PhD Candidate Melanie Tagimamao Bean Receives Wenner-Gren Dissertation Research Grant

Melanie Tagimamao Bean has received a Wenner-Gren dissertation research grant.  The award will support the final phase of her dissertation research which includes digital archiving of material in Hawai’i and  remote interviews with members of the Tokelau in Hawai’i. 

Her dissertation is entitled “Navigating Tokelau Diasporic Imaginaries.”  It investigates the impact of multiple  waves of colonization and migration on Tokelau’s growing diasporic populations.  It responds to calls in the Critical and Indigenous Geographies to unsettle nation-state boundaries born from colonialism and for better understanding of complex indigenous subjectivities as they grapple with increasingly globalized and mobile populations.