RESEARCH AND CREATIVE WORKS PROJECTS

‘Afi 'Fire' and ‘Api 'Home': A Philological Perspective on History of Tongan Society

‘Opeti Taliai

Atlas of an Undiscovered Country

Thomas Gangale

The conventional Gantt schedule chart is designed primarily for the purpose of displaying the current planning of activities on a program. It is not well suited to depicting the ebb and flow of events in the life of a program as a variety of forces influence the project over time. In reality, such a chart contains only one dimension of time: that momentary vision of the future that exists in the collective mind of the program management. By adding a dimension--that of historical time--the evolution of management's view of the future can be displayed. Furthermore, in this new two-dimensional environment, important trend information becomes visible and quantifiable for the first time, enabling managers to make better-informed judgments concerning the credibility of the current program schedule. The two-dimensional time format liberates us from the conventional perception of time as being linear and unidirectional, and allows us to see time in its two distinct components. One axis of time is the past--the domain of deeds already done. The other element of time is the future, which exists in the separate dimension of human imagination and planning. Together they form the surface of time, and it is only on this two-dimensional surface that our journey between the past and the future can be properly mapped out. "Atlas of an Undiscovered Country" is a project to map the entire scheduling history of human spaceflight.

Gangale, Thomas. 2007. "The Architecture of Time, Part 3: Project Management in Two-Dimensional Time." American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. AIAA 2007-6073. Space 2007. Long Beach, California. 18 September 2007.

Gangale, Thomas. 2009. "Time Maps of Human Spaceflight: 1956-1959." American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. AIAA 2009-6411. Space 2009. Pasadena, California. 14 September 2009.

Gangale, Thomas. 2009. "Time Maps of Human Spaceflight: 1959-1961." American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. AIAA 2009-6412. Space 2009. Pasadena, California. 14 September 2009.

The Development of Global Outer Space Culture as Reflected in Popular Music

Thomas Gangale, ‘Atolomake Helu, Vadin Rygalov (University of North Dakota)

The annual global celebration of "Yurij's Night," commemorating the April 1961 flight of Vostok 1,increases in popularity every year. The year 2011--the 50th anniversary of human spaceflight--is a time to reflect on the development of global space culture. It began in the 1950's as two distinct cultures--Soviet and American--reflecting the Cold War rivalry that fueled the Space Race. In the intervening decades there has been a blending of these two initial cultures, other nations have added their cultural voices, and the center of the emerging global space culture has shifted. National space cultures have displayed different emphases on science fiction and UFO themes versus devotion to national astronautic accomplishments. These and other factors may be leading cultural indicators of the vigour of national space efforts and their relevance to the global thrust into the final frontier. The researcher seeks co-researchers with backgrounds in cultural anthropology and musicology with a strong interest in space history.

Futa Helu

Lose Miller-Helu

A documentary about Futa's life. An 8 minute cut of the film was shown on his 75th birthday celebration in 2009. Currently, the film is awaiting editing which hopefully will take place in early January 2011.

Ha‘a Ma‘afu: Implosion of Power in Tonga from Taufa‘aahau Tupou I

‘Opeti Taliai

The Land Where Time Begins: Dispatches from Tonga

Thomas Gangale with Marilyn Dudley-Flores

This literary project is the personal account of a newly arrived palangi couple's encounter with Tonga and its distinct culture.

"I had some vague notion that living in Tonga would be different, perhaps even an adventure, but I came to Tonga to earn my doctoral degree, and if I were to write a book, it would be based on my dissertation; however, after only a couple of weeks in Tonga, I realized that the long email messages, which I was composing to send to family members and friends between infrequent opportunities to access the Internet, if I maintained that format and sustained it for a year or so, might be worthwhile as an account of an outsider's encounter with a small, traditional Pacific culture as it in turn encounters the 21st century.

"The Kingdom of Tonga is a nation of little more than a hundred thousand people. Think of it: the Los Angeles basin could swallow it up and it would be just one of those postage stamp municipalities such as Gardena or Lawndale. And being so small, but as subject to the forces of globalisation as all of us are, Tonga must be changing rapidly. This book is about a place that few people know exists, that few people could find on a map, that few people will ever visit, that is not the place it once was, that will probably not be for much longer the place that it is now, and indeed, that someday may not exist at all, given that due to climate change, mean sea level is getting meaner every day."

A Rewriting of Churchward's Tongan-English Dictionary

‘Opeti Taliai

Tongan Language

Lose Miller-Helu

Ongoing work and research for a book on the Tongan Language. Booklets for Tongan courses in 2009-10 will be incorporated into the Tongan language book.

Translation of 'Talanoa ki 'Uvea' (history of 'Uvea) from 'Uvean to Tongan

Lose Miller-Helu

Preliminary study/research toward a PhD in Linguistics consists of a translation of 'Talanoa ki 'Uvea' (history of 'Uvea) from 'Uvean to Tongan. Firstly, to reveal clues about the history of Tonga pre-18th century and secondly to do an analysis of the translation using linguistic methods for a comparative study of the two Polynesian languages ('Uvean and Tongan). Translated book is about to go to print.