Professor Toeolesulusulu Damon Salesa is an interdisciplinary scholar focused on Oceania, deeply influenced by Indigenous Pacific cultures, particularly his own Samoan genealogy. He is an award-winning author, whose publications include Racial Crossings: Race, Intermarriage, and the Victorian British Empire (Oxford University Press, 2013), Island Time: New Zealand's Pacific Futures (BWB Texts, 2017) and An Indigenous Ocean: Pacific Essays (Bridget Williams Books, 2023). Dr Salesa was educated in New Zealand and the United Kingdom, and has held academic positions in New Zealand and the United States. Currently the Vice-Chancellor of the Auckland University of Technology, he was honoured as a Fellow of the Academy of the Royal Society Te Apārangi in 2021 for his outstanding contribution to Pacific Studies.