Victoria University Author/Teacher to Speak at W&L
Alice Te Punga Somerville from Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand, will present a talk at Washington and Lee University on Monday, March 26, from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. in Hill House on the W&L campus.
Her talk, titled “‘I ain’t afraid of no ghost’: Women Who Haunt Maori Literary History,” will be at the Women’s and Gender Studies Luncheon Colloquium. To RSVP, contact Shirley Richardson at srichard@wlu.edu. A limited number of seats are available for the luncheon.
Te Punga Somerville, a member of the Te Atiawa iwi or tribe, specializes in Maori, Pacific and Indigenous writing in English at Victoria University. Born and raised in Aotearoa, New Zealand, she received her Ph.D. at Cornell University (English and American Indian Studies), and spent time at the University of Hawaii at Manoa during her doctoral studies.
Her first book, Once Were Pacific (forthcoming 2012), explores Maori articulations of connection with the Pacific. She is the Visiting Professor of Aboriginal Studies at the University of Toronto during 2011-2012. Her poetry appears in Mauri Ola: Contemporary Polynesian Poems in English.
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