I research and write about environmental issues, political change, social movements, and efforts to create more inclusive and sustainable communities. My research has long focused on Asia and the island Pacific, but I also conduct research in North America, South America, and the Caribbean.
My recent publications include:
The book Replace the State: How to Change the World when Elections and Protests Fail published in 2025 by the University of Minnesota Press
The article “Constructing Island-Centred Securities: Towards Assemblages of Decolonisation and Well-Being in the Pacific” in Geopolitics (2025)
The article “Rethinking relational geopolitics in contested islands and seas: Theoretical and empirical considerations” in Geopolitics written with Takashi Yamazaki (2025)
The article “Beyond Obstruction: Blockades as Productive Reorientations“ in Antipode (2023)
The book Islands and Oceans: Reimagining Sovereignty and Social Change published in 2020 by the University of Georgia Press
The article “The Myth of ‘Spheres of Influence’ in the Pacific Region” in The Diplomat published Sept, 2021
The article “Someone else’s chain, someone else’s road: U.S. military strategy, China’s Belt and Road Initiative, and island agency in the Pacific” in the Island Studies Journal (2020)
The book Empires’ Edge: Militarization, Resistance and Transcending Hegemony in the Pacific published in 2015 by the University of Georgia Press.
For a full list of my publications see my Curriculum Vitae.
Current Projects
— I am continuing to conduct research on social movement tactics that challenge colonial governance (and the social and environmental vulnerabilities that it produces). I write about some of this work on a substack.
— I am collaborating on projects that critically examine the (sometimes misleading) role of maps and photos in representing dynamic land and seascapes in the context of sea level rise and climate change communication.
— I am collaborating on research projects which examine how different structures of contemporary colonialism and self-determination affect environments and societies.
— I am continuing to research the U.S.-China rivalry as well as the ways various states (and other actors) navigate the contemporary multi-polar world.
Links to reviews of my book “The Empires’ Edge” (2015)
By Teresia Teaiwa in The Contemporary Pacific
https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10125/48492/1/v28n2-521-523-bookrev.pdf
By Catherine Lutz in the Island Studies Journal:
https://www.islandstudies.ca/sites/default/files/ISJ-11-2-BOOK-REVIEWS.pdf
By Alison J. Williams in the Geographical Review:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1931-0846.2015.12141.x/abstract
Sasha Davis Projects 