2017/02/27 by Alice Te Punga Somerville
Social Sciences · #Climate Change, Adaptation, Migration #Island Studies and Pacific Affairs #Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies
paper · doi:10.1215/00104124-3794579
openalex publication_date 2017/02/27 · crossref created 2017/02/27 · crossref issued 2017/03/01 · crossref published 2017/03/01 · crossref published-print 2017/03/01 · crossref deposited 2025/06/15 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · crossref indexed 2026/07/29 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
Tracing the various names used for the Pacific Ocean and drawing on Pacific scholarship and poetry, this article suggests alternative genealogies for the field of Ocean Studies that are visible from the Pacific region. Observing that the claim that Ocean Studies began in the North Atlantic echoes the history of European colonialism, and suggesting that one particular element of the Pacific Ocean is ongoing and diverse Indigenous presence, it reflects on the lack of engagement with Pacific scholarship in academic work globally. Rather than Ocean Studies turning its attention to the Pacific, it would benefit from reconsidering and reconfiguring its own genealogies in relation to multiple sites, perspectives, and oceans.