Updated on 2022/12/04

写真a

 
DVORAK, Greg
 
Affiliation
Faculty of International Research and Education, School of International Liberal Studies
Job title
Professor
Profile

Dr. Greg Dvorak is Professor of International Cultural Studies (History and Cultural Studies, Art Studies, Gender Studies of Pacific and Asia) at Waseda University in Tokyo, where he is based in both the Graduate School of International Culture and Communication Studies (GSICCS) and the School of International Liberal Studies (SILS). Born in Philadelphia, USA, but with a personal background of growing up, studying, and working between the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Japan, the United States, and Australia, his research and teaching focus is on Japanese and American postcolonial histories in Oceania, with an emphasis on transoceanic intersections of art, gender, and militarism in popular culture. He completed his MA at the University of Hawai'i (2002) and his PhD at the Australian National University (2008), with a concentration in Pacific Islands History. He has published in academic publications such as The Contemporary Pacific Journal, Journal of Pacific History, Critical Ethnic Studies, and American Quarterly, and also written for popular culture and art publications such as E-Flux Journal, the acclaimed international culture magazine COLORS, and the subjective guide to Tokyo, Tokyo Totem.  In addition to authoring several scholarly chapters in academic edited volumes, his own monograph, Coral and Concrete: Remembering Kwajalein Atoll between Japan, America, and the Marshall Islands was published by University of Hawai'i Press in 2018 and reprinted in paperback in 2020. He also appears on television programs from time to time as a commentator and gives talks on postcolonial resistance and art in Oceania. Dvorak is the founding director of project35 (projectsango), a grassroots network that aims to raise awareness about the Pacific Islands region in Japan through art and scholarly exchange. As part of this initiative, he has been collaborating with local artists and researching/helping to curate art from Oceania, especially from Micronesia and areas that have been most impacted by Japanese and American colonialism. He was a key member of the Honolulu Biennial Curatorial Advisory Board in 2017. In 2019 he also conceived, curated, and coordinated a special program at the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival entitled "AM/NESIA: Forgotten 'Archipelagos' of Oceania," undertaking a curatorial residency at the Bellas Artes Foundation in the Philippines in the same year. In conjunction with this work examining the intersections between art, identity, science, and scholarship, he was awarded a three-year grant by the Japanese government (kakenhi) to study how indigenous artists from Oceania resist and decolonize through global art channels. Based on this research, he served as the co-curator of the "Air Canoe" exhibit in the 10th Asia Pacific Triennial at the Queensland Gallery of Art in 2021-2022.  At Waseda, he teaches a suite of history/gender studies/area studies/transnational culture undergraduate courses based in Pacific Islands Studies (Transoceania 1: Pacific Perspectives on Empire, War, and Globalization and Transoceania 2: The Pacific in the 21st Century World) every year. He also teaches a core culture and identity course on gender studies every spring semester. In addition to these courses, he teaches an advanced seminar in cultural studies and self-reflexive feminist approaches to selected topics. At the graduate level, he supervises a cohort of doctoral and masters students in a wide range of cultural studies topics, and coordinates the culture study plan. In 2020, he was awarded the prestigious Waseda University e-Teaching Award for Good Practice for his innovative teaching methods. Forthcoming publications include a chapter in The Cambridge History of the Pacific Ocean, Part 2, as well as two chapters in the Japanese publication Oceania Bunka Jiten (Cultural Encyclopedia of Oceania) from Maruzen Press, both slated for publication in late 2022-early 2023. 

Concurrent Post

  • Faculty of International Research and Education   Graduate School of International Culture and Communication Studies

Education

  • 2004.04
    -
    2008.07

    The Australian National University   Research School of Asia and Pacific Studies   PhD Program in Interdisciplinary Cross Cultural Research (History, Anthropology)  

  • 2002.08
    -
    2004.05

    East-West Center   Graduate Degree Fellowship   International Cultural Studies Certificate Program  

  • 2002.08
    -
    2004.05

    University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa   Center for Pacific Islands Studies   Pacific Islands MA Program  

  • 1992.09
    -
    1996.05

    Rutgers University   Faculty of Arts   East Asian Languages and Area Studies (Japanese Literature Focus)/ Psychology  

  • 2008.07
    -
    2010.09

    The University of Tokyo   Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies   Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Postdoctoral Fellow  

  • 1993.09
    -
    1994.05

    Princeton University   School of Asian Studies (Special Course)   Japanese Literature Division  

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Degree

  • Rutgers University   Bachelor of Arts (B.A.)

  • University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa   Master of Arts (M.A.)

  • The Australian National University   Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D)

Research Experience

  • 2020.04
    -
    　

    Waseda University   Graduate School of Culture and Communication Studies/School of International Liberal Studies   Professor (Tenured)

  • 2017.04
    -
    2020.03

    Waseda University   School of International Liberal Studies/Graduate School of Culture and Communication Studies   Associate Professor (Tenured)

  • 2011.04
    -
    2017.03

    Hitotsubashi University   Graduate School of Law   Associate Professor (Tenured)

  • 2010.04
    -
    2017.03

    Waseda University   School of International Liberal Studies   Adjunct Lecturer

  • 2009.10
    -
    2012.03

    The University of Tokyo   Faculty of Arts (Komaba Campus)   Adjunct Lecturer

  • 2011.04
    -
    2018.03

    Osaka University   Osaka University Cross-Boundary Innovation PhD Program   Adjunct Lecturer/Advisor

  • 2007.01
    -
    2007.12

    The Australian National University   College of Asia and Pacific Studies   Japanese Lecturer

  • 2000.10
    -
    2002.07

    Ad Media, Inc.   BrandVision-WolffOlins Consultancy   Branding Consultant

  • 1999.09
    -
    2000.08

    Miyazaki G8 Summit Promotion Council   Press and Public Relations Division   Liaison

  • 1996.08
    -
    1999.07

    Japan Council of Local Authorities for Internationalization   Nango Town Planning Division, Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan   Coordinator for International Relations

  • 1998.11
    -
    1999.02

    Benetton, SA. (Italy) Fabrica   COLORS Magazine   Guest Editor

  • 1997.04
    -
    1998.03

    NHK Broadcasting   Miyazaki Broadcasting Center   Commentator/Reporter

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Professional Memberships

  • 　
    　
    　

    Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania

  • 　
    　
    　

    European Society for Oceanists

  • 　
    　
    　

    Japan Oceania Studies Association

  • 　
    　
    　

    Pacific History Association

  • 　
    　
    　

    American History Association

  • 　
    　
    　

    Association for Asian Studies

  • 　
    　
    　

    Pacific Arts Association

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Research Areas

  • Area studies

  • Aesthetics and art studies

  • Japanese history

  • Gender studies

  • Cultural anthropology and folklore

Research Interests

  • climate change/environment

  • Cold War

  • war

  • culture

  • memory

  • history

  • art history

  • representation

  • popular culture

  • minorities

  • gender

  • postcolonial

  • Micronesia

  • Marshall Islands

  • Oceania

  • Pacific Islands Region

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Papers

  • "Doing History" (Part of the Dialogue and Review Special Section, "Forum: On Eiichiro Azuma's 'In Search of Our Frontier' and Greg Dvorak's 'Coral and Concrete'"

    Greg Dvorak

    Critical Ethnic Studies   7 ( 2 )  2022.08  [Refereed]  [Invited]  [International journal]  [International coauthorship]

    Authorship：Lead author

    　View Summary

    Peer-reviewed academic paper by Greg Dvorak in response to the Dialogue and Review Special Section in 'Critical Ethnic Studies' Journal, in which scholars Ethan Caldwell, Miya Sommers, Nitasha Sharma, and Jane Komori each wrote scholarly papers in review of/in relation to Greg Dvorak's book.

    DOI

  • S/pacific Islands: Some Reflections on Identity and Art in Contemporary Oceania

    Greg Dvorak

    e-flux Journal   ( 112 (October 2020) ) (online) - (online)  2020.10  [Invited]

  • Oceanizing American Studies

    Greg Dvorak

    AMERICAN QUARTERLY   67 ( 3 ) 609 - 617  2015.09  [Refereed]  [Invited]

  • “Who Closed the Sea?: Postwar Japanese Amnesia and the Pacific Islands”

    Greg Dvorak

    Pacific Historical Review   83 ( 2 ) 350 - 372  2014.10  [Refereed]  [Invited]

  • “Connecting the Dots: Teaching Pacific History in Archipelagic Japan”

    The Journal of Pacific History   45 ( 3 ) 236 - 243  2011.09  [Refereed]  [Invited]

  • “Atolls of Amnesia: Touring Japan’s Pacific Past”

    Pacific Asian Inquiry   2 ( 1 ) 69 - 84  2011.03  [Refereed]  [Invited]

  • Seeds from Afar, Flowers from the Reef: Re-membering the Coral and Concrete of Kwajalein Atoll

    Greg Dvorak

       2008.07  [Refereed]

  • "The Martial Islands": Making marshallese masculinities between American and Japanese militarism

    Greg Dvorak

    CONTEMPORARY PACIFIC   20 ( 1 ) 55 - 86  2008  [Refereed]  [Invited]

    　View Summary

    For over a century, the Marshall Islands have been entangled between the United States and Japan in their conquest of the Central Pacific; yet because of this, these islands have also been a place where multiple masculinities have converged, competed, and transformed each other. This is especially true around the site of Kwajalein Atoll, where terrain understood in Marshallese terms as female or maternal has been reshaped and masculinized through the semiotics of colonialism and militarization. This article focuses specifically on three local representations of masculinity: the knowledgeable but strategic Marshallese "Etao," symbolized by a creative and resourceful male trickster spirit; the heroic but paternalistic American "Patriot," as enacted via the perpetual battlefield of military and weapons-testing missions; and the adventurous but self-sacrificing "Dankichi," deployed in Japan during the 19 3 os and echoed nowadays in the long-distance tuna-fishing industry. Cross-reading Judith Butler and R W Connell, this is an exploration of the "theater" of these masculinities in relationship to one another, and the story of how different superpowers strive for domination by emasculating a third colonial site and its subjects.

  • Remapping Home: Touring the Betweenness of Kwajalein Atoll

    Greg Dvorak

       2004.08  [Refereed]

  • ゴジラ/ɡɒdˈzɪlə/ Marathon Screening: Jane Chang Mi and Greg Dvorak in Conversation

    Greg Dvorak, Jane Chang Mi

    Asian Diasporic Visual Cultures and the Americas   7   189 - 202  2022.12  [Refereed]  [Invited]

    DOI

  • "Kwajalein Atoll, the Marshall Islands, and American Policy in the Pacific"(review)

    Greg Dvorak

    The Journal of Pacific History   53 ( 3 ) 351 - 352  2018.08  [Refereed]  [Invited]

  • "Morning Comes so Soon" (review)

    The Contemporary Pacific   21 ( 2 ) 404 - 406  2009.08  [Refereed]  [Invited]

  • “Three Beaches: The Death of Greg Dening”

    Greg Dvorak

    The Contemporary Pacific   21 ( 2 ) 315 - 321  2009.08  [Refereed]  [Invited]

  • “Rey Ventura's Into the Country of Standing Men” (review)

    Greg Dvorak

    Intersections Journal: Gender and Sexuality in Asia and the Pacific   1 ( 19 ) (online)  2009.02  [Refereed]  [Invited]

  • “From Islands to Atolls”

    Katerina Teaiwa, Greg Dvorak (auth

    Indigenous Encounters (Occasional Papers Series)   ( 43 ) 63 - 84  2007.06  [Refereed]  [Invited]

  • "Man/making Home : Breaking through the Concrete of Kwajalein Atoll"

    Greg Dvorak

    Australian National University Gender Centre Working Paper Series   1 ( 13 ) 1 - 21  2005.12  [Refereed]  [Invited]

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Books and Other Publications

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Works

  • Almost Heaven (documentary film, 50 min)

    Greg Dvorak  Artistic work 

    2014.02
    -
    　

  • Atollism (film, 17 min)

    Greg Dvorak  Artistic work 

    2008.01
    -
    　

Other

  • Establishment of the Project35 Academic/Art Network

    2012.04
    -
    　

    　View Summary

    Established "PROJECT35" (Project Sango) in 2012, an ongoing transnational, transoceanic network of artists and scholars devoted to bridging communities between the Pacific Islands and Japan around themes of climate change awareness, resistance to colonialism/globalization/militarization, and consciousness of the ocean and Japan's Pacific neighborhood. Project35 consults with curators and art-related endeavors, while also facilitating the "Transoceania Symposium" occasionally in Japan to bring Pacific specialists (particularly Pacific Islanders and Indigenous people of Japan and Asia) together in conversation. It is also working towards incubating a Pacific Islands Area Research Center at Waseda University.

Awards

  • Waseda University e-Teaching Award (Good Practice)

    2020.04   Waseda University  

    　View Summary

    Good Practice Award is given to Greg Dvorak, Professor of Gender Studies, Intermediate Seminar 35: Culture in the Middle of Now and Here, and The Pacific in the 21st Century World in the School of International Liberal Studies has been actively using ICT tools to make his classes more interesting and interactive for students. In the 2020 academic year, when classes were online due to the COVID pandemic, he made even more innovations, including the creation of his own class guides and online exhibits of student work.

    Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

  • Toyota Foundation Joint Research Fellowship

    2010.11   Toyota Foundation  

  • JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowship

    2008.09   Japan Society for the Promotion of Science  

  • Japan Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship

    2008.07   Japan Foundation  

  • Wenner-Gren Postdoctoral Fellowship

    2008.03   The Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research  

  • Australian National University Postgraduate Award

    2004.07   The Australian National University  

  • Norman Meller Award for Outstanding Pacific Scholarship

    2004.07   University of Hawai‘i Center for Pacific Islands Studies  

  • East West Center Degree Fellowship

    2002.03   East-West Center, Honolulu  

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Research Projects

  • The Archipelago Speaks Back: Pacific Islander Art and Resistance between Oceania, Japan, and Postcolonial Metropoles

    Project Year :

    2019.04
    -
    2022.03
     

  • Transoceania: Pacific Approaches to War, Empire, and Globalization between the Islands of Japan and Micronesia

    Toyota Foundation  Research Grant Program

    Project Year :

    2010.11
    -
    2012.10
     

  • Nanyō Nostalgia: Remembering the “Reefs” of Japan’s Pacific Past (Stage 2)

    Japan Society for the Promotion of Science  JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowship for Foreign Researchers

    Project Year :

    2008.10
    -
    2010.09
     

  • Seeds of Empire: Retracing Marshall Islander-Japanese Roots and Routes

    Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research  Post-Ph.D. Research Grant

    Project Year :

    2008.03
    -
    2009.02
     

  • Nanyō Nostalgia: Remembering the “Reefs” of Japan’s Pacific Past (Stage 1)

    Japan Foundation  The Japan Foundation Fellowship

    Project Year :

    2008.06
    -
    2008.08
     

Presentations

  • Wavelengths: Art in Central Micronesia

    Greg Dvorak, Vicente Diaz, Emelihter Kihleng  [Invited]

    10th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art  (Online/Brisbane, Australia)  Queensland Art Gallery of Modern Art

    Presentation date： 2021.12

    　View Summary

    Featuring a diverse range of practices, the Air Canoe project explores the rich history of central Micronesia and the interconnectivity of indigenous peoples to the water land and sky. Hear from Dr Greg Dvorak Dvorak, Dr Vicente Diaz, and Dr Emelihter Kihleng as they discuss collaborating across the seas on this unique project for APT10 and the work of artists from central Micronesia. Hosted by Ruth McDougall (Curator, Pacific Art, QAGOMA).

  • Elephants in the Living Room: Resistance, Resistance, and Solidarity Despite Japanese and American Empires

    Greg Dvorak  [Invited]

    HYPHENATED BIENNIAL 2020 SYMPOSIUM: "Contemporary art and Resistance in the Asia Pacific – a Regional View of First Nations-Asia Intersections"  (Melbourne (Online))  Monash University/Melbourne Hyphenated Biennial 2020-2021

    Presentation date： 2020.12

  • "Māsharu Airando" e no Saijōriku: Oseania ni Okeru Nichibei no Gunkokushugi to Māsharu Shotō no Hitobito no Rejisutansu (Reinvading the Marshall Islands: American and Japanese Militarism in Oceania and Marshallese Resistance)

    Greg Dvorak  [Invited]

    Research Institute for Islands and Sustainability (RIIS) Lecture Series (Lecture 2)  University of the Ryukyus

    Presentation date： 2020.07

  • Which War? Reframing Visual Histories Of Militarism Between America And Japan In Oceania

    Greg Dvorak  [Invited]

    Asia Pacific: Visual Histories of War and Postwar  (Manila)  ESKWELA: Bellas Artes Projects

    Presentation date： 2019.08

    　View Summary

    This lecture and related workshops, led by Pacific/Asia cultural historian and curator Greg Dvorak, professor at Waseda University in Tokyo, invites participants to visually explore the deeper patterns of violence, dehumanization, resistance, and empowerment that run through the colonized and militarized landscapes and seascapes connected to, but beyond the horizon of, the Filipino experience. Focusing especially on the region of Northern Oceania (a region commonly known as Micronesia), the Philippines’ closest Pacific neighborhood, Dvorak will draw together diverse and transoceanic ideas around propaganda, art, resistance, visibility and invisibility between major nations and small communities. When asked about “the war” in the Pacific and their memories about it, Islanders tend to ask, “what war?” For Micronesians, and many Islanders, war is a topic that extends back through at least five hundred years of Western and Asian colonial history, and also into ancestral time over thousands of years. The Pacific War is not the only war that Islanders are aware of: In their consciousness exists many other battles, such as the struggle against militarism and nuclear testing, the struggle against the “environmental colonialism” that is causing climate change and sea level rise, and the ongoing struggle for sovereignty and self-determination. In a deeper perspective, Islanders also look back to the battles fought over land by their brave ancestors who navigated to these islands. Indigenous people throughout the Pacific region, dating back to the time of Ferdinand Magellan, share a great deal in common with the Filipino people, but this is not a history ordinarily taught in the Philippines. Additionally, the indigenous people of the Philippines share deep ancestral Austronesian roots with the people who settled the Pacific Islands. Paying attention to these visual and genealogical histories in the 20th and 21st centuries, while being mindful of the larger context of the ongoing wars in Oceania, will help participants gain a better literacy of contemporary decolonization and demilitarization as seen in art from the region, and how that links or does not link with conversations happening in the contemporary Philippines.

  • Part II of “The Ocean in Us - Flows of Art, Culture, and History Between Japan and the Pacific Islands.”

    Greg Dvorak  [Invited]

    "Urgent Talk" 35  (Tokyo)  Mori Art Museum

    Presentation date： 2019.07

  • Part I of “The Ocean in Us - Flows of Art, Culture, and History Between Japan and the Pacific Islands.”

    Greg Dvorak  [Invited]

    "Urgent Talk" 34  (Tokyo)  Mori Art Museum

    Presentation date： 2019.04

  • Archipelagoes of Amnesia: Empire, Environment, and Representation in the Marshall Islands

    Greg Dvorak  [Invited]

    Griffith Asia Institute - Perspectives Asia Seminar  (Brisbane)  The Griffith Asia Institute, Griffith University and the Australian Centre of Asia-Pacific Art, Queensland Art Gallery

    Presentation date： 2017.11

  • "2016: Invading the Future in the Marshall Islands"

    Greg Dvorak  [Invited]

    The Pacific History Association 22nd Conference  (Guam)  The Pacific History Association

    Presentation date： 2016.05

  • “Who Closed the Sea?: Postwar Japanese Amnesia and the Pacific Islands”

    Greg Dvorak  [Invited]

    American History Association, Pacific Coast Branch Conference  (San Diego, CA)  American History Association, Pacific Coast Branch

    Presentation date： 2012.08

  • “Uploading Oceania: ICT, Japan, and Oceanian Cultures”

    Greg Dvorak  [Invited]

    ICT and Oceanian Cultures Conference  (Suva)  University of the South Pacific Fiji Main Campus

    Presentation date： 2012.02

  • “The Japanese Archipelago and ‘Micronesia’: Pacific Approaches to War, Empire, and Globalization”

    Greg Dvorak  [Invited]

    Special Public Lecture at Meiji University Liberty Academy  (Tokyo)  Meiji University and Pacific Islands Center

    Presentation date： 2011.01

  • Coconuts and Shoyu: Visual Representation and Postcolonial Pacificasian Articulations between Micronesia and Japan

    Greg Dvorak  [Invited]

    Colonial Migrations and Legacies in the Pacific Islands Conference  (Taipei)  Academia Sinica

    Presentation date： 2010.11

  • Connecting the Dots: Teaching Pacific Islands Studies in Archipelagic Japan

    Greg Dvorak  [Invited]

    60th anniversary conference of the University of Hawai’i Center for Pacific Islands Studies  (Honolulu)  University of Hawai'i Center for Pacific Islands Studies

    Presentation date： 2010.11

  • "Postokoroniarizumu no Tonari de" (Next to Postcolonialism)

    Greg Dvorak Dvorak, Kim Sajik  [Invited]

    Kyoto Symposium on Postcoloniality in the Art of Kim Sajik  (Kyoto)  Higashiyama Artist Network HAPS

    Presentation date： 2022.11

  • Contrasting Memories - A Reading Group on Colonialism and Decolonialism

    Greg Dvorak, Barbara Andaya, Antariksa, Hsu Fang-Tze  [Invited]

    Collecting Embodiments and Entanglements: a dialogue between the collections of Galeri Nasional Indonesia, MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum, Nationalgalerie – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, and Singapore Art Museum  (Online (Singapore Art Museum))  Goethe Institute Indonesia

    Presentation date： 2021.10

  • Biennale Forum Panel B: “Migration, Land, Home”: Art as an Effort to Seize History and Preserve the Memory of the Land

    Greg Dvorak, Bunga Siagian, Mumtaz Khan Chopan  [Invited]

    Biennale Jogja XVI 2021  (Jogjakarta, Indonesia and Online)  Biennale Jogja XVI 2021

    Presentation date： 2021.09

    　View Summary

    Presented in English with translation into Indonesian

  • Ishikawa Mao as a Pacific Postcolonial Artist

    Greg Dvorak, Amano Taro, Nakazato Ko, Tomori Mayumi  [Invited]

    Symposium for Ishikawa Mao Retrospective Exhibit 

    Presentation date： 2021.03

  • Art in Oceania after Imperialism: A View from the North

     [Invited]

    Symposium: Sovereign Pacific / Pacific Sovereign  (Porirua, New Zealand)  Presented by CIRCUIT in association with Pātaka Art + Museum, Porirua

    Presentation date： 2020.10

  • Coral Reefs and Blasted Sands: A Conversation on Art as Ritual in the Marshall Islands

    Greg Dvorak, Kathy Jetn̄il-Kijiner  [Invited]

    Pacific Arts Association  (Brisbane)  Queensland Art Gallery

    Presentation date： 2019.03

    　View Summary

    A conversation between writers/artists Greg Dvorak and Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner, both with roots in the Marshall Islands. Greg’s background of growing up as an American on the US military base of Kwajalein atoll, one of the largest atolls in the Marshall Islands chain, and Kathy’s as an indigenous Marshallese raised in Hawai‘i, barred from living or visiting Kwajalein due to US military protocols against Marshallese, offers a disjuncture of place and un/settlement, a conflict that Greg and Kathy have regularly explored through conversations on art and history. Marshall Islands as a site of study also reintroduces Micronesia, a region that has, up to this year, had minimal presence in the Asia Pacific Triennial. Rather than signifying a vacuum of creativity, it instead points to the ways in which Micronesia has been largely silent in the curatorial work of Oceania, as well as demonstrating a need to break down what constitutes contemporary art versus handicrafts - the primary means of local Marshallese women’s economies, which now includes the traditional, intricately woven jaki-ed currently on display in APT9. The jaki-ed, as well as other forms of creation in the Marshall Islands, allows the curator and artist to understand how the intersections of colonialism and militarization, environment and gender, and queering and creativity, manifest in art as rituals. Rituals that are rooted in Marshallese traditions, such as Greg’s meditations on Kwajalein as a ritualized space, as well as new rituals, such as the rituals Kathy creates in her video poems or recent performance with APT9. Through this conversation, the hope is to share new ideas that have grown from memories rooted in the coral-scape of the Marshalls.

  • "(Em)powering Paradise: Performances of Gender, Art, and Diplomacy at Japan's Spa Resort Hawaiians"

    Greg Dvorak

    Pacific History Association Biennial Conference 2018 (The Gift of the Pacific: Place and Perspective in Pacific History)  (Cambridge)  The Pacific History Association/University of Cambridge

    Presentation date： 2018.12

  • APT9 Symposium panel | Connectivities: Conditions for Contemporary Art in Spaces of Trans-regionality

    Greg Dvorak  [Invited]

    9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art  (Brisbane)  Queensland Art Gallery & Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA)

    Presentation date： 2018.11

  • Art and Resistance in Oceania

    Greg Dvorak

    15th Asia Pacific Conference  (Beppu, Oita Prefecture)  Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University

    Presentation date： 2017.11

  • Worlding the Reef, Reefing the World: Marshallese Visualizations of the Transoceanian Now

    Greg Dvorak

    11th Conference of the European Society for Oceanists (ESFO)  (Munich)  European Society for Oceanists (ESFO)

    Presentation date： 2017.07

  • “Re-invading ‘the Martial Islands’: American Militarism in Oceania and Marshall Islander Resistance”

    Greg Dvorak  [Invited]

    51st JAAS Annual Meeting  (Tokyo)  The Japanese Association for American Studies (JAAS)・Waseda University

    Presentation date： 2017.06

  • “Nuclear Free: Women’s Resistance to Nuclear Testing in Oceania”

    Greg Dvorak  [Invited]

    Oita University International Forum  (Oita City)  Oita University

    Presentation date： 2014.11

  • “Art, Gender, and Resistance to Japanese and American Empires”

    Greg Dvorak  [Invited]

    Transoceania Toyota Foundation Symposium  (Tokyo)  Toyota Foundation and the University of Tokyo

    Presentation date： 2012.07

  • “Queer Japan, Queer America”

    Greg Dvorak  [Invited]

    Osaka University GLOCOL Initiative Special Lecture  (Osaka)  Osaka University

    Presentation date： 2011.07

  • "Pacific Islands as a Representation of 'Diversity' in Contemporary Art"

    Greg Dvorak  [Invited]

    Setouchi International Symposium  (Inujima, Okayama Prefecture)  Fukutake Foundation

    Presentation date： 2010.08

  • “Pilgrimages of Sand and Sorrow: Japanese War Memory in Oceania.”

    Greg Dvorak  [Invited]

    European Society of Oceanists (ESFO) Biennial Conference  (Aberdeen)  European Society of Oceanists (ESFO)

    Presentation date： 2010.07

  • "Atollism: Approaches to Japan's Former Pacific Territories and Postwar Micronesia from American raised in the Marshall Islands"

    Greg Dvorak  [Invited]

    The Japan Pacific Society General Meeting  (Tokyo)  The Japan Pacific Society

    Presentation date： 2009.06

  • "Triangulating Men and Masculinities between Japan, America, and the Marshall Islands"

    Greg Dvorak  [Invited]

    Moving Masculinities  (Canberra)  The Australian National University Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies

    Presentation date： 2005.12

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Specific Research

  • Re-gendering Oceania: Art, Activism, and Gender/Sexual Minorities Across the Pacific and Asia

    2021  

    　View Summary

    This special project (Tokutei Kadai), proposed originally in 2019 for AY2020 but delayed unavoidably because of the global coronavirus pandemic, was undertaken mainly in the 2021 academic year.  Originally, the proposal was to travel to New Zealand, but since overseas travel was mostly restricted and New Zealand’s borders remained closed, this project was modified to concentrate instead on the work of indigenous and minority artists within Japan. Building on the first phase of my 2019-2021 Kakenhi project, this special project (Tokutei Kadai) successfully established a new research base that now addresses the field of gender studies to both complement my research as well as establish a basis for curatorial and ethnographic research around decolonization and sexual and gender minorities in Japan. My research on "Decolonizing Japan" entailed ethnographic and art-related research in Okinawa, particularly Okinawa island and Yonaguni Island.  I met with numerous artists who work with themes of feminism, gender, and queer identity.  Later, I also surveyed art exhibits and met with artists in the Tohoku region that dealt with Ainu themes of gender, as well as the major Feminisms exhibit at the Kanazawa 21st Century Museum of Art. 

  • Transoceanian Trajectories: Tracing Global Flows of Representation and Resistance among Pacific Islander Artists

    2017  

    　View Summary

    Special Research Project 2017S-157 "Transoceanian Trajectories: Tracing Global Flows of Representation and Resistance among Pacific Islander Artists" was designed, proposed, and executed as a preliminary phase to a larger project planned for 2019 onwards, a joint research and curatorial project which will entail a symposium, exchange, and exhibition around issues of art, identity, memory, environment, gender, and self-determination between the Pacific Islands and Japan.  It was an initial project to complement some of the early work I had already been doing in surveying the work of Pacific Islander (indigenous) contemporary artists, which I conducted in the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Palau, Sāmoa, the Cook Islands, Fiji, Tonga, and New Zealand.  For this special project, I attended the Venice Biennale of contemporary art in August 2017, where I engaged with Pacific artists there who have succeeded in showing their art internationally, and other non-Pacific artists who work with themes surrounding Oceania.  With each of these artists and curators, I conducted visits and interviews, while also viewing how various international audiences engaged with their work.  I also viewed the overall exhibitions in Venice and Florence as a way to gain more contextual knowledge of the international art world.  This research led to a profound understanding of how difficult it is for indigenous artists, especially artists from the Pacific Islands region, to gain access to international audiences-- but also, how effective art can be when they do succeed in communicating their messages.  For instance, Lisa Reihana's work, "Emissaries," won many awards and communicated a devastating history of European colonization in the Pacific Islands which is not easily relatable through mere textual or archival knowledge.  These art interventions, together with more creative but rigorous academic work, are required to cultivate better, equal, transoceanic, trans-regional alliances between Japan and its Pacific neighborhood in the 21st century, and this initial research sets the stage for further programs that bridge historical and contemporary understandings of place around urgent themes of climate change, militarism, and globalization.  

 

Syllabus

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Committee Memberships

  • 2019.08
    -
    2022.04

    Queensland Gallery of Art, Modern Art (QAGOMA)  Curator (Co-curator) for Northern Oceania, Asia Pacific Triennial 10

  • 2018.06
    -
    2020.08

    Bellas Artes Projects  Curator in Residence

  • 2017.09
    -
    2018.12

    Asia Pacific Triennial of Art Planning Division  Advisor/Interlocutor

  • 2015.07
    -
    2017.05

    Honolulu Biennial Foundation  Special Advisor/Curatorial Advisor

  • 2019.08
    -
    2022.04

    クイーンズランド美術館  キュレータ（コ・キュレータ）、北オセアニア地域、第10回アジア太平洋トリエンナーレ

  • 2018.06
    -
    2020.08

    ベラス・アルテス・プロジェクツ  キュレーター・イン・レジデンス

  • 2017.09
    -
    2018.12

    アジア太平洋トリエンナーレ企画委員会  顧問（インターロキューター）

  • 2015.07
    -
    2017.05

    ホノルルビエンナーレ財団  特別顧問（東京）

  • 2005.04
    -
    2011.09

    Marshall Islands Bereaved Families Association  Honorary Member

  • 2005.04
    -
    2011.09

    マーシャル方面遺族会  篤志会員

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Social Activities

  • Curator (co-curator), 10th Asia Pacific Triennial (APT)

    Queensland Gallery of Art and Modern Art (QAGOMA)  APT10 10th Asia Pacific Triennial  （Exhibition in Brisbane, Australia (Research in Guam, Federated States of Micronesia, Republic of the Marshall Islands)） 

    2019.08
    -
    2022.04

  • Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival 2019 Program Coordinator, Curator, Producer

    Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival 2019  "AM/NESIA: Forgotten 'Archipelagoes' of Oceania"  （Yamagata City, Yamagata Prefecture） 

    2019.10
    -
    　

    　View Summary

    The vast Pacific Islands region, also known as Oceania, is a blue “continent” of water—the largest inhabited place on earth; yet it is among the most colonized and militarized areas on the planet, in the intersection of American and Japanese empires from the twentieth century to the present. AM/NESIA is a program of selected films that engage with important Lands, Bodies, and Crossings that have been silenced, forgotten, and marginalized between Japan and the United States. Films in the “Lands” selections of AM/NESIA engage, for instance, with Pacific Islander resistance to nuclear testing and climate change in ancestral sites where identity is interwoven with land. In “Bodies” we focus on how people’s identities and bodies have been marginalized, erased, or transformed by colonialism in Oceania—such as with changing understandings of indigenous gender ideologies, and the high rates of incarceration or military recruitment of Pacific Islander men. Finally, in “Crossings,” we explore the theme of forgotten migrations, cultural exchange, and in-betweenness in Oceania, particularly between the Japanese archipelago and the Pacific Islands. Critically exploring prewar propaganda films, testimonies of former settlers and soldiers, ambivalent nationalities, and circuits of hula dancing, we remember the routes and roots that historically have connected Japan with its Pacific neighborhood.

  • Earth Company Impact Heroes Event, Public Conversation

    NGO Earth Company  Impact Heroes Day 2019  （Tokyo） 

    2019.10
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  • Special Onboard Lecturer (Navigator) on Peace Boat 81st Global Voyage

    Peace Boat (NGO)  81st Voyage  （Yokohama-Singapore） 

    2013.11
    -
    2013.12

Media Coverage

  • Pacific Passages: A PhD Student Interviews Professor Greg Dvorak

    Internet

    Author： Other  

    Waseda University News  

    2022.05

    　View Summary

    by Mike Fu

  • Author Interview: Greg Dvorak

    Internet

    The Contemporary Pacific Journal  

    2020.03

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    Greg Dvorak was interviewed by the Contemporary Pacific Journal (an academic journal) about Pacific Islands Studies for the 75th year anniversary of the founding of the University of Hawaiʻi Center for Pacific Islands Studies.

Academic Activities

  • Curator in Residence, Bellas Artes Projects

    Academic research

    ベラス・アルテス・プロジェクツ   フィリピン バターン、バギオ、マニラ

    2019.08
    -