Where is the Pacific Islander in “Asian Pacific Islander American” Part II
So I showed a new professor-acquaintance of mine my blog on the lack of representation of Pacific Islanders in Asian American Studies, and she told me how she has been an opponent of including Pacific Islanders in Asian American Studies for many years. She has “long advocated that Asian American Studies refrain from including Pacific Islanders
as a subject of study unless its on a comparative basis (like comparative work on Asian Americans
and Latinos, or Asian Americans and African Americans), especially since there is a nascent
field of Pacific Islander Studies developing in the United States” (Kauanui). Her article on the topic, as well as another important topic, entitled “Where are Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders in Higher Education” is very interesting and much more researched than my own. This topic has become very interesting and I plan on doing more research… There is a book I have on order regarding more on this topic that I will post my thoughts on once they come, but for now, I have decided that I need to think outside the box a little more and instead of trying to fit things that don’t belong into pre-existing molds, create new ones that satisfy changing ideas.
