Statement of Intent (Notre Dame)

STATEMENT OF INTENT My diverse identity has been the subject of controversy and often times my Peace is threatened by my multiple identities that intersect. I am an Asian Pacific Islander who grew up with a Sindhi Hindu Father and an indigenous Marshallese mother with partial Japanese ancestry. However, my cultural upbringing has largely been Marshallese despite being American born and somewhat Americanized. I represent the new face of the twenty first century where my competing national loyalties being a dual citizen of the Marshall Islands and the United States allows me to see both sides of the debate comprising what Peace entails. My Marshallese ancestors’ homelands were radiated during the United States’ twelve-year nuclear testing program in the Marshall Islands in the 1940s and 1950s when it was a trust territory. As a result, I have always been a strong advocate for Peace endlessly fighting against this structural violence where institutional racism is apparent with Marshallese receiving unfair reparations for an incident that was deemed “For the Good of Man Kind.” As a bisexual Asian Pacific Islander, my inner sense of Peace is always threatened in my indigenous homeland of the Marshall Islands where it is heavily Christian with ninety plus percent of the people being professed Christian. Hence Peace has always been a term that I am emotionally attached to for it has always been something I yearn for personally and professionally.

I believe that Peace Studies with an Anthropology component will provide me with the necessary tools to polish my already peace driven path. I am a co-founder to two non-government organizations being Radiation Exposure Awareness Crusaders for Humanity-Marshall Islands (REACH-MI) and Jo-JiKuM (Youths for a Greener RMI), which deals with Climate Change concerns. Creating these two non-profit organizations was a way for me to provide indigenous Marshallese with a voice to deal with the

structural violence that has caused environmental travesties due to apparent environmental racism. In the Marshallese language, the word for peace is aenemman, which is composed of two words being ae meaning current and emman meaning good.

Hence, when the two words are combined, they simply mean good or peaceful currents.

Ironically, the Pacific, which also means peace, is far from peaceful, as in the case of the Marshall Islands, and here in lays my purpose for pursuing this program. Our indigenous sense of Peace is threatened by climate change and the lingering impacts of the nuclear testing program on top of the structural violence that promotes the epistemological silencing of indigenous ways of knowing and being. As an indigenous scholar, I’ve had to prove myself by being vetted by western institutions hence why this PhD program is that final stop.

I chose this PhD program in Peace Studies with an Anthropology component because it validates my already existing work as can be seen in my CV. This program will provide me with the necessary language to help convey my indigenous epistemology and ontology, which can increase the knowledge base for human understandings of peace while simultaneously increasing academic spaces for indigenous Marshallese. In the Marshallese language, the women are called Lejmanjuri loosely translated as Peacemakers. Hence, it is no surprise that all of the vocal advocates for Peace within the Marshall Islands have always been women. By accepting me into this program, you will inherit a unique perspective on Peace from the Marshall Islands and acquire the epistemology that comes with it, as I am a very well versed indigenous Marshallese scholar who has published widely on the subject.

This is why I believe I will make an excellent addition to the Notre Dame team.

My diversity adds depth to human understandings of peace. Although my indigenous

Marshallese and Christian community calls my bisexuality a flaw and a sin, I believe it to be my greatest asset for it gave me the courage to put myself out there, the American way, at the face of my audacious opponents who seek to silence me from exhibiting my voice that depicts my choice as to what Peace really means as an individual with a diverse identity equally entitled to freedom of thought and speech. It is for this reason that I believe that I am an excellent candidate to this program. There is only one Desmond Narain Doulatram and should you invest in me, you will understand the full depth of my CV depicting my intellectual developments and interests that speaks the Notre Dame mission of retaining human dignity for all!