Morgan Tuimalealiifano

Biography

Associate Professor Morgan Tuimaleali’ifano is Samoan by birth with Tongan and European ancestry and is married to Eileen Tam Chui Hoi-Foster, a Fiji citizen of Polynesian, European and Asian ancestry.  Their five children are typical of contemporary Pacific Islanders, of diverse ethnic and cultural affiliation.  He writes about them as the forerunners of what he describes as Pan Pacific people – those who identify with multi-cultural settings and are at home in multi-cultural spaces rather than just one.  He began working at USP in 1977-83 as an administrator before joining the Department of History and Politics in 1988 as a lecturer.  Both Morgan’s post-graduate degrees resulted in books.  His teaching and research interests are indigenous and introduced governance systems with special emphasis on pre-colonial loss of autonomy and the threat of losing it again this century.  His post-graduate course on Pacific Island diaspora explores a Pan Pacific identity for the region’s citizens in a future united Pacific Islands.

Research Interest

Arts and Design