Islands often figure as sites of isolation, exception, the archaic, and even backwardness. Paradoxically, they may serve as key harbingers or bellwethers, as places on the front line of environmental change, the location of utopic visions and radical social experiments, and flashpoints for conflicts over resource management.

This one-day interdisciplinary symposium examines islands' roles in the political, cultural, and ecological realms, tackling urgent questions about the possible futures for islands in a world of increasing global interconnection and environmental change.


10:00 AM
Godfrey Baldacchino, professor of sociology, University of Malta

"Small Island States: Vulnerable, Resilient, Doggedly Perseverant, or Cleverly Opportunistic?"


11:00 AM
John Gillis, professor emeritus of history, Rutgers University

"Not Continents in Miniature: Islands as Ecotones"


1:30 PM
Susan Najita, associate professor of Asian/Pacific American Studies, American Culture Program and Associate Professor of English Language and Literature, University of Michigan

"Genea-logics of Hawai'i Island: Relationships between Living Organisms"


2:30 PM
Elizabeth DeLoughrey, associate professor of English, University of California. Los Angeles

"The Sea is Rising: Narrating Climate Change in the Pacific"


Watch the live-stream starting at 10:00 AM on Friday: http://ummedia11.adsroot.itcs.umich.edu/itsComm/ii.html

Tweet your questions during the symposium to @iimichigan, using #UMIslands.