Center for Pacific Island Studies
mawyer [at] hawaii [dot] edu
Bio: Alex earned a PhD in anthropology from the University of Chicago, for which he conducted fieldwork with the Mangarevan community in the Gambier and Society Islands of French Polynesia, focused on language at the intersection of history and politics. Some of his active research interests include the language of “nature” in Eastern Polynesia, issues of place and space in Pacific homelands, issues of language shift and revitalization, and legacies of the nuclear experience in French Polynesia.
Projects: In summer 2015, commencing a summer “pilot” project on the domestic transmission of language-encoded LEK situated in house gardens in Weno, Chuuk State, FSM. Alex has an ongoing project on rivers and springs in French Polynesia, and on the cultural cognition of language and space.