Center for Pacific Island Studies

awards

Tuition Support

The Center for Pacific Islands Studies offers a limited number of achievement scholarships to offset tuition costs. For further information, contact the center directly.

Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships

Subject to funding, the center offers a limited number of Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowships for full-time graduate students enrolled in a program combining area studies and foreign language training in Māori, Samoan, or Tahitian. The deadline for the 2009-2010 fellowships is 2 March 2009. For further information and to download application materials, visit the UH FLAS Web site.

Heyum Endowment Fund Scholarship

The Heyum Endowment Fund, established by the late R Renée Heyum, former curator of the Pacific Collection at UH Mānoa, awards a scholarship of up to $3,000 a year to an indigenous Pacific Islander enrolled at a campus of the University of Hawai`i. The deadline for the 2009-2010 competition is 19 June 2009. For more information, click here.

East-West Center

Adjacent to the University of Hawai‘i is the East-West Center, a public, nonprofit, educational and research institution that maintains a close and cooperative relationship with the university. The East-West Center offers fellowships to students from Asia, the Pacific, and the United States working toward higher degrees at the University of Hawai‘i. Prospective Pacific Islands studies students who are citizens of a developing member country of the Asian Development Bank may also be eligible to apply for one-to-three-year scholarships from the Asian Development Bank. For information on these fellowship opportunities, visit the East-West Center Web site, or contact the EWC–UHM Scholarship Office, East-West Center, 1601 East-West Road, Honolulu, Hawai‘i 96848-1601; telephone: (808) 944-7735. For award consideration, applications must be postmarked by 1 November of the year preceding the grant award, which usually begins in mid-August.

Norman Meller Research Award

The Norman Meller Research Award of $250.00 is given annually to the best MA research paper produced at the University of Hawai‘i in the social sciences or humanities and focused on the Pacific Islands. Plan A theses, Plan B papers, or MA portfolios are eligible. Submissions may be made by students or by nominations from the faculty, and are not limited to students in the MA program in Pacific Islands Studies. The submissions will be read by a panel of judges, who will consider the overall quality of the submission, the depth of the research it represents, and the significance of the work in the field of Pacific Islands Studies. The judges reserve the right to recommend that more than one award be made, or that no award be given for 2009.

To be eligible for the 2009 award, the work must have been completed during the 2008-09 academic year, and be submitted in hard copy form to Dr Terence Wesley-Smith, Graduate Chair, Center for Pacific Islands Studies, 1890 East-West Road, Moore 215, Honolulu, Hawai`i 96822. Any multimedia components must be prepared in formats that are readily accessible using standard computer equipment. The deadline for submissions is 30 September 2009.

This award is made possible by a bequest from Dr Norman Meller, a political scientist and founding director of the Pacific Islands Studies Program, who passed away in 2000.