Active Outline

General Information

Course ID (CB01A and CB01B)
NAISD031.
Course Title (CB02)
Ethnic Studies: Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Experiences
Course Credit Status
Credit - Degree Applicable
Effective Term
Fall 2023
Course Description
This Ethnic Studies course examines Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander experiences in the context of Native American and Indigenous Studies. Students will learn core concepts in the study of indigeneity, colonialism, and indigenous sovereignty. Special attention will be paid to the intersections of race and racism as it relates to class, gender, sexuality, religion, spirituality, national origin, and sovereignty. The class has a focus on Hawai'i, Guam, American Sāmoa, and the Marshall Islands which are presently under U.S. colonial rule. Additionally, students will engage with the struggles and solidarity movements of Pacific Islanders in their homelands and in the diaspora. The course broadly covers the regions of Micronesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia; it contextualizes the histories and experiences of the Pacific in conversation with Native American, Latinx, Asian American, and African American scholarship, experiences, and resistance.
Faculty Requirements
Course Family
Not Applicable

Course Justification

This UC and CSU transferable course meets general education requirements for ý, CSU GE, and IGETC. This course provides foundational knowledge of Pacific Island Studies, Ethnic Studies, and historical themes of the Oceania.

Foothill Equivalency

Does the course have a Foothill equivalent?
No
Foothill Course ID

Course Philosophy

Formerly Statement

Formerly Statement
(Formerly ASAM D031.)

Course Development Options

Basic Skill Status (CB08)
Course is not a basic skills course.
Grade Options
  • Letter Grade
  • Pass/No Pass
Repeat Limit
0

Transferability & Gen. Ed. Options

Transferability
Transferable to both UC and CSU
ý GEArea(s)StatusDetails
2GDXý GE Area D - Social and Behavioral SciencesApproved
CSU GEArea(s)StatusDetails
CGDYCSU GE Area D - Social SciencesApproved
IGETCArea(s)StatusDetails
IG4XIGETC Area 4 - Social and Behavioral SciencesApproved

Units and Hours

Summary

Minimum Credit Units
4.0
Maximum Credit Units
4.0

Weekly Student Hours

TypeIn ClassOut of Class
Lecture Hours4.08.0
Laboratory Hours0.00.0

Course Student Hours

Course Duration (Weeks)
12.0
Hours per unit divisor
36.0
Course In-Class (Contact) Hours
Lecture
48.0
Laboratory
0.0
Total
48.0
Course Out-of-Class Hours
Lecture
96.0
Laboratory
0.0
NA
0.0
Total
96.0

Prerequisite(s)

Corequisite(s)

Advisory(ies)

EWRT D001A or EWRT D01AH or ESL D005.

Limitation(s) on Enrollment

Entrance Skill(s)

General Course Statement(s)

(See general education pages for the requirements this course meets.)

Methods of Instruction

Lecture and visual aids

Discussion of assigned reading

In-class exploration of Internet sites

In-class engagement with art and poetry

Examination review performed in class

Homework and extended projects

Guest speakers

Collaborative learning and small group exercises

Assignments

  1. Weekly assigned readings- readings are from academic journals and texts, written by Native American and Pacific Islanders, and correspond with core themes of the class.
  2. Weekly annotated bibliographies, MLA format, based on the readings. Students must demonstrate a thorough understanding of the text and must use critical thinking skills to identify the main points of the text and put these points into conversation with the concepts covered in the corresponding lectures.
  3. Weekly reflection. A reflective writing exercise on the core concepts and ideas covered in lectures, readings, and discussions. Students must identify concepts that resonated with them during the week. Students must use critical thinking skills to discuss how the concepts and theoretical frameworks covered in class relate to their lives and contemporary issues and determine the utility of these concepts in their experiences.
  4. Weekly classand small group discussionsbased on the reading and lecture; students develop discussion questions to present to the class for a larger group conversation.
  5. Final exam- multiple choice and short answer, cumulative, and focused on main ideas, people, and events covered in the class. Students must demonstrate a command of the material covered throughout the course, and be able to use theories and concepts covered in the course to generate and demonstrate independent analyses.

Methods of Evaluation

  1. Participation in class discussions and collaborative exercises to be evaluated on engagement with course material, respect for fellow classmates, and completion of exercises.
  2. Annotated Bibliographies are evaluated based on the accuracy of the bibliography, thesummarization of the article or chapter's main ideas, and the depth of the analysis.
  3. Reflections are graded based on their thoroughness, degree ofcompletion, and engagement with both the lecture and the week's readings.
  4. Final exam will be graded on the accuracy of their answers and the thoroughness of their short answer responses. Short answer responses must reference the lecture and the readings and must include independent analysis by the student.

Essential Student Materials/Essential College Facilities

Essential Student Materials:
  • None.
Essential College Facilities:
  • None.

Examples of Primary Texts and References

AuthorTitlePublisherDate/EditionISBN
Tanya Maria Golash-BozaRace and Racisms: A Critical ApproachOxford University Press20219780197533215
Case, EmalaniEverything Ancient Was Once New: Indigenous Persistence from Hawai’i to KahikiUniversity of Hawai'i Press20213: 9780824886806
Simpson, Leanna BetasamosakeAs We Have Always Done: Indigenous Freedom through Radical ResistanceUniversity of Minnesota Press2017978-1-5179-0387-9
Edited by Joanne BarkerCritically Sovereign: Indigenous Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist StudiesDuke University Press2017
Edited by Noelani Goodyear-Ka'ōpuaNā Wāhine Koa: Hawaiian Women for Sovereignty and DemilitarizationUniversity of Hawai'i Press2018

Examples of Supporting Texts and References

AuthorTitlePublisher
Remembering Our Intimacies: Mo'olelo, Aloha, 'Āina, and Ea
Samoan Queer Lives
Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve Human Condition Have Failed
Violence and Colonial Dialogue: The Australian-Pacific Indentured Labor Trade
Transit of Empire
Keywords for Gender and Sexuality Studies
Native American DNA: Tribal Belonging and the False Promise of Genetic Science
Sovereignty Matters Locations of Contestation and Possibility in Indigenous Struggles for Self-Determination
Native Studies Keywords
Once Were Pacific: Māori connections to Oceania
Traces of History: Elementary Structures of Race
The Black Shoals: Offshore Formations of Black and Native Studies
"Our Sea of Islands." The Contemporary Pacific, vol.6
"Shadowing Imperial Networks: Indigenous Mobility and Australia's Pacific Past." Australian Historical Studies, vol. 46
"Re-Presenting Melanesia: Ignoble Savages and Melanesian Alter-Natives." The Contemporary Pacific, vol.27(1)
The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative
"Fa'afafine Notes: On Tagaloa, Jesus, and Nafanua." Amerasia, vol.37(3)
Militarized Currents: Toward a Decolonized Future in Asia and the Pacific

Learning Outcomes and Objectives

Course Objectives

  • Apply theory and knowledge produced by Native American, Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander, and African American communities to describe the critical events, histories, cultures, intellectual traditions, contributions, lived-experiences and social struggles of those groups with a particular emphasis on agency and group affirmation.
  • Analyze and articulate concepts such as race and racism, racialization, ethnicity, equity, ethno-centrism, eurocentrism, white supremacy, self-determination, liberation, decolonization, sovereignty, imperialism, settler colonialism, and anti-racism as analyzed inÂNative American, Pacific Islander, and Indigenous Studies.
  • Analyze criticallyÂthe intersection of race and racism as they relate to class, gender, sexuality, religion, spirituality,Âand sovereignty in Native American and Pacific Islander communities.
  • Review critically how struggle, resistance, racial and social justice, solidarity, and liberation, as experienced and enacted by Native Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are relevant to current and structural issues such as communal, national, international, and transnational politics.

CSLOs

  • Apply theory and knowledge produced by Native American and Pacific Islander communities to describe the critical events, histories, cultures, intellectual traditions, contributions, lived-experiences and social struggles of those groups with a particular emphasis on agency and group-affirmation.

  • Analyze critically the intersection of race and racism as they relate to class, gender, sexuality, religion, spirituality, national origin, immigration status, and sovereignty in Native American and Pacific Islander communities.

  • Analyze and articulate concepts such as race and racism, racialization, ethnicity, equity, ethno-centrism, eurocentrism, white supremacy, self-determination, liberation, decolonization, sovereignty, imperialism, settler colonialism, and anti-racism as analyzed in Native American and Pacific Island Studies.

  • Review critically how struggle, resistance, racial and social justice, solidarity, and liberation, as experienced and enacted by Native Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are relevant to current and structural issues such as communal, national, international, and transnational politics.

Outline

  1. Apply theory and knowledge produced by Native American, Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander, and African American communities to describe the critical events, histories, cultures, intellectual traditions, contributions, lived experiences, and social struggles of those groups with a particular emphasis on agency and group affirmation.
    1. Discuss the origin of Ethnic Studies and the importance of representation
      1. 1968 Third-World Liberation Front student movements
      2. Summarize and apply African American scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw's theory of intersectionality
      3. Define, summarize and apply Standpoint Theory and apply to student's relationship to the Pacific and to Turtle Island (now called the United States)
      4. Re-imagining the Pacific
        1. Identify and challenge common stereotypes about Pacific Islanders, Pacific islands, and Indigenous Peoples
        2. Analyze the violence of erasure and misrepresentation
        3. Define "worldview" and identify students' existing worldviews
    2. Discuss Indigenous Worldviews: Identity and Indigenous Cosmogony
      1. Define and analyze the term "Indigenous" and the present discourse on the term's usage
        1. Discuss and apply approaches to indigeneity as outlined by Indigenous scholars,Kim TallBear andJeff Corntassel
        2. Discuss and apply approaches to indigeneity as outlined by Indigenous Pacific Islanders,Alice Te Punga Somerville, andEmmalani Case
      2. Identify and analyze Indigenous People's sacred and ancestral connection to land, on the basis of relationality rather than ownership
      3. Examine differing Indigenous worldviews through creation stories
      4. Observe the ways in which stories are world-building, anddiscuss and analyze Native American scholar Thomas King's approach to stories
      5. Analyze the importance of oral histories and the importance of Indigenous People's right to self-identification and spiritual expression
        1. Examine Native American: Rumsen Ohlone creation story "Eagle, Hummingbird, and Coyote"
        2. Examine Native American: Algonquian and Iroquoian creation story "Turtle Island"
        3. Examine Pacific: Tongan creation story "Tala ē Fonua"
        4. Examine Pacific: Fijian creation story "Na Bure Kalou I Degei"
        5. Examine Pacific: Chamorro creation story "Putan and Fu'una"
    3. Critically Analyze Racialized Mapping vs. Indigenous Cartographies
      1. Define and examine the concept of race and its historical origins
        1. Critically analyze the development of race as a concept from the 16th century to the 20th and its connection to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and the genocide of Indigenous Peoples
        2. Define and examine structural and systemic racism
        3. Define and analyze Critical Race Theory
        4. Define, discuss, and analyze anti-blackness, white supremacy,ethnocentrism, and eurocentrism
        5. Define, discuss, and analyze colorism
    4. Analyze Indigenous ways of mapping and relationship to land, space, and place
      1. Explore and analyze the Native-Land.ca map of Indigenous lands
        1. Define and discuss sovereignty in its Westphalian construction and reliance onbordered territories
        2. Analyze definitions of Indigenous Sovereignty and how it contrasts with Westphalian sovereignty,explore the concept of "we belong to each other" from Indigenous scholars Jeff Corntassel and Leanna Betasamosake Simpson
        3. Discuss and examine the nature of overlapping sovereignties in many Indigenous worldviews
      2. Examine and discuss Marshallese stick maps
      3. Examine and discuss Tahitian concepts of moving islands and skydomes
      4. Examine and discuss the Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) Hokule'a and Navigating Society and Marshallese involvement in the revitalization of Pacific voyaging techniques
      5. Examine and discuss Pacific Islander star maps and conceptualizations of space-time/ tā-vā
      6. Discuss and examine Pacific Islander histories of mobility, navigation, and interconnection prior to the borders and subregions imposed upon the Pacific bycolonization
    5. Critique the Mercator Projection and the racialized mapping of the Pacific
      1. Examine and critique European doctrines of "Discovery"
      2. Explore the history of the Mercator projection and its origins in building a colonial empire
      3. Observe the way the Mercator Projection splits the Pacific in half
        1. Analyzethe pervasiveness of the Mercator Projection and the splitting of the Pacific in half
        2. Discuss the ramification of the Mercator Projection as it relates to stereotypes,misrepresentations of the Pacific, and Indigenous erasure
        3. Contrast the Mercator Projection's representation of the Pacific with Indigenous Pacific mobility and connectivity and traditional mapping
    6. Analyze and critique the subregions of Oceania
      1. Examine the history of the names: Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia
        1. Critically analyze the names: Black islands, small islands, and many islands
        2. Critique and examine the reasons Melanesia was the only sub-region to be named after the complexionof the Indigenous People
        3. Examine and critique the myth of the noble savage and European romanticization of Polynesians and the even further mistreatment of Melanesians under European colonial rule
        4. Examine and critique the internalized and continued prevalenceof anti-blackness and colorism among Pacific Islanders
        5. Contrast present-day anti-blackness and colorism within Pacific Islander communities with pre-colonial conceptions of blackness, such as "po-uli" the dark sacred night from which all life began.
  2. Analyze and articulate concepts such as race and racism, racialization, ethnicity, equity, ethnocentrism, eurocentrism, white supremacy, self-determination, liberation, decolonization, sovereignty, imperialism, settler colonialism, and anti-racism as analyzed inNative American, Pacific Islander, and Indigenous Studies.
    1. Discuss settler colonialism and Indigenous resistance
      1. Explain, define, discuss settler colonialism
      2. Define and differentiate settler colonialism from imperialism
      3. Discuss Settler Colonialism as structural and ongoing, as opposed to a singular historical event
        1. Define "settler" and put into conversation with positionality
        2. Discuss the settler-native binary and recent interventions of "arrivant" and "exogenous other" using the work of Native American scholar Jodi Byrd and Native Hawaiian scholar Emmalani Case
          1. Pacific specific examples: Indo-Fijian population and Asian laborers brought to work on plantations in Hawai'i
        3. Articulate the relationship between race, racism, and settler colonialism
        4. Outline the development of modern capitalism and its linkages to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and settler colonial projects which require land to be understood as property and resource
        5. Challenge the myth of peaceful settlement- for example Thanksgiving
      4. Examine U.S. colonialism in the Pacific
        1. Discuss and critique the illegal overthrow of the Hawaiian government and the current U.S.illegal occupation of Kanaka Maoli lands
        2. Discuss and critique the U.S. acquisitionof American Sāmoa and Guam after the Spanish-American War, and U.S. utilization of Hawai'i, Guam, and American Sāmoa in the Philippine-American War and subsequent U.S. colonization of the Philippines
        3. Discuss and critique post-WWII U.S. control of theMarshall Islands and Northern Marianas
        4. Identify, define, and discuss U.S. Territories- incorporated and unincorporated- and the implications of denying birthrightcitizenship,limiting socioeconomic mobility, and access to resources
        5. Compare and connect Pacific Islander experiences of U.S. colonialism with the Indigenous People of Turtle Island and with U.S. territories in the Caribbean
      5. Analyze U.S. Settler Colonialism: Hawai'i Focus
        1. Explore and examine Kānaka Maoli indigenous governance and relationship to kin and land
        2. Examine Kānaka Maoli creation story and stewardship of Hawai'i nei
        3. Examine the Hawaiian Monarchy period up to Queen Lili'uokalani
        4. Examine and explore the causal relationship between the end of chattel slavery and the Hawai'i sugar boom
        5. Critique the illegal planter overthrow
        6. Discuss and define the continued dispossession ofKānaka Maoli under the planter and then U.S. government
        7. Discuss the implication of the U.S. take-over for Chinese and Japanese migrant workers, because the Asian Exclusion Act then applied to Hawai'i
        8. Examine the impact U.S. colonization of Hawai'i and the Philippines had on labor flow from the Philippines to Hawai'i
        9. Outline the ways in which the illegal occupation of Hawai'i continues to disenfranchise Kānaka Maoli
        10. Examine modes of Kānaka Maoli resistance at present, explore the Mauna Kea Syllabus
    2. Analyze militarization and nuclear colonialism
      1. Define and discuss militarization
      2. Define and discuss state violence
      3. Examine the relationshipbetween Westphalian Sovereignty and military (states having the sole control of violence)
      4. Define and discuss empire
      5. Review imperialism and colonialism
      6. Explore definitions of war, state violence, and question who controls narratives around what constitutes acts of war
      7. Review the militarized rationales for the colonization of American Sāmoa, Guam, and Hawai'i
        1. Explore and examine indigenous participation in the military: high volume of enlistment from American Sāmoa and Guam
        2. Critiquethe ethics of allowing persons from territories to enlist but not vote, and in some cases not have citizenship
        3. Explore the hyper-masculinization of Pacific Islander men, warrior stereotypes, and high enlistment rates
        4. Discuss the socio-economic reasons many Indigenous people choose to join the U.S. military
      8. Examinenuclear colonialism: Marshall Islands Focus
        1. Define and discuss nuclear colonialism
        2. Discuss students' understanding of nuclear warfare
        3. Explore, examine, and critique the 928 nuclear tests done on Shoshone land that causedfurther displacement, dispossession, and the poisoning of ancestral Shoshone lands
        4. Analyze and critique uranium mining on Navajo land, leading to the pollutionof Navajo land, food, and water sources that causedfurther dispossession and displacement
        5. Explore, examine, and critique how the same uranium mined on Navajo land and weapons that were tested on Shoshone land were then brought to the Marshall Islands.
        6. Examine and explore the displacement of Bikini and Enewatok Islanders and the destruction of their islands and the spread of radiation poisoning throughout the Marshalls
        7. Discuss and critique the sexualization of nuclear testing via the bikini item of clothing and the gendered violence experienced by Marshallese women and the elevated rates of stillbirths, thyroid, and breast cancer
        8. Examine and analyze the Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific grassroots movement which brought global attention to nuclear testing in the Pacific and demonstrate the coalitional nature of the group which was inspired by the Black Power Movement, and brought indigenous solidarity from around the world
        9. Discuss and examine the Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific's(NFIP) impact on decolonization and the end of nuclear testing in the Pacific
        10. Discuss and imagine how liberations can be deeply tied together
        11. Examine art and poetry about militarized violence in the Pacific
  3. Analyze criticallythe intersection of race and racism as they relate to class, gender, sexuality, religion, spirituality,and sovereignty in Native American and Pacific Islander communities.
    1. Analyze missionization, gendered violence, and Queer futurities
      1. Define and discuss gender
      2. Define and discuss sexuality
      3. Define and discuss LGBTQIA+, transgender, cis-gender, patriarchy, misogyny, and heteropatriarchy
      4. Define and discuss the term "Queer" and its political and activist implications
      5. Explore and examine Pacific Islander understandings of sex and gender - example Kānaka concepts of aikāne and māhū
      6. Demonstrate and discuss the centrality of religion and missionaries in early colonial projects
      7. Examine the role of missionaries in the colonization of Turtle Island, with particular focus on Spanish Missionaries in what is present-day California
    2. Analyze missionization and Gendered Violence: Guam's focus
      1. Discuss and examine pre-contact Chamorro social structure
      2. Discuss Chamorro's matrilineal power structure and division of labor
      3. Discuss Chamorro approaches to sex and sex education - for example, Guma'uritao houses
      4. Examine and critique Spanish missionizationof Guam and the connection withmissions in the Americas
      5. Analyze missionary burning of Guma'uritao houses and vilification of Chamorro women and Chamorro notions of sexuality and desire, analyze the impact of destroying Indigenous institutions and replacing them with European heteropatriarchal institutions and values
      6. Discuss and examine contemporary Chamorro resistance movements, language, and cultural revitalization, and protection
    3. Analyze missionization and gendered violence: Sāmoa and Tonga focus
      1. Review colonial histories of Tonga and Sāmoa (as a whole)
      2. Discuss and examine the centrality of goddesses and gender-fluid gods in Tongan and Sāmoan Indigenous religions
      3. Discuss and examine Sāmoan fa'afafine and fa'atama and Tongan fakaleiti (transgender identities)
      4. Discuss the importance and centrality of the brother-sister relationship in Tonga and Sāmoa and much of the Pacific
      5. Examine the role of missionaries in the colonization of Sāmoa and Tonga
      6. Examine and discuss the ways Christianization led to the vilificationof Queer and Transgender Sāmoans and Tongans from missionization into the present
      7. Discuss and examine the continued export of U.S. evangelicalism and its role in theintensification of Queer and Transgender violence in Tonga and Sāmoa
      8. Identify and discuss examples of homophobia, transphobia, and misogyny in Pacific Islander communities
      9. Explore, examine, and discuss grassroots Queer and Trans-Pacific Organizationssuch as the Leitis Association, the Rogers of Samoa, UTOPIA SF, and Seattle
      10. Imagine the centrality of decolonizing intimacies in Indigenous Sovereignty movements
  4. Review critically how struggle, resistance, racial and social justice, solidarity, and liberation, as experienced and enacted by Native Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, and Pacific Islanders are relevant to current and structural issues such as communal, national, international, and transnational politics.
    1. Solidarity and Co-resistance
      1. Climate Change and Climate Justice
        1. Define and discuss climate change
        2. Define and discuss climate justice
        3. Define and discuss the Anthropocene
        4. Examine the relationship between colonialism, the rise of global capitalism, and climate change
        5. Explore and discuss the inequities along racial and socio-economic lines in relationship to who feels the largest impact of the climate crisis
        6. Compare and contrast the countries with the largest emissions and the places that are most immediately impacted by the climate crisis
      2. Examine Pacific specific concerns
        1. Discuss sea level rise
        2. Examine coral bleaching and ocean acidification
        3. Discuss plastics and the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
        4. Discuss climate change impacts on traditional Indigenous farming, fishing, and sailing
      3. Discuss the Water Protectors and Climate Warriors
        1. Explore and examine the grassroots organization 350 Pacific Climate Warriors
        2. Explore and examine the Water Protectors Movement: examples Sioux,Athabasca Chipewyan,Wet’suwet’en Nation, and Ojibwe protesting "black snakes" and growing solidarity movements- including from Pacific Islanders
        3. Examinehow the fossil fuel extraction industry impacting Indigenous people of Turtle Island and the increasing emission of greenhouse gases causing sea level rise impacting Pacific Islands are connected
        4. Imagine how climate justice is at the center of Indigenous liberation
      4. Solidarity and the concept of "Constellations of Co-resistance" outlined by Indigenous scholar Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
        1. Define diaspora
        2. Examine the history of Pacific Islanders coming to Turtle Island
        3. Discusssettler allyship
        4. Examine the racialization of Pacific Islanders in the U.S.
        5. Examine and critique the term "Asia American and Pacific Islander" which is a term used by the U.S. government. Delineatethe differences in experiences among Asian Americans and between Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders
          1. Discuss Asian settler colonialism in Hawai'i using the works of Asian American scholars Candice Fujikane, Dean Saranilio, and Native Hawaiian scholarHaunani KayTrask.
          2. Explore examples of true solidarity between Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders: de-militarization movements and the NFIP andAA support of Kānaka Maoli to protect Mauna Kea
      5. Black Lives Matter and Oceania
        1. Explore and examine Indigenous Pacific notions of blackness prior to contact
        2. Challenge anti-blackness and colorism within PI communities
        3. Explore and examine examples of Black and PI solidarities
          1. Observe the impact of Malcolm X on the Hawaiian Renaissance
          2. Discuss The Polynesian Panthers and NFIP
          3. Discuss Pacific reclamation of Queer histories and Black Queer activism and art, examples:Fafswag, Miss Galaxy Queen Pageant,and Ballculture
        4. Explores the ways Black Lives Matter and Indigenous Sovereignty are deeply connected
        5. Imagine decolonial futures through coalition building with Native American, Pacific Islander, Asian American, Latinx, and African American communities.








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