Dr. Alice Somerville

Biography

Alice Te Punga Somerville (Māori – Te Āti Awa, Taranaki) joined the University of British Columbia's Department of English Language and Literatures in 2022. She holds a joint appointment with the UBC Institute of Critical Indigenous Studies and has previously taught in New Zealand, Australia, and Hawai’i. As a scholar, poet, and advocate, her research and teaching engage texts that center Indigenous perspectives, aiming to de-center colonialism. Somerville's academic journey includes an MA from the University of Auckland and a PhD from Cornell University, focusing on Māori written literatures and seeking broader contexts in thinking and writing within her community. She has developed a strong interest in Indigenous studies and Pacific studies. Alice is the author of 'Once Pacific: Māori Connections to Oceania' (Minnesota, 2012), which won the 2012 Book Prize from the Native American & Indigenous Studies Association, and '250 Ways to Write an Essay about Captain Cook' (BWB, 2020). Her poetry collection, 'Italicize: Writing While Colonized' (Auckland University Press, 2022; University of Hawai’i Press, 2024) won the Peter and Mary Biggs Prize for Poetry at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards in 2023. Currently, she is involved in a research project titled 'Writing New World: Indigenous Texts 1900-1975,' focusing on the published works of Indigenous peoples in New Zealand, Australia, Hawai’i, and Fiji.

Research Interests

Experience