SEUTA'AFILI
PATRICK THOMSEN (PHD)

Queer Pacific Academic, Scholar-Activist, Writer and Social Commentator

Committed to the development of collaborative Pacific voices across multiple fields of academic scholarship and public discourse.

ABOUT

Born and raised in South Auckland, Seuta'afili Dr Patrick Thomsen is of Samoan descent and a Lecturer in Pacific Studies at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. As a newly-emerging Pacific academic he is also a well-known social commentator, researcher, freelance writer and activist concerned with SOGI Rights across the Pacific and in New Zealand.

He is also currently the Principal Investigator for the Manalagi Project, New Zealand's first Pasifika Rainbow Health and Wellbeing Project and is the Pacific Co-Lead for the Human Rights Measurement Initiative (HRMI).

He is available for consultancy work in all things Pacific and SOGI. Also currently taking on supervision of new UoA graduate students interested in conducting work on these areas:

* Gender and Sexuality

* Transnational Pacific Studies

* Critical Race Theory

* New Zealand Politics

* Pacific Queer Studies

* Korean Studies

LATEST RESEARCH ARTICLES

THE PAKARU ‘PIPELINE’: MĀORI AND PASIFIKA PATHWAYS WITHIN THE ACADEMY [CO-AUTHORED]

The New Zealand Annual Review of Education, March 2020

SAMOAN QUEER LIVES [REVIEW]

The Journal of New Zealand Studies, December 2019

COMING-OUT IN THE INTERSECTIONS: EXAMINING RELATIONALITY IN HOW KOREAN GAY MEN IN SEATTLE NAVIGATE CHURCH, CULTURE AND FAMILY THROUGH A PACIFIC LENS

Journal of Homosexuality. December 2019

EXPANDING KOREA’S DEVELOPMENT PARADIGM? THE CASE FOR CLOSER SAMOA-ROK RELATIONS

Journal of Regional Studies and Development. December 2018

NEWSPAPER PUBLICATIONS

NOT ALL OF US FIND OUR WAY HOME - PUBLISHED IN E-TANGATA

September 27, 2020

Shakespeare once wrote that weary lies the head that wears the crown. For our lupe (doves) who’ve been sent abroad in search of a communal lumana’i or future, I say, weary lies the heart that carries the hopes and dreams of their communities, villages, and families.

There’s a Sāmoan saying about the toloa, or aquatic birds, which goes: E lele le toloa ae ma’au lava i le vai. The toloa may fly to many places, but will always return to the water. It means that we Sāmoans may travel far and wide, but we will always find a way to return to our home.

Not all of us find our way home, though.

CURRENT RESEARCH AND COLLABORATION

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR - MANALAGI: AOTEAROA PACIFIC RAINBOW LGBTIQA+ MVPFAFF HEALTH AND WELLBEING PROJECT

DECEMBER 1ST 2020 - NOVEMBER 30TH 2023

PACIFIC DATA CO-LEAD HUMAN RIGHTS MEASUREMENT INITIATIVE (HRMI)

CURRENT AND DEVELOPING RESEARCH PROJECTS

* ASSOCIATE INVESTIGATOR - RAINBOW, INTERSEX AND TAKATĀPUI YOUTH SURVEY DR JOHN FENAUGHTY PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR.

* PACIFIC PEOPLES IN SOUTH KOREA

TEACHING

Current Courses Taught at The University of Auckland

PACIFIC 105 - THE CONTEMPORARY PACIFIC

Semester 2, 2020

Explores the ways in which Pacific peoples frame their contemporary world in the context of globalisation.
It also examines factors which shape contemporary Pacific life and popular culture as well as some of the challenges emanating from how Pacific peoples construct and make sense of their own and other’s historical, political, sociocultural, economic and religious worlds.

PACIFIC 208/307 - GENDER AND THE PACIFIC IN A GLOBALISING WORLD

Semester 2, 2020

Gender affects the way identity, culture and wellbeing is experienced and navigated in the Pacific. Moreover, these processes are complicated by emerging cosmopolitanisms that impact gendered bodies, cultures, institutions, nations and states. This course examines the intersections of race, sex, biology, ableism, colonialism, nationality, politics and social movements in our constructions/understanding of gender in a Pacific and global context.

GUEST LECTURES AND TALKS IN 2020

Semester 1 and 2, 2020

Semester 1
* Asian 100 (Modern Korean History)
* Gender 100 (Gender in the Pacific)
* Gender 100 (Gender and Queerness in South Korea)
* Pacific 100 (Intro to Gender in the Pacific)
* Pacific 206/306 (Contemporary Gender Issues for Pacific Youth)
* Global 100 (What Does it Mean to Be Pasifika in NZ today?)
* Arts Scholars (What's a Samoan doing in Korean Queer Studies?)
* Te Wheke Postgrad Seminar
Semester 2 (TBC)
* Asian 140

GET IN TOUCH

Contact Seuta'afili Patrick Thomsen (PhD) to discuss their published work, teaching, collaboration opportunities or for any other inquiries.

Room 201E Fale Pasifika Office Complex - Wynyard Street, Auckland Central

+6499236757

SEUTA'AFILI PATRICK THOMSEN (PHD)