Guided by writers who call these islands home, we'll get to know the poetry, stories, histories, and environments of Polynesia and Micronesia. Reading, and writing and discussion in response to what we read, will be central to the course. Two essays, short writing assignments, and an oral presentation as part of a trio are course requirements; we'll take a field trip to investigate aspects of the marine ecosystem, the heart of Pacific life and literature.
Providing context for and a deeper understanding of our readings, select topics in environmental science will figure into our course: biodiversity, climate change, population migration, and environmental justice. In particular, we will consider coral reef health; the social and physical legacy of weapons testing; the effect of rising sea levels on peoples and cultures; and volcanos as island builders and agents for speciation.
We'll encounter celebrated shapeshifters from the mythologies of the Marshall Islands and Hawaii, like Kamapua'a, who appears as a hog or as a human, and Pele, whose volcanic power brings destruction as well as new life. We'll learn why these eternal trickster figures remain essential to the literature, orature, and lives of Pacific peoples. In Robert Barclay's novel Melal, for example, the fate of a Marshallese family and three American boys on a fishing trip hinges on a game of hide-and-seek played by trickster Etao and dwarf Noniep.
This course can fulfill the following requirements: an H & S elective (2000-level); a Writing and Literature Major or Minor (WRLIT 2000-level); a Literature and Performing Arts (LITPA 2000-level); an Ecological Practices Minor H&S course (2000-level).

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