Alexander Mawyer
CPIS Director, Acting DPIS Chair and Professor
PhD University of Chicago (2006)
Moore Hall 210
mawyer@hawaii.edu
(808) 956-2670
Dr. Alexander Mawyer is Director of the Center for Pacific Islands Studies and Acting Chair of the Department of Pacific Islands Studies at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa (UHM). Dr. Mawyer holds a BA from Amherst College, MAs from UHM and the University of Chicago, and a doctorate in Anthropology from the University of Chicago. Dr. Mawyer’s recent research interests include language and space in Oceanic linguistics, biocultural indicators, conservation and sovereignty, and marine resource governance in the Pacific. He served as editor for The Contemporary Pacific: A Journal of Island Affairs from 2016 to 2021. He sits on the Board of the University of Hawai’i Press (UHP) and is a member of the scientific committee of the Maison des Sciences de l’Homme du Pacifique, and The Rāhui Center, among other board memberships. In 2020 he won the University of Hawai’i’s prestigious Board of Regents Medal for Excellence in Teaching.
Research interests
French Polynesia; Linguistic anthropology; Marine social sciences; Biocultural systems and indicators; Coastal and marine resource governance; Conservation and sovereignty; Nature in language and culture; Legacies of French nuclear testing in the Pacific; Language, space and place; Language, politics and the social circulation of information in the making of persons; History of film and moving images in Oceania.
Courses Taught
PACS 601 Learning Oceania; PACS 603 Researching Oceania; MBIO 710 People and the Sea: Exploring Multiple Perspectives for Marine Systems; IS750 Topics in Biocultural Diversity; PACS 108 Introduction to Pacific Worlds; PACS 201 Islands of Globalization; PACS 493 Moving Images of the Pacific Islands; PACS 492 Topics: Language and Culture in Oceania
Recent Publications
2023. Stefan Partelow, Achim Schlüter, Natalie C. Ban , Simon Batterbury , Maarten Bavinck , Nathan J. Bennett,, Raimund Bleischwit, Jessica Blythe, Tanja Bogusz, Annette Breckwoldt, Joshua E. Cinner, Marion Glaser, Hugh Govan, Rebecca Gruby, Vanessa Hatje,, Anna-Katharina Hornidge, Grete K. Hovelsrud, John N. Kittinger, Lotta Clara Kluger, Sophia Kochalski, Alexander Mawyer, Emma McKinley, Julia Olsen, Jeremy Pittman, Maraja Riechers, Marie-Catherine Riekhof, Kathleen Schwerdtner Manez, Rebecca J. Shellock, Rapti Siriwardane-de Zoysa, Nathalie A. Steins, Kristof Van Assche, and Sebastian Villasante, 2023. Five social science intervention areas for ocean sustainability initiatives. NPJ Ocean Sustainability, 2(1), p.24.
2023. Film and Pacific History. Alexander Mawyer. In The Cambridge History of the Pacific Ocean, Matt Matsuda et al. (ed.s). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
2023. McGuire, G. and Mawyer, A., Cultivating the Unseen: Paʻakai and the Role of Practice in Coastal Care. Ethnobiology Letters, 14(2), pp.22-36.
2022. McCormack, F. and Mawyer, A., Epilogue: Immanence, relationality, connectivity. Ambio, 51(12), pp.2459-2461.
2022. Entre conflits et cooperation La gouvernance hybride des rāhui marins en Polynésie française. Fabre, Pauline., Le Meur, Pierr-Yves, Mawyer, Alexander. and Bambridge, Tamatoa, 2022. Revue d’Anthropologie des Connaissances, 16(2).
2022. France and Oceanian Sovereignties. Pierre-Yves Le Meur and Alexander Mawyer. Oceania 92(1): 9-30. https://doi.org/10.1002/ocea.
2022. The Place of Space in Oceanic Linguistics. Leah Pappas and Alexander Mawyer. Oceanic Linguistics 61(1) 10.1353/ol.2021.0027
2021. Greater than the Sum of Its Parts: Assessing Human Well-being Constructs with Environmental and Equity Aspects. Erin C. Betley, Amanda Sigouin, Pua‘ala Pascua, Samantha H. Cheng, Kenneth Iain MacDonald, Yildiz Aumeeruddy-Thomas, Felicity Arengo, Sophie Caillon, Marney E. Isaac, Stacy D. Jupiter, Alexander Mawyer, Manuel Mejia, Alexandria C. Moore, Delphine Renard, Lea Sébastien, Nadav Gazit, and Eleanor J. Sterling. People and Nature.
2021. The Concept of Oceanian Sovereignty in the Context of Deep Sea Mining in the Pacific Region. Virginie C. Tilot, Bleuenn Guilloux, Klaas Willaert, Clement Y. Mulalap, Tamatoa Bambridge, Paul D’Arcy, Alexander Mawyer, François Gaulme, Edwige Kacenelenbogen, Alain Jeudy de Grissac, Juan M. Navas, and Arthur Dahl. Frontiers of Marine Science. 2021. When Margins Are Centers: De-ranging Pitcairn Island’s Place in Pacific Scholarship. Adrian Young, Maria Amoamo, Martin Gibbs, Alexander Mawyer, Joshua Nash, Tillman Nechtman, and Pauline Reynolds. Journal of Pacific History 130 (3): 197–226.
2021. Contemporary Rāhui: placing Indigenous, conservation, and sustainability sciences in community-led conservation. Pauline Fabre, Tamatoa Bambridge, Joachim Claudet, Eleanor J. Sterling, and Alexander Mawyer. Pacific Conservation Biology 27, 451-463. https://doi.org/10.1071/
2021. Shifting Fish Consumption Preferences Can Impact Coral Reef Resilience in the Maldives: A Case Study. Shreya Yadav, Abdulla Fisam, Rachel Dacks, Joshua S. Maden, and Alexander Mawyer. Marine Policy 134: 104773. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.
2021. Mobilizing for Change: Assessing Social Adaptive Capacity in Micronesian Fishing Communities. Supin Wongbusarakum, Robert Pomeroy, Matt Gorstein, Cheryl L. Anderson, and Alexander Mawyer. Marine Policy 129: 104508.
2021. The 4-Site Pacific Transect Collaborative (4-Site). Judith Lemus, Neil Davies, Joachim Claudet, Annaig Leguen, Alexander Mawyer, Frank Murphy, Alex Wegmann, and Nicholas Wolff. Marine Technology Society Journal 55 (3): 134–135. https://doi.org/10.4031/MTSJ.
2021. Floating Islands, Frontiers and Other Boundary Objects on the Edge of Oceania’s Futurity. Alexander Mawyer. Pacific Affairs 94 (1): 123–144.
2021. Inter-Island Relations in Oceania’s Archipelagos: Identity and Everyday Politics. Gerard Prinsen, Alexander Mawyer, Margarita Cholymay, Allison Lotti, Ena Manuireva, and Helen Muir. Asia Pacific Viewpoint 62 (2): 223–241. http://doi.org/10.1111/apv.
2021. Oceanian Sovereignty: Rethinking Conservation in a Sea of Islands. Tamatoa Bambridge, Paul D’Arcy, and Alexander Mawyer. Pacific Conservation Biology. https://doi.org/10.1071/
2020. Introduction to Pacific Islands Studies. Alexander Mawyer, Ronia Auelua, Hokulani Aikau, Manuhuia Barcham, Zakea Boeger, Stuart Dawrs, Delihna Ehmes, Joy Enomoto, Kali Fermantez, Mililani Ganivet, Joe Genz, Mary Hattori, Vilsoni Hereniko, Tarcisius Kabutaulaka, Tēvita O. Kaʻili, Leora Kava, Kenneth Gofigan Kuper, Monica LaBriola, Kealalokahi Losch, Teoratuuaarii Morris, Angela Robinson, Henryk Szadziewski, Katerina Teaiwa, Patrick Tellei, Jemaima Tiatia-Seath, Finausina Tovo, Patricia Tupou, Joshua Uipi, Lisa Uperesa, Andrew Vai, James Perez Viernes, Julie Walsh, and Terence Wesley-Smith. Volume 6 of Teaching Oceania Series, edited by Alexander Mawyer. Honolulu: Center for Pacific Islands Studies, University of Hawai‘i–Mānoa.
2020. Creating a Space for Place and Multidimensional Well-Being: Lessons Learned from Localizing the SDGs. Eleanor J. Sterling, Puaʻala Pascua, Amanda Sigouin, Nadav Gazit, Lisa Mandle, Erin Betley, John Aini, Simon Albert, Sophie Caillon, Jennifer E. Caselle, Joachim Claudet, Rachel Dacks, Emily S. Darling, Chris Filardi, Stacy D. Jupiter, Alexander Mawyer, Manuel Mejia, Kanoeʻulalani Morishige, Winifereti Nainoca, John Parks, Jamie Tanguay, Tamara Ticktin, Ron Vave, Veronica Wase, Supin Wongbusarakum, and Joe McCarter. Sustainability Science 15 (4): 1129–1147.
2020. Conferences as Ecologies of Ideas: Epistemic Cultures of the Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania. Alan Howard and Alexander Mawyer. Field Notes, August. History of Anthropology Review.
2020. Linguistic Diversity and Plurality in Oceania and the Pacific. Alexander Mawyer. In The International Encyclopedia of Linguistic Anthropology, edited by James Stanlaw. Wiley Blackwell.
2020. Ozeanische Hoheit: Für eine neue Vorstellung von der Souveränität eines Meer von Inseln. Tamatoa Bambridge, Paul D’Arcy, and Alexander Mawyer. In Gezeitendenken: Recherchen Abseits des Nationalstaaten-Systems, edited by Katrin Klingen, Nanna Heidenreich, and Rana Dasgupta, 220–238. Berlin: Matthes & Seitz Berlin.
2020. Oltremari’ Dell’Europa D’Oltremare: Pitcairn, Mangareva e le Persistenti Interazioni Tra Isole Dimenticate. Alexander Mawyer, Adrian Young, Joshua Nash, and Tillman Nechtman. In L’Europa d’Oltremare, edited by Adriano Favole, 93–109. Milan: Raffaello Cortina Editore.
2019. King Tuna: Indian Ocean Trade, Offshore Fishing, and Coral Reef Resilience in the Maldives Archipelago. Shreya Yadav, Ameer Abdulah, Ned Bertz, and Alexander Mawyer. ICES Journal of Marine Science. http://doi.org/10.
2019. Improving Representation of Human Well-Being and Cultural Importance in the West Hawaiʻi Ecosystem. Kirsten M. Leong, Supin Wongbusarakum, Rebecca J. Ingram, Alexander Mawyer, Melissa R. Poe. Frontiers Marine Science 6: 231.
2019. Developing Biocultural Indicators for Resource Management. Rachel Dacks, Tamara Ticktin, Alexander Mawyer, Sophie Caillon, Joachim Claudet, Pauline Fabre, Stacy D. Jupiter, Joe McCarter, Manuel Mejia, Pua‘ala Pascua, Eleanor Sterling, and Supin Wongbusarakum. Conservation and Science Practice 1 (6): e38. https://doi.org/10.1111/csp2.
