Rate My Professor Jess Pasisi

Dr Jess Pasisi is a lecturer at Te Tumu School of Māori, Pacific and Indigenous Studies, University of Otago. Of Niuean (Mutalau, Hikutavake), Pākehā, Ngāti Pikiao, and Tahitian descent, she holds a Bachelor of Management Studies (Honours), Master of Management Studies, and PhD from the University of Waikato. Her PhD thesis, titled “Kitiaga mo fakamahani e hikihikiaga matagi he tau fifine Niue: Tau pūhala he tau hiapo – Niue women’s perspectives and experiences of climate change: A hiapo approach,” integrated Pacific Studies and Management Communication to examine Niuean women’s perspectives on climate change via a hiapo methodology that centers Niue experience, culture, genealogy, language, and diaspora connections.

Pasisi serves as Co-Chair of the Te Tumu Research Committee. Her current research applies Niue-centred methodology and methods to explore Niue concepts of happiness and wellbeing. Research interests include Pacific Studies, Pacific health and wellbeing, climate change, and the New Zealand Realm. She teaches PACI101 Pacific Societies, PACI 310 Special Topic: Pacific People, Climate Change, and Power, and PACI 401 Tinā Pasifika - Women Polynesian Communities, and offers postgraduate supervision in Niue, Pacific Studies, climate change, Pacific storytelling, Pacific health and wellbeing, and the New Zealand Realm. She has received the 2022 Marsden Fast Start Grant for “Mapping Niue texts in and beyond Aotearoa: Expanding on New Zealand Realm connections to Niue through archival texts”; 2023 University of Otago Research Grant for “The New Zealand Realm: Indigenous archives and critical discussions with Niue, Tokelau, and the Cook Islands”; 2023 Pacific Academic Staff Caucus Advancing Research Grant for “Early career Pacific women in the academy: A podcast”; and 2019 Health Research Council of New Zealand Pacific Health Researcher Award for “Niue Happiness: A hiapo approach to Niue mental health and wellbeing.” Key publications include Bean et al. (2024), “Documenting scholarly journeys: 40:40:20—Pacific Women in the Academy,” Journal of the Polynesian Society; Pasisi et al. (2022), “Niue Fakahoamotu Nukutuluea Motutefua Nukututaha: Critical discussions of Niue history in and beyond Aotearoa New Zealand,” Public History Review; and Pasisi (2022), “Reading at/with/by/for/to the moana,” in Sustenance: Decolonial recipes for wellbeing.