pacific” as a space of relation, movement, and multiplicity—an oceanic imaginary grounded in equity and Indigenous knowledge.
