Postdoctoral Fellows
Michelle Erai
UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellow (Women’s Studies Department)
Ph.D., UC Santa Cruz, History of Consciousness
e-mail: merai@ucr.edu
Biography:
Originally from Whangarei, Aotearoa/New Zealand, Michelle Erai graduated Victoria University, Wellington, with a BA in Sociology and Women’s Studies, and an MA (Applied) in Social Science Research. After several years working as a contract researcher, Michelle relocated to the United States where she completed a PhD in the History of Consciousness (with a parenthetical notation in Feminist Studies), University of California, Santa Cruz. Currently writing her first book, Civilizing Images: Violence and the Visual Interpellation of Maori Women, Michelle holds a University of California Office of the President’s Post-doctoral Fellowship at UC Riverside.
In addition to her academic work Michelle is a co-founder of Incite! Women of Color Against Violence, and was a Research Coordinator for Amokura, a Family Violence Prevention Initiative governed by the seven northernmost Māori tribes in Aotearoa.
Michelle's tribal affiliations are Ngapuhi, Ngati Whatua, and Ngati Porou.
Her current research interests include: postcolonial feminist theories, visual culture, indigenous feminisms, violence, historiography and the Pacific.
Publications:
Chapter: 'Exile, Maori and Lesbian'
Interpretation of social events is a subjective project, but this should not deny the material impact of the formation and circulation of those narratives. The construction of a concept of difference, and of difference as being both biological and pathological, introduces shame and self-surveillance as regulatory practices. Refuting difference as an act of compliance relies on complex negotiations of race, gender, class and sexuality.
My personal solution to being 'queer' in Aotearoa/New Zealand?
Exile.