Vicente Diaz
Vicente Diaz
Professor
American Indian Studies | Critical and Comparative Indigenous Theory and Practice in North America and Oceania, Indigenous Cultural Revitalization and Heritage Studies, Indigenous Technology and Ecological Knowledge (Indigenous Environmental Studies and Science (IESS), Indigenous Art, Science, and Critique, Indigenous Oral Histories
Biography
I am Pohnpeian/Filipino from Guam and an interdisciplinary scholar (anti-disciplinary when needed) who has held tenured positions in departments of History, Anthropology, American Indian Studies, Ethnic Studies, and American Studies at institutions ranging from small regional universities in Micronesia (University of Guam) to Big Ten R1s (University of Michigan Ann Arbor, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, and, prior to joining UCLA, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities).
I am also Associate Director for Engagement at UCLA’s American Indian Studies Center.
My work is primarily situated in the emergent field of Critical and Comparative Indigenous Studies in North America and the Pacific Ocean region, and I research, publish, and teach courses in topics such as Indigenous Canoe Culture Revitalization, Sports and Indigeneity, Traditional Outrigger Canoe Voyaging in Micronesia; Colonialism and Indigenous Christianity in Micronesia; Pacific History, Film and Video
I also founded and direct The Native Canoe Program, housed in the Department of American Indian Studies, which uses traditional Indigenous watercraft and Indigenous water-based ecological knowledge and technology from across Oceania and Turtle Island for community-engaged research, teaching, and service, especially service to American Indian and Indigenous nation-building. See “Canoes” Minnesota Pioneer Public Television Postcards (2020) and Paafu Stories: On Canoe Relationalities (2022 video loop installation) for the “Air Canoe” Micronesian Contemporary Art Exhibit at Tenth Asia Pacific Triennial of Art (APT10). Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art, Queensland, Australia, Oct 2022 – June 2023.
The Native Canoe Program also mixes hands-on, experiential learning and teaching with advanced visualization technologies of Virtual and Augmented Realities, produced in collaboration with the Interactive Visualization (I/V) Lab at the University of Minnesota Twin-Cities, headed by Daniel Keefe of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. See also “Toward an Indigenous cartography with Micronesian seafaring alterity in Mni Sota Makoce.” Barry Lawrence Ruderman Conference on Cartography Indigenous Mapping, Stanford University.