Biography

Vicente M. Diaz is Pohnpeian (Caroline Islands, Federated States of Micronesia) and Filipino, born and raised on Guam. He received his bachelors and masters degrees in Political Science, and a graduate certificate in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and his doctorate degree from the History of Consciousness at the University of California at Santa Cruz. Diaz taught Pacific History and chaired the graduate program in Micronesian Studies at the University of Guam from the early 1990s to 2001. In 2001, he moved to the University of Michigan's Asian/Pacific Islander American Studies (A/PIA), housed in the Program in American Culture. He is currently Associate Professor and Director of A/PIA. Diaz is a leader in the field of Native Pacific Cultural and Historical Studies, and has published widely in topics including American and Spanish imperialism in the Pacific, including indigenous Catholicism, anti-colonial historiography and narratology, Native self-determination, traditional voyaging and seafaring practices, and Pacific and Pacific Islander film and video. His book, Repositioning the Missionary: Rewriting the Histories of Colonialism, Native Catholicism, and Indigeneity in Guam (University of Hawaii press) is scheduled to be released early in spring 2010. He is also the co-producer of Sacred Vessels: Navigating Tradition and Identity in Micronesia, a half hour documentary about the survival and revival of traditional canoebuilding and long distance navigation in the Marianas and the Central Carolines.

Statement
I believe in the importance and significance of this association, and am ready to work hard on behalf of its members. I have always believed in pan-hemispheric and regional collectivities to advance Native and Indigenous scholarship, provided that they always acknowledge local difference and claims by a place's first peoples. I also bring over two decades of advanced studies and personal experience in Native Pacific studies and cultural work, particularly in Micronesian studies and Micronesian cultures, areas long underrepresented in Pacific Studies and American studies, even as much of Micronesia lies under US colonial and neocolonial rule.