| Education |
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- Ph.D. The Australian National University
- PGCE University of London, Institute of Education, England
- B.A. (Hons.) University of Nottingham, England
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| Employment |
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- University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, Oshkosh, WI
- St. Edward’s University,
Austin, TX
- Southeastern Oklahoma State University, Durant, OK
- Utica College of Syracuse University, Utica, NY
- Summer exchange program, Xiamen University, China
- Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC
- Berendo Junior High School, Los Angeles, CA
- University of the South Pacific, Honiara, Solomon Islands
- University of the South Pacific, Laucala Bay, Fiji
- Salafai High School
(now Vaipouli College), Savai’i, (Western)
Samoa
- Ward End Hall Secondary School, Birmingham, England
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| Teaching |
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Current
Courses |
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- Literature
of the Pacific Islands (392/592)
- Theme-Based
Inquiry Seminar (188)
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Previous
Courses |
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- British Literature
(19th and 20th centuries)
- Commonwealth
Literature
- Composition
- ESL
- Introduction
to Literature
- Language and
Culture
- Teaching ESL
- Technical
Writing
- Technical
Writing, ESL
- World Literature
in English
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| Research
Interests |
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Current
& Recent Research Interests
The Rev. John
Williams, Malietoa Vainu’upo, and the conversion of Samoa (from
1830). I am beginning a biography of Williams, and my current emphasis
is on the paradoxical role of Malietoa, who protected the early missionary
teachers and missionaries, and took a Christian name, Tavita (David),
but, I believe, frustrated missionary efforts to effect his own conversion
until he was on his deathbed. This project follows my recently-published
work on the life of William Thomas Pritchard, first resident British
Consul in Fiji (see publications).
I am also interested
in themes in contemporary Pacific Literature. Albert Wendt and other
Pacific writers allude to the pre-Christian spiritual culture in
ways that illuminate both the past and the present.
Earlier Research
Interests
My interest and
experience in the Pacific and in international development led to
my research and doctoral degree from The Australian National University.
My research was archival and empirical, quantitative and qualitative;
I looked at the impact of formal schooling, curricular reform and
curricular differences on job aspirations, actual employment, internal
and external migration, and other elements. Through surveys, interviews,
and archival/historical work, I tested assumptions about education
and international development issues made in the influential UNESCO
study called Learning To Be (1972) (also known as the Faure Commission
Report). My dissertation was entitled Public Plans and Private Aspirations
- A Study of Education Policy and the Outcomes of Schooling in Kiribati,
Western Samoa, and American Samoa. Fieldwork took me to each of the
countries named in the title and drew also on my experience in the
Solomon Islands.
I have published
a textbook, Thinking Globally: Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum
(McGraw-Hill, 1997), as well as teacher training manuals and teaching
materials in English and ESL. My more recent conference presentations
have been on topics from my biographical and Pacific history work,
with an emphasis on the post-contact but pre-colonial period in the
Islands. This work has led me to archives in England, the USA, Australia,
New Zealand, and Fiji, and to conferences organized by the Pacific
History Association, the European Society of Oceanists (ESfO), and
the Yale-Edinburgh Group on the History of the Missionary Movement
and Non-Western Christianity, among others.
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| Publications |
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Books,
manuals, and reference works
- Prelude
to Empire: Consuls, Missionary Kingdoms, and the Precolonial
South Seas, seen through the Life of William Thomas Pritchard.
Vienna and Hamburg: LIT Verlag/Austrian-South Pacific Society,
2004.
- Thinking
Globally: Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum. New
York: McGraw-Hill, 1997.
Fundamentals of Teaching ESL. 2nd ed. U of North Carolina
Independent Study Program, Chapel Hill, 1991.[Nominated by UNC
for a national award for excellence among independent study courses.]
- Fundamentals
of Teaching ESL. U of North Carolina Independent Study
Program, Chapel Hill, 1985.
- Technical
Writing. Educulture Tutorial Systems. Co-authored with
Ione Robson, 1976.
- Research
Register. U of the South Pacific Centre. Honiara, Solomon
Islands, 1974.
- English.
A teacher training course in four volumes. U of the South
Pacific, Extension Services, Fiji, 1973.
Articles
- “William
Thomas Pritchard.” Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography. Oxford, UK. 2008. (pending)
- "On
Writing a Biography of William Pritchard”. In Telling
Pacific Lives, Brij Lal (Ed.), Canberra; ANU E-Press: 207-217.
2008. (book version. is in press)
- “Lessons
from the Bali Conference for the People of the USA.” Sandesh,
6:1(February 2008): 2-4.
- “University
of Wisconsin Oshkosh, United States. Becoming a Sustainable
Campus: an experience with the Earth Charter Community Summits.” Good
Practices Using the Earth Charter. Education for Sustainable
Development in Action. Good Practices #3. UNESCO
Education Sector. Mirian Vilela, Project Coordinator. UNESCO
and Earth Charter International; San José (Costa Rica),
2007. 131-136.
- Albert
Wendt, The Songmaker’s Chair.” World Literature Today.
80:1 (Jan-Feb 2006): 59.
- “Witi
Ihimaera, The Uncle’s Story.” World Literature Today.
77:1 (April-June 2003):100.
- "Pritchard,
Seemann, and Smythe--Views of Fiji, 1860-1861." SPAN (Journal
of the South Pacific Association for Commonwealth Literature
and Language Studies). No. 48/49 April and October (double conference
issue, selected papers): 159-170. 1999.
- "The
Trial of Consul Pritchard." The Journal of Pacific History.
30.2: (1995):173-193.
- "The
Use of English in Achebe's Anthills of the Savannah." CLA
Journal. XXXVIII.4 (1994): 365-376.
- "The
Content of Composition Courses." ERIC/Resources in Education.
January. #ED297357. 1989.
- "The
Use of Literature in ESL and Culture-Learning Courses in US Colleges." TESOL
Newsletter. XXII.4:25-27. 1988
- "Does
Schooling Really Lead to Alienation from Village Life? Evidence
from Three Pacific Island Communities." International Journal
of Educational Development. 7.2 (1987):77-87.
- "A
Role for the Correspondence Course in ESL Teacher Training." TESOL.
TeacherEducation Newsletter. Winter. 1986.
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| Conferences |
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- 2005 “On
Writing a Biography of Pritchard.” Research School of Pacific
and Asian Studies, The Australian National University. Telling Pacific
Lives conference, December [in absentia].
- 2005 “The
Earth Charter: Values and Principles for a Sustainable Future.” Presentation
with MaryBeth Petesch. Wisconsin Association for Environmental Education
(WAEE) annual conference. EE History in Action. University of Wisconsin-Madison,
October.
- 2005 “Pragmatism
and Conversion in the South Seas, with special reference to Samoa.” European
Society for Oceanists (ESfO) Conference, Pacific Challenges: Questioning
concepts, rethinking conflicts. Marseille, July.
- 2004 “Money,
Power, Missionaries, and Chiefs in the Nineteenth Century South Seas.” Yale-Edinburgh
Group annual conference. Missions, Money, and Privilege. University
of Edinburgh, Scotland.
- 2003 Roundtable
discussant, with present and former chairs of the Native American
Symposium organizing committee, at the 5th Native American Symposium:
Native Being?Being Native: Identity and Difference. Southeastern
Oklahoma State University.
- 2003 “The
Earth Charter.” Communities for International Development---Russia/Open
World Program/ “Security Through Stability” conference.
Appleton, WI.
- 2003 “The
Manner and Significance of the Conversions of Pomare II, Malietoa,
and Cakobau in Tahiti, Samoa, and Fiji, respectively.” Yale-Edinburgh
Group annual conference. Conversion and Converts. Yale Divinity School,
New Haven.
- 2003 "Reading
Nineteenth Century Images of Polynesia."12th Annual British
Commonwealth and Postcolonial Studies Conference. Savannah.
- 2002 “Pritchard,
Smythe, and the Foreign and Colonial Office: the rejection of Cakobau’s
1858 Offer of Cession and the Conspiracy that brought down a Consul.” 15th
Pacific History Association conference. National University of Samoa.
- 2002 “Pierre
Louÿs, Claude Debussy, and Les Chansons de Bilitis.” Lecture-recital
with Laura Robson. (A revised version of my 1998 presentation.) Fakes
and Forgeries, Conmen and Counterfeits conference, Durham Castle,
England.
- 2002 “Transitional
Politics in Nineteenth Century Polynesia.” 11th Annual British
Commonwealth and Postcolonial Studies Conference. Savannah.
- 2002 “Missionary
and Consular Imperialism in the 19th Century South Pacific: George
and William Pritchard.” Seminar given at the Center of South
East Asian Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies, University
of London.
- 2000 “Pritchard
and the Missionaries in the Cession of Fiji.” Millennial Conference
of the Pacific History Association. Australian National University,
Canberra.
- 2000 “Academic
Content in Composition Courses.” MCEA 2000 Conference. Kalamazoo
Valley Community College.
- 1999 NCATE Board
of Examiners Training. Qualified to participate in site visits for
National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education.
- 1999 Chair of
the Native American Symposium Committee. Responsible for all aspects
of our national conference: Stealing/Steeling the Spirit: American
Indian Identities.
- 1999 Greening
of the Campus III. Ball State University. As co-founder and sponsor
of the SOSU Green Club (a student organization), led a student/faculty
group.
- 1999 "Pritchard,
Seemann, and Smythe: Views of Fiji, 1860-1861." 8th Triennial
conference of the South Pacific Association for Commonwealth Literature
and Language Studies/Pacific Artists' and Writers' Festival. Suva,
Fiji: Imagining Oceania. Also chaired session on "Louis Becke's
Oceania."
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| Activities |
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Earth
Charter
- Founder and
principal organizer: Earth Charter Community Summits in Oshkosh
(2001-present).
- Board Member:
Earth Charter USA Communities.
- Invitee and
participant at Earth Charter + 5 event, Amsterdam, The
Netherlands, 2005.
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Links |
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