Dr. Alice Te Punga Somerville (Te Āti Awa)
Head, Department of English Language and Literatures UBC
Dr. Somerville’s research and archival work bring to the fore the multilingual rich legacy of Indigenous writing from New Zealand, Australia, Hawai’i and Fiji beyond the stories told about them in colonial texts. Her publications include Always Italicise: How to Write While Colonised (2022), winner of the 2023 Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry in New Zealand, and Two Hundred and Fifty Ways to Start an Essay about Captain Cook (2020). Her first book, Once Were Pacific: Māori Connections to Oceania (2012), won Best First Book from the Native American & Indigenous Studies Association. Before joining UBC, she taught Māori and Indigenous Studies at the University of Waikato, and has held academic positions in Australia, Hawai‘i, and New Zealand.