$1M grant funds UOG CHamoru language and culture research
$1M grant funds UOG CHamoru language and culture research
$1M grant funds UOG CHamoru language and culture research
12/12/2022
The University of Guam is developing a CHamoru language and culture researcher training program following the award of $1.13 million from the Administration for Native Americans under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The Micronesian Area Research Center and the CHamoru Studies Program at UOG are taking the lead in developing the program, which will also benefit the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
The goal of the grant is to train eligible members of the local workforce to document the CHamoru language and culture through collecting, analyzing, and piecing together CHamoru knowledge in Guam and the CNMI.
The co-principal investigators for the grant are Kenneth Gofigan Kuper, Assistant Professor of Political Science, CHamoru Studies, and Micronesian Studies; and Monique Carriveau Storie, Dean of University Libraries.
They are working in partnership Jeremy Cepeda and Daniel Pangelinan, both Research Associates at MARC, to create the training program based on the areas of need identified by the language and culture commissions in Guam and the CNMI.
"This grant avails us the opportunity to build local capacity, to train individuals to sift through and unpack historical documents and interviews, and to conduct and document interviews,” Pangelinan said.
Cepeda said the grant will help strengthen the foundation for sharing and teaching CHamoru language and culture for generations to come.
"If we use the analogy of a house; the foundation has been set for us by our predecessors. We are now reevaluating the foundation and trying some things to make it bit more sturdy. We would like to now train others on how and why, so that we can build the walls together in preparation for whoever is to come in the future to build the roof and so on," Cepeda said.
Program participants will receive training in linguistic theory and analysis and engage in a cultural knowledge documentation project.
By the end of the grant, participants will have the training to document cultural knowledge in support of community efforts to preserve and revive cultural practices, or to create culturally rich CHamoru learning resources.
For more information about signing up for the training program, contact:
Dr. Kenneth Gofigan Kuper
Office: +1 (671) 735-2878
kuperk@triton.uog.edu