The Department fo Geography is honored to announce Sophia Perez as a 2026 Lyman Recipient, receiving $8,500 to assist in writing her dissertation. With the award, Sophia will be working on a dissertation chapter focused on the production and content of Island Time, a Mariana Islands-based children’s show she created and directed as a way to tailor the celebration of the Indigenous Chamorro culture and language to the needs and aesthetics of today’s Chamorro youth. Perez argues that Island Time resists prevailing colonial perspectives which devalue and negate Indigenous culture, instead weaving a timeless Indigenous heritage into new technological contexts. Check it out here!
Berkeley Center for New Media
https://bcnm.berkeley.edu/news-research/6581/lyman-recipient-sophia-perez