Anne Allen, assistant professor of fine arts, is not your typical western tourist. Allen travels because of her insatiable passion for the Pacific Southwest, its people, culture and arts.
While on one of her many trips abroad, Allen said she’s perfectly content to stay in a modest youth hostel.
“I don’t want to waste my money in some place where I’m not going to be spending much time at anyways,” Allen said.
Being outgoing, warm and friendly, Allen said she has no problem meeting and getting to know the locals whether it be in a bustling Pacific city or a remote countryside village.
Allen’s zeal for the Pacific Southwest took root during college when she took a course about the Pacific, taught by a woman who later became Allen’s mentor.
Allen said she was originally a biology major and did two years of graduate work before she realized biology was not what she wanted to do.
Allen went back to school for her master’s degree in arts and art history at San Diego State University. She also got a doctorate in philosophy and art history at Columbia University in New York.
Allen’s doctorate work allowed her to live in Samoa for a year in order to research. She was stationed in a little village on the island Savai’i. Through her work on the Samoan islands, Allen established long-lasting relationships with some of the locals who have become part of her adopted family. Her bonds with her adopted family remain strong to this day.
Allen returned on Aug. 25 from her recent trip to the Pacific Southwest, namely the Cook Islands and the Samoans Islands.
“There were lots of changes — the capital city of the Samoa’s has street lights and traffic,” Anne said. “You can’t find a parking spot downtown. That’s insane.”
Allen said her visit to the Cook Islands was her first time visiting the Polynesian islands, which are one of the few locations she has yet to visit in the Pacific Southwest.
While in the Cook Islands, Allen said she presented a paper at the International Board of the Pacific Arts Association, of which she is a member.
In addition, Allen is the journal editor of the international journal called, “Pacific Arts.”
Allen said that because there is only one weekly flight from LAX airport in Los Angeles to the Cook Islands. She was able to arrive a week early, which allowed her to explore and to do research in the largest island of Rarotonga.
Allen said the paper presented in the Cook Islands at the International Board of Pacific Arts Association was about the moral quandaries of a white woman, who is not a Polynesian pacific islander, teaching Midwestern students about a culture that does not belong to her.
Allen said, while part of her family is Samoan, she is not and never will be.
“I’m a white catholic kid from southern California who went to school on the East Coast and ended up in the Midwest,” she said.
Allen said there are a number of ethical challenges presented because of this.
“I’m talking for a people that aren’t me and there are lots of dilemmas there,” Allen said.
She said she easily finds a middle ground and considers herself an advocate for the Samoans.
Allen said she sees major benefits in being able to bring the experiences and research from her travels back into the classroom.
“To me this is vital,” she said. “It is one of the core points of university education — to at least experience some of that world even second or third hand.”
Jean Abshire, associate professor of political science and international studies, said she agrees with Allen about seeing pictures and hearing a first-hand account of a professor’s travels can make the lesson much more meaningful and
relevant than simply reading about it.
“It seems far less remote if they can see it or hear about a direct experience,” Abshire said.
By ANNIE MALKA
Staff
amalka@umail.iu.edu