Dr. Tiara Na’puti, (Chamoru/Chamorro from Guåhan/Guam) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Global & International Studies at University of California Irvine. She is a first-generation college student who earned a Ph.D. in Communication Studies and a certificate in Native American & Indigenous Studies from The University of Texas at Austin. Her scholarship and community work addresses militarism, colonialism, Indigenous culture, and movements—particularly in the Mariana Islands archipelago and throughout Oceania. She has joined several delegations to testify at the United Nations Special Political and Decolonization Committee (4th Committee) on the political status of Guåhan.
Na’put is also a 2021 Mellon/ACLS Scholars and Society Fellow working with Independent Guåhan, a community organization educating the island’s public about sovereignty and addressing climate change as an urgent challenge brought about by the Guam’s colonial political status. She is currently working on a book project that examines the U.S. military buildup in Guam and the dangerous impacts that militarism has on the environment. This work examines the communicative dimensions of resistance and connections among Indigenous-led struggles to protect water and land from militarization and extractive industries.
PROFILE
Position: Assistant Professor
Organization: University of California, Irvine
Contact: tnaputi@uci.edu
Website: https://www.socsci.uci.edu/newsevents/news/2021/2021-09-10-naputi-new-faculty-interview.php
AREAS OF FOCUS
- Culture
- Education
- Environment
- History
- Indigenous Values
- Military Service
- Women’s Rights
Other Areas
- Mariana Islands
- Guåhan/Guam
- Contemporary militarization in the Pacific
LANGUAGE
- Chamorro
- English