Vicente M. Diaz 
- Associate Professor
American Indian Studies and Anthrpology - Office: American Indian Studies
Phone: 217-265-9870
Email: vmdiaz@illinois.edu
Biography
Vicente M. Diaz (Pohnpeian and Filipino) is an historian, cultural critic, film maker, and student of traditional seafaring in the Micronesian Islands. He taught Pacific History and Micronesian Studies at the University of Guam and the University of Michigan before coming to UIUC in 2012. Diaz is a founder of the field of Native Pacific Cultural Studies and is a proponent of comparative Native and Ethnic studies and Indigenous political and cultural decolonization.
Research Interests
- Comparative Native cultural and historical studies;
- Pacific historiography and cultural critique
- Indigenous postcoloniality, religiosity, and nationhood;
- Pacific masculinities and sports;
- New Media and Ancient (Seafaring) Technologies and Knowledges
Education
- Ph.D. History of Consciousness, University of California at Santa Cruz, 1992
- M.A. Political Science, University of Hawai'i at Manoa, 1984
- Graduate Certificate in Urban and Regional Planning, University of Hawai'i at Manoa, 1984
- B.A. Political Science, University of Hawai’i at Manoa, 1982
Courses
- The Global Pacific (ANTH 185); Intro to Native Studies (AIS 101)
- Sex on the Beach – Pacific Islands Film and Video (AIS/ENGL/CINE 275)
- Cultural Studies of US Sports; Canoe Cultures of the Pacific and the Great Lakes
- Intro to Pacific History; Topics in Pacific History; Pacific intellectual and cultural production
Publications
Books
- Diaz, Vicente M. Repositioning the Missionary: Rewriting the Histories of Colonialism, Native Catholicism, and Indigeneity in Guam. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i, 2010.
Book Contributions (select)
- Diaz, Vicente M. "Pappy's House: History, 'Pop Culture' and the Revaluation of a Filipino-American 'Sixty Cents' in Guam." Vestiges of War: The Philippine American War and the Aftermath of an Imperial Dream. Eds., Luis Francia and Angel Shaw. New York University Press, 2002. 318-328.
- Diaz, Vicente M. "Fight Boys till the Last': Football and the Remasculinization of Indigeneity in Guam." Pacific Diaspora: Island Peoples in the United States and the Pacific. Eds., Paul Spickard, Joanne Rondilla and Deborah Hippolite-Wright. University of Hawai'i Press, 2002. 167-194.
- Diaz, Vicente M. "Deliberating Liberation Day: Identity, History, Memory, and War in Guam." Perilous Memories: The Asia-Pacific Wars. Eds., Takashi Fujitani, Geoffrey White, and Lisa Yoneyami, eds. Duke University Press, 2001. 155-180.
- Diaz, Vicente M. "Simply Chamorro: Tales of Demise and in Survival Guam." Voyaging Through the Contemporary Pacific. Eds., David Hanlon and Geoffrey White. Rowman and Littlefield, 2000. 141-170.
- Diaz, Vicente M. "Pious Sites: Chamorro Culture Between Spanish Catholicism and American Liberalism." Cultures of United States Imperialism. Eds., Amy Kaplan and Donald E. Pease, eds. Durham: Duke University Press, 1993. 312-339.
Journal Articles (select)
- Diaz, Vicente M. "Sniffing Ocean's Behind." The Contemporary Pacific 24:2 (2012).
- Diaz, Vicente M. "Tackling Pacific Hegemonic Formations on the American Gridiron." Amerasia Journal 37:3 (2011). 2-25.
- Diaz, Vicente M. "Voyaging for Anti-Colonial Recovery: Austronesian Seafaring, Archipelagic Rethinking, and the Re-mapping of Indigeneity." Pacific Asia Inquiry 2:1 (2011). 21-32.
- Diaz, Vicente M. "Historiography Alive! Greg Dening and the Invigoration of Pacific Historiography." A tribute to Greg Dening, David Hanlon, ed. The Contemporary Pacific 21:2 (2007). 308-311.
- Diaz, Vicente M. "Creolization and Indigeneity," Commentary on Viranjini Munasinghe, American Ethnologist 33:4 (2006). 576-578.
- Diaz, Vicente M. "Smackdown in the Suburbs: Race, Class, Gender and American Counter-Terrorism in the National Basketball Association." Critical Moment 8 (2005). 16-17.
- Diaz, Vicente M. "To P or Not to P: Marking the Territory Between Asian American and Pacific Islander Studies." Journal of Asian American Studies 7:3 (2004). 183-208.
- Diaz, Vicente M and J. Kehaulani Kauanui, eds. "Native Pacific Cultural Studies on the Edge." Special issue of The Contemporary Pacific 13:2 (2001). 315-342.
- Diaz, Vicente M. "DTV and TTV (Traditional Television)." [in two parts] Storyboard: Quarterly Film and Video Journal of Pacific Islanders in Communication 6:1 and 2. (2001). 5-6; 5-12.
- Diaz, Vicente M. "Bye Bye Ms. American Pie: Chamorros and Filipinos and the American Dream." Isla: Journal of Micronesian Studies 3:1 (1995).147-160.
- Diaz, Vicente M. "Restless Na(rra)tives." Inscriptions 5 (1989). 165-175.
Films
- Diaz, Vicente M. Writer, Director, and Co-producer (with Christine T. DeLisle and Suzette Kioshi Nelson). Sacred Vessels: Navigating Tradition and Identity in Micronesia. (Video recording 29 mins.), 1997.
Professional Memberships
- Council Member, Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA) Council
- Member, Editorial Board, Critical Issues in Indigenous Studies, Arizona Press Series
- Member, Board of Correspondents, The Contemporary Pacific: A Journal of Island Affairs (University of Hawai'i)
- Member, Editorial Board, AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples (Auckland University)
- Member, Editorial Board, American Studies Asia (De La Salle University, Philippines)
- Member, Board of Reviewers, Silliman Journal (Silliman University, Philippines)
- Member, International Working Group on Militarism and Gender in the Pacific
- Member, American Anthropological Association (AAA)
- Member, Pacific History Association (PHA)
