University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Kutztown University of Pennsylvania
Antioch University - PhD Program in Leadership and Change
Abilene Christian University
Liberty University
Automatic Glossing In Under-Resourced Languages: Case Studies In Bribri And Cook Islands Māori,
2026
Dartmouth College
Automatic Glossing In Under-Resourced Languages: Case Studies In Bribri And Cook Islands Māori, Carter D. Anderson
Linguistics Undergraduate Senior Theses
Interlinear glossing is a major task in Indigenous language documentation. In this paper, I explore how effectively two Large Language Models, ByT5 and Gemini 2.5 Flash, can produce interlinear glossed text. I also examine how prompting an LLM with different types of information (dictionary entries, other training samples, and translations) can augment model performance. I apply these models to two under-resourced Indigenous languages: Bribri, which is morphologically complex from Costa Rica, and Cook Islands Māori, which has a simpler morphology and is from the Cook Islands in the Pacific Ocean. ByT5 exhibits much better performance when glossing Cook Islands Māori …
Internalizing Diasporic Peoples: How Do We Keep Native Hawaiians Connected?,
2026
Whittier College
Internalizing Diasporic Peoples: How Do We Keep Native Hawaiians Connected?, Kallie P. Kaaihue-Paopao
Whittier Scholars Program
In the attempt to better understand the grounds for the generation culture disconnect of identity in Native Hawaiians, I study the diaspora of my people. Diaspora is the dispersion of people from their native lands. I find interest in this aspect of my people because the most common studies blame our dispersion on socioeconomic status and as a Native Hawaiian that wishes to do more for her people, I want to express that while it plays a part that there is a disconnection between the social actions and reactions of Hawaiʻi’s people. Common questions that I find unanswered are, why …
Codenames For Language Courses,
2026
University of Texas at Arlington
Codenames For Language Courses, Jeffrey Nolan Mcculley, Chloe Bennett
UTA Libraries Staff Publications - Archive
In this lesson, students deepen their proficiency in the target language by designing and implementing a foreign-language edition of the game Codenames. Drawing on their understanding of vocabulary, semantics, and cultural nuance, students adapt game components and rules to account for language-specific challenges such as word ambiguity, cognates, homophones, and idiomatic meaning. Through collaborative gameplay, students actively apply linguistic knowledge in a communicative, problem-solving context that emphasizes precision and strategic language use. The lesson promotes critical thinking, intercultural competence, and authentic language practice while reinforcing vocabulary acquisition and comprehension in an engaging, student-centered format.
A Fijian Barkcloth In The May Weber Ethnographic Study Collection,
2026
Loyola University Chicago
A Fijian Barkcloth In The May Weber Ethnographic Study Collection, Delaney M. Bahns
Department of Anthropology
This report examines an object in the May Weber Ethnographic Study Collection, a barkcloth attributed to the Fiji Islands. The report discusses the attribution, as well as the distinction of the object as Fijian masi kesa. The report discusses the techniques used to make bark cloth, as well as past studies of bark cloth in the Pacific Islands. It also examines the gendered context of masi, as well as the issue of cultural intellectual property in recent uses of masi motifs for commercial purposes.
From Voice To Noise: Accented Speech, Constructed Languages, And Subtitling Practices As Markers Of Difference,
2026
Emerson College
From Voice To Noise: Accented Speech, Constructed Languages, And Subtitling Practices As Markers Of Difference, Alice Alonso Limongi
Course Work
This monograph explores three main strategies of vocal exotification in Anglophone film: representations of accented speech, inclusion of constructed languages, and non-subtitling of snippets of other languages. Using Stuart Hall’s encoding/decoding framework, I approach these practices as rhetorical devices that both construct and are constructed by the complexity of our social landscapes. Portrayals of accented speech, constructed languages, and subtitling practices form a gradient of abstraction, where the denotative meaning of words gradually loses importance to the sonic characteristics of the voice. Combining broader cultural scholarship from Edward Said, sound studies writings on power and language from Nina Sun Eidsheim …
Star Wars: Andor – An Abolitionist Study Guide,
2025
CSU San Marcos
Star Wars: Andor – An Abolitionist Study Guide, Marcelo Garzo Montalvo, Isaac Ginsberg Miller
Feminist Pedagogy
This study guide provides a set of activities for teaching abolition through Season 1 of the speculative fiction TV series Star Wars: Andor (2022). Through the practice of critical literacy (viewing, reading, and analysis), we offer various ideas on how to engage Andor as a relevant pedagogical tool for studying and teaching abolitionist movement histories and methodologies. By guiding students through a critical analysis of this widely-circulated, mainstream cultural text, we seek to activate an abolitionist pedagogical lens that can be applied across various genres and media – making tangible connections between popular culture and political struggles writ large. These …
The Effect Of Cultural Myths On Oceanic Art,
2025
Bowling Green State University
The Effect Of Cultural Myths On Oceanic Art, Derek Mcfarland
Honors Projects
Oceanic artworks are interesting in their purpose of connecting with and influencing the spiritual world. As such, Oceanic artworks are largely affected by the spiritual beliefs of the cultures producing them. Outsiders may have trouble understanding and tastefully depicting artworks from these cultures, as information about them is largely limited or misrepresented. This Honors Project aims to develop a clearer understanding of northern Melanesian artwork by investigating how the spiritual and societal beliefs of certain cultures affect the artwork they produce, with the intention of appropriately depicting them in an independent artwork. Through my research, I find that northern Melanesian …
Chinese Communist Party Infiltration Of U.S. Pacific Islands: Protecting American National Security Through Defending Strategic Pacific Assets,
2025
Liberty University
Chinese Communist Party Infiltration Of U.S. Pacific Islands: Protecting American National Security Through Defending Strategic Pacific Assets, Contessa Amedore
Liberty University Journal of Statesmanship & Public Policy
Many Americans picture the U.S.’s Western most border to be the coast of California. However, when threats have historically formed in the Pacific, U.S. Pacific Island territories have served as the nation’s first line of defense. Today, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) have slowly but ambitiously deployed new age or ‘unrestricted’ warfare tactics against the United States and allies in their long awaited plan to assume global hegemony. Their illegal infiltration and psychological operations have gone past Taipei and reached American soil in Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa. This paper examines how the (CCP) uses unrestricted warfare …
Re-Imagine Paradise: The Impacts Of The Illegal Annexation Of Hawai'i & Tourism On Native Hawaiians,
2025
Southern Methodist University
Re-Imagine Paradise: The Impacts Of The Illegal Annexation Of Hawai'i & Tourism On Native Hawaiians, Paige Edwards
SMU Journal of Undergraduate Research
This literature review presents a vital exploration of colonialism, the illegal annexation of Hawai’i, and the subsequent emergence of the tourism industry as a neocolonial enterprise. Neocolonialism is the process of colonial dominance through modern exploitation, which is masked through economic opportunities and has left territories and their native people dependent on it. By tracing the major historical events in Hawai’i highlights how education was a vital aspect of Native Hawaiian culture, empowering its people - a stark contrast to the current education system where the education system perpetuates the commodification of Native Hawaiian culture. Education has played a pivotal …
E Ho’Omau Mākau, We Will Continue: The Living Sovereign Entities Of Contemporary Hawaiian Songs,
2025
University of Denver
E Ho’Omau Mākau, We Will Continue: The Living Sovereign Entities Of Contemporary Hawaiian Songs, Kēhaulani Lagunero
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This thesis examines the relationship between contemporary Hawaiian mele (songs) and Hawaiian ea (sovereignty), focusing on how mele acts as sovereign living entities representing cultural resilience, identity, and resistance to settler-colonial influences. Through semi-structured interviews with Kānaka Maoli, participant observation at cultural events, and close analysis of mele, I identify that these songs are not only expressions of cultural memory, but also living embodiments of ea—sovereignty because they are alive, and they are alive because they are ea. Drawing from the frameworks of cultural survival, survivance, symbolic power, and defiant indigeneity, I explore how mele actively engage …
Apala Best Of The Best Booklist 2023 - 2024,
2025
Loyola Marymount University
Apala Best Of The Best Booklist 2023 - 2024, Asian Pacific American Librarians Association, Family Literacy Focus Committee, Education Subcommittee, Jessea Young (Chair), Zoë Bowlus, Nicole Fernandez, Erika Fitzpatrick, Cathy Lin, Kim Nguyen, Patty Sumire Mcgowan, Yer Vang
Librarian Publications & Presentations
Started in 2022, the Best of the Best Booklist celebrates stories from across the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) diaspora. All APALA members were invited to nominate picture book titles about AANHPI communities and experiences that were published in the 2023 and 2024 calendar years. To curate the final list, members of the APALA Family Literacy Focus Committee evaluated the nominations, guided by the mission of Talk Story and APALA Rubric to Evaluate Asian American and Pacific Islander Youth Literature. The committee is grateful to all the members who nominated titles. Eligible titles that earned a …
The Curse Of El Dorado: How The Californnia Gold Rush Shaped The History Of Hawai'i,
2025
Texas A&M International University
The Curse Of El Dorado: How The Californnia Gold Rush Shaped The History Of Hawai'i, Ernesto Coronado
Theses and Dissertations
In the discourse of Western historiography, we fail to account for the importance of the Hawai’ian Islands. American imperialism did not stop with the occupation of the Pacific Coast but continued into the Pacific. In the mid-nineteenth century, Hawai’i and its monarch, King Kamehameha III, stood at the center of a dispute between Britain, France, and the United States. King Kamehameha III used the California Gold Rush and Hawai’i’s location to his advantage to garner capital and prevent the imperial powers from annexing his kingdom. However, even he knew he could not stop the mass wave of Hawai’ians leaving the …
Analyzing Austronesian Alignment Through Hiligaynon Syntax,
2025
Florida Atlantic University
Analyzing Austronesian Alignment Through Hiligaynon Syntax, Ty Craaybeek
Harriet L Wilkes Honors College Theses
Hiligaynon is a language in the Philippines that is a member of the Central Philippine branch of the Austronesian language family. Although it is spoken by 10% of the population, Hiligaynon is understudied, but it also uses the debated Austronesian alignment system like its relatives. One common approach to analyzing these languages is the ergative-absolutive approach, but some researchers analyze them through a topic marking system under the nominative-accusative approach. This paper analyzes Hiligaynon’s use of Austronesian alignment through reevaluating and reanalyzing previous data and comparing it to work on its related languages to understand the underlying syntax of Hiligaynon’s …
Te Kaitiakitanga O Ngā Tūpuna: Restructuring Repatriation And Globalizing Decolonial Indigeneity,
2025
Hollins University
Te Kaitiakitanga O Ngā Tūpuna: Restructuring Repatriation And Globalizing Decolonial Indigeneity, Kailee A. Hall
Undergraduate Honors Theses
Preserving cultural heritage through repatriation has admittedly worked against Indigenous communities because museums have maintained a system of control over their belongings and have fractured their trust in partnerships. Repatriation is the process by which Indigenous belongings, land, and people are returned, and must be decolonized into a system of support within museums’ institutional structures. The aim of this thesis is to analyze how the institutional mechanisms for repatriation are ineffective and offer a new framework to be globalized and accessible. While decolonial theories and methods act as a lens, Māori educationalist Graham Hingangaroa Smith’s Kaupapa Māori is a theoretical …
The Heart Of The University: Student Clubs And The American Colonization Of The Pacific,
2025
University of Montana
The Heart Of The University: Student Clubs And The American Colonization Of The Pacific, Eli Arnold
Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers
Students have travelled across the Pacific Ocean to study at the University of Montana for over a century, and the contributions of these students deserve to be studied. This thesis explores the educational and community building roles that the historic International Club and Filipino Club, as well as the contemporary Pacific Islanders Club fulfilled. Students from the Philippines and Hawaiʻi provide clear examples of the potential for college campuses to be gathering places for broader community. This thesis is also a study of the global phenomenon of colonialism as seen from Filipino and Native Hawaiian students who travelled to Missoula …
Dividing Paradise: A History Of Land In Hawai'i,
2025
The University of Akron
Dividing Paradise: A History Of Land In Hawai'i, Lacy Nicholas
Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects
This paper acts as a biography of Hawaiian land, using multidisciplinary sources to construct a timeline of how land has been conceptualized and used by the people who live there. It analyzes Hawai'i as a settler colony. I begin with the first Polynesian settlers in Hawai'i, focusing on the feudal-like division and redistribution of land by the king in the pre-colonial era. Then, I discuss the attitude of the American settlers in Hawai'i and how those ideas were manifested in the privatization of land and the age of sugarcane plantations. Next, I focus on how the United States military has …
Lalava In Tonga,
2024
Independent Researcher, Tonga
Lalava In Tonga, Tapukitea Lolomāna‘Ia
Pacific Studies
This article explores the traditional Tongan art of lalava, an ornamental lashing technique using kafa sennit cords on royal fale hau structures. Drawing from oral traditions, interviews with practitioners like Tamale Mohenoa, and field observations, it examines lalava's architectural, cultural, and historical roles, including patterns (kupesi) encoding royal genealogies, social hierarchies, and navigation knowledge. The study highlights its evolution, exclusive practitioners from the Tamale lineage in Niutou Village, and significance in Tongan heritage amid modernization.
The Successes Of Rotuman Women In The Modern World,
2024
University of Hawai'i
The Successes Of Rotuman Women In The Modern World, Alan Howard, Makereta Mua
Pacific Studies
Inspired by Ester Boserup’s 1970 thesis regarding the role of indigenous economies in promoting the success of women in the modern economies, this article explores aspects of Rotuman culture that have led to the considerable success of Rotuman women in various contemporary occupations. Our analysis is based on multiple sources implicating the socialization of women that promote a self-confidence conducive to accomplishments. This article also includes reflections by seventeen interviewees on the sources of their success
Vavanga, Vavalo, And Fakakaukau With Vā-Tā,
2024
Loʻau Vavangakitupuʻa, Loʻau University
Vavanga, Vavalo, And Fakakaukau With Vā-Tā, Siosiua F.P. Lafitani
Pacific Studies
This article addresses the profound cognitive and cultural significance of vavanga (contemplation) and vavalo (contemplation), which are contempla- tive frameworks deeply rooted in the concept of vā (space) within Tongan language and culture. These frameworks serve as gateways to expansive cogni- tive exploration, stretching the boundaries of imagination and contemplation. Fakakaukau (thinking), double or dual actor (named because it bridges the realms of cognition and practicality), uses instrumental concepts such as fifili (inquisitiveness) and fekeli (meticulous exploration) to navigate the landscapes of inquiry. Throughout this exploration, a critical distinction emerges between tā as tempo and the cognitive concepts of contemplation …
The Major And The Missionary: Letters Of Warren Hamilton Lewis And Blanche Biggs, Edited By Diana Pavlac Glyer,
2024
Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal
The Major And The Missionary: Letters Of Warren Hamilton Lewis And Blanche Biggs, Edited By Diana Pavlac Glyer, Bruce R. Johnson
Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature
No abstract provided.
