Nathan Mafnas Samayo

Profile:

Nathan Samayo was born in Guam and raised in Tacoma, Washington. He obtained his BA at Seattle Pacific University and Master of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School where he studied religion and decolonial thought in the Pacific Islander diaspora. As a PhD student in the Religion and Society committee at Princeton Theological Seminary, Nathan’s research examines Indigenous sovereignty and ecological sustainability in Micronesia amidst 21st century Western Pacific geopolitics. He has served on several committees and research projects focused on Indigenous history, politics and culture including Harvard University’s Committee on Ethnicity, Migration, and Rights, Harvard Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnology, Smithsonian Institute, United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, the joint Alaskan Native Heritage Center/Princeton Seminary Native American Boarding School history project, and the Cultural Museum of Sagan Kotturan CHamoru in Guam. Nathan loves his family and island food.

Dissertation:

Indigenous Sovereignty and Ecological Sustainability in 21st Century Guam

Committee:

Raimundo Barreto (chair); Mark Lewis Taylor; Ki Joo “KC” Choi; Michael Lujan Bevacqua

Publications:

Bevacqua, Michael Lujan, Monaeka Flores, Aren Kerr, Nathan Samayo and Anlin Wang. “An Independent Guåhan: A Roundtable Discussion with Dr. Michael Lujan Bevacqua and Monaeka Flores on Indigenous Resistance and Self-Determination in the Face of U.S. Imperialism.” Michigan Quarterly Review vol. 64, no. 2 (2025): 346-373.

(Book Review) Choa, Sophie. In the Shadow of the Palms: More-Than-Human Becomings in West Papua. Duke University Press, 2022. The Journal of Pacific History vol. 60, no. 1, 2025.

(Book Review) Kreitman, Paul. Japan’s Ocean Borderlands: Nature and Sovereignty. Cambridge University Press, 2023. The Journal of Pacific History vol. 59, no. 4, 2024.

(Book Review) Wenger, Tisa and Sylvester A. Johnson, eds. Religion and U.S. Empire: Critical New Histories. New York University Press, 2022. The Journal of Presbyterian History vol. 102, no. 1, Spring/Summer 2024.

Nathan Samayo. “Animism in a Marxist Metabolic Rift Perspective” in Animistic Variations: Philosophy of Religion in and beyond the Pacific edited by Michael Mawson. NYC: Lived Places Publishing (forthcoming 2027).

Samayo, Nathan. “A Cultural History of St. Joseph Devotion in Inalåhan, Guåhan” in Moana Spiritualities and Wellbeing edited by Therese Lautua and Brian Kolia. NYC: Lived Places Publishing (forthcoming 2027).

Samayo, Nathan. “Giant Clams and Plundered Worlds: Learning with Hima at Sagan Kotturan CHamoru, Guahan” in Pacific Frameworks and Paradigms in Turtle Island (U.S.), Hawai’i, and U.S. Territories edited by Aida Cuenza-Uvas, Dion Enari, Ruth Faleolo, ‘Inoke Hafoka and Lagipoiva Cherelle Jackson. Berlin: Springer Nature (forthcoming January 2027).