Dr. Mere Taito

Biography

Mere Taito is the inaugural Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for Native American Indigenous Research (CNAIR) in the Department of English at Northwestern University. Originally from Rotuma, Fiji, she immigrated to Aotearoa New Zealand in 2007 and completed her Ph.D. at the University of Otago. Her doctoral research focused on applying creative form-specific reading methods to analyze early to mid-twentieth century multilingual Rotuman mission archival texts. Mere's research aims to support the regeneration of the Rotuman language within the diaspora. She has received exceptional status for her dissertation from the Division of Humanities at the University of Otago. Her research interests encompass Indigenous histories of archival texts, comparative trans-indigenous reading of Indigenous literary texts, multimedia poetics, and digital storytelling. Mere specializes in Indigenous Pacific literature, Rotuman literature, and employs creative critical approaches to archival studies and multilingual poetry. She is also invested in creative writing and visual poetry, emphasizing the importance of Indigenous language regeneration.

Research Interests