Department of History

Personal Statement:

I have been conducting academic research of Kanaka ‘Ōiwi (indigenous Hawaiian) culture and history for sixteen years with research that focuses on identity within the Kanaka ‘Ōiwi community.

I have always been interested in identity, especially among mixed-race youth. Over time that interest has broadened to include religious identity.

My current research, a continuation of my research on identity, focuses on how the military changed the identity of Hawaiian society during the territorial period.

Dissertation Title:

"I Wish They Would Leave Those Negro Soldiers Alone":  Native Hawaiian and Japanese American Perceptions and Interactions with Blacks in World War II Hawai'i

Selected Publications:

2014 “Native Hawaiian Religion,” “Ethnic communities in Hawai’i,” “Hawaiian cuisine,” “Hula,” Asian Americans: An Encyclopedia of Social, Cultural, and Political History.

2011 “Hawai’i,” Encyclopedia of Global Religion.

Teaching Fields:

Hawaiian History
Pacific Islander American/Pacific Islander History
Asian American History
U.S. History
World History
Indigenous Studies

Courses Taught:

ASAM 150 – “Pacific Islanders and Pacific Islander Americans” Summer 2015 [Session B]

ASAM 150 – “Pacific Islanders and Pacific Islander Americans” Winter 2014

HIST 189E – “History of the Pacific (1700s – Present)” Summer 2012 [Session A]

Awards & Professional Activities:

Mellon University Press Diversity Fellowship

• University of Washington Press Fellow 2016-2017

Psychoanalysis Div 39 American Psychological Association (APA)

• Scholar 2015

University of California Interdisciplinary Psychoanalysis Consortium

• Hayman Dissertation Fellowship 2014

University of California Pacific Rim Research Program

• Advanced Graduate Research Fellowship 2012

History Department and History Department’s History Associates

• Associates Fellowship 2015
• Regent’s Dissertation Fellowship 2012
• Van Gelderen Graduate Fellowship 2011
• Associates Fellowship 2012
• Darcy Ruth Ritzau Award 2009

Graduate Division

• Brython Davis Graduate Fellowship 2011
• Graduate Opportunity Fellowship 2010

The Association for American University Presses’s Handbook on Best Practices for Peer Review