Current Students
The following are select graduate degree candidates.
Donavan Kamakanimaikalani Albano
Email: albanodc@hawaii.edu
Program: MA (Indigenous Politics)
Research Interests: Ocean Feminisms; Moʻolelo Mana Māhū; Māhū Ōiwi Poetry & Poetics; MMNHWGM; Erotic, Aesthetic & Indigenous Sovereignty
Advisor: Noelani Goodyear-Kaʻōpua
Ariel Mota Alves
Email: motaal2@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD (Law and Policy)
Research Interests: Political Ecology, Post-development, Environmental Changes, Climate Change, Land Rights, Southeast Asia Politics, Timor-Leste Politics
Advisor: Ehito Kimura
Kayla Anandia
Email: anandia@hawaii.edu
Program: MA (Comparative Politics, International Relations)
Research Interests: Comparative Politics, Regional Politics, Southeast Asian Politics, Maritime Affairs, Climate Change, Renewable Energy
Advisor: Jonathan Goldberg-Hiller
Samantha Marley Barnett
Email: smb2@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD (Indigenous Politics)
Research Interests: Chamoru Liberation, Demilitarization, Abolition, Indigenous Sovereignty
Advisor: Noenoe Silva
Ulamila Cagivanua
Email: ulamilac@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD (Indigenous Politics)
Research Interests: Indigenous Epistemology, Indigenous Values Based Systems, Women Empowerment, Indigenous Futurism
Advisor: Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio
Randizia Crisostomo
Email: rbcrisos@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD (Indigenous Politics)
Research Interests: Indigenous Resurgence, Pasifika Feminisms, Chamoru Agency/Activism in Guåhan, the Marianas and the Diaspora, De-occupation and Mili(Tourism) in Oceania, Inafa'maolek as Praxis
Advisor: Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio
Boyd DeLanzo
Email: delanzo@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD (Alternative Futures, International Relations, Political Theory)
Research Interests: Complexity Theory, Space Policy, Space Futures, Geotechnics, Competition, China
Advisor: Jairus Grove
Aaron A. Donaldson
Email: aarondon@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD (Alternative Futures, Indigenous Politics)
Research Interests: Afro-Indigeneity; Black Radical Tradition; Afrofuturism; Afropessimism; Critical Indigenous Studies; Indigneous Futurities; War; Settler Colonialism; Identity Construction; Existentialism
Advisor: Dean Saranillio
Ari Eisenstat
Email: ari7@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD (Alternative Futures, International Relations, Law and Policy, Political Theory)
Research Interests: Sustainable Development, Social Innovation, Human Rights, Outer Space, Peace and Conflict Resolution, Exponential Technologies, International Organizations, Civil Society Advocacy, Climate Justice
Advisor: Jairus Grove
Ryan Ferguson
Email: ryanferg@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD (Alternative Futures, Political Theory)
Research Interests: Politics of Technology, Future of Media Systems, Aesthetics
Advisor: Jairus Grove
Shannon Pōmaikaʻi Hennessey
Email: shenness@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD (Indigenous Politics)
Research Interests: Indigenous Resurgence, Indigenous Theory, Hawaiian Language Newspapers, Indigenous Pacific Feminisms, Hawaiian Identity
Advisor: Noenoe Silva
Hildre C Herrera
Email: hherrera@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD (Alternative Futures)
Research Interests: Futures, Political Language, Nostalgia, International Politics, Media
Advisor: Jairus Grove
Hannah Hyman
Email: hhyman@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD (Political Theory)
Research Interests: Feminist Theory, Queer Theory, Political Theology, Biopolitics
Advisor: Kathy Ferguson
Kamalani Johnson
Email: kj31@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD (Indigenous Politics, Political Theory)
Research Interests: Hawaiian Historiography; Hawaiian Literature; Hawaiian Language Revitalization; Indigenous Language Revitalization; Hawaiian Political Theory; Hawaiian and Indigenous Life Writing
Advisor: Noenoe Silva
Kaʻiminaʻauao Kahikina (Cambern)
Email: cambernk@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD (Indigenous Politics)
Research Interests: Political Economies of Mana, Black and Indigenous Co-optic Futures, Hōʻailona and Kānaka Maoli Political Action/Activism, Trans-indigenous Resurgence, Hulihia, Pilina, Ea, Moʻokūʻauhau Consciousness
Advisor: Noenoe Silva
Hana Kim
Email: hanakim@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD (Comparative Politics, International Relations, Law and Policy, Political Theory)
Research Interests: Comparative Politics, Feminist Theory, Civil Society, Politics of Religion, Postcolonial Studies, Korean Studies, Korean America
Advisor: Kathy Ferguson
Ciera Lasconia
Email: cierak21@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD (Indigenous Politics)
Research Interests: Indigenous Politics, Hawaiʻi Politics, Deoccupation, MMIWG, Free Speech, Eugenics
Advisor: Jamaica Osorio
Cheng-Cheng Li
Email: ccli@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD (Indigenous Politics, International Relations)
Research Interests: Cultural Diplomacy, Pacific Regionalism, Pacific Islands Forum, Taiwan Foreign Policy, Taiwan and Oceania
Advisor: Sarah Wiebe
Daniel Kauwila Mahi
Email: dmahi@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD (Alternative Futures, Indigenous Politics)
Research Interests: Contested Governance, Ceremony, Traditional Games, Alternative Exports, Hawaiian Kingdom Governance, Indigenous Futurisms
Advisor: Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio
Billy Meinke
Email: wmeinke@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD (Alternative Futures)
Research Interests: Collaborative Scholarship, Education Policy, Student Data Privacy & Surveillance
Advisor: Kathy Ferguson
Richard Murphy
Email: rrmurphy@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD (Alternative Futures, International Relations, Political Theory)
Research Interests: Political Philosophy, Political Economy, Demiliarization, Environmental Politics, Environmental Justice, Social Justice, Alternative Political Paradigms
Advisor: Kathy Ferguson
Sukyoung Myung
Email: smyung@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD (Comparative Politics, International Relations)
Research Interests: Political Polarization, Democracy, Political Participation, Online Nationalism, Asian Politics, Korean Politics
Advisor: Ehito Kimura
Keegan Newton
Email: keeganan@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD ()
Research Interests: Cyber Policy, Technology & Geopolitics
Advisor: Jairus Grove
Saveun Nhim
Email: snhim@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD (Law and Policy)
Research Interests: Education, Public Policy, Disabilities, Non-Profit Management, Research, Advocacy. Southeast Asia
Advisor: Katharina Heyer
Ha'åni San Nicolas
Email: haanisn@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD (Indigenous Politics)
Research Interests: Reproductive Justice, Indigenous and Bodily Sovereignty, Decolonization, Oceania Feminisms, Pacific Island Women’s Histories
Advisor: Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio
Jordan Peterson
Email: jordanp9@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD (Comparative Politics)
Research Interests: Southeast Asia, Oceania, Migration, Subnational Conflict
Advisor: Ehito Kimura
Alyssa Purcell
Email: anap9@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD (Indigenous Politics)
Research Interests: Indigenous Politics, Indigenous Theory, Mana Wāhine, Moʻokūʻauhau, Moʻolelo
Advisor: Noenoe Silva
Akta Rao
Email: akta@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD (Political Theory)
Research Interests: Postcolonial/Decolonial Theory and International Relations
Advisor: Nicole Sunday Grove
Ken Reyes
Email: ereyes4@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD (Comparative Politics, Political Theory)
Research Interests: Political Theology, Philippine Politics, Authoritarianism, Political Violence, Biopolitics, Circulation of Power, Form-of-Life
Advisor: Jonathan Goldberg-Hiller
Haider Rifaat Hussain
Email: haiderr@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD (Law and Policy)
Research Interests: Legal Mobilization, Women’s Rights, Minorities Advocacy, Legal Change, Islamophobic Violence
Advisor: Katharina Heyer
Ryan (Joon-Ho) Roden
Email: rroden@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD (Alternative Futures, Indigenous Politics, International Relations)
Research Interests: Borderlands Studies, Ocean Studies, De-Colonial Ethnographies, Settler-Colonial Studies, Indigenous Studies, Political Geography
Advisor: Dean Saranillio
Josiah (Keoni) Rodriguez
Email: jjkq@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD (Indigenous Politics)
Research Interests: Diaspora Studies, Identity Formation, Epistemologies, Research Methodologies, Indigenous Solidarities, Hawaiian Studies, Filipino Studies, Traditional Ecological Knowledge, Critical Theory
Advisor: Noelani Goodyear-Kaʻōpua
Sara Saastamoinen
Email: sarasaas@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD (Alternative Futures, Indigenous Politics, Law and Policy, Political Theory)
Research Interests: Existential and Catastrophic Risks, Indigenous Futures, Displacement and Concepts of Home, Karjala, Indigenous Languages, Identities, Queer Theory
Advisor: Jairus Grove
Steffanie Sobitz
Email: ssobitz@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD (Alternative Futures, Law and Policy, Political Theory)
Research Interests: Public Policy (Housing, Camping Bans, Public Nuisance Policing), Concepts of Public and Private Spaces, Critical Socio-Legal Theory, (Dis)ability Studies, Queer Theory, Anarchist Theory and Practice
Advisor: Jonathan Goldberg-Hiller
Johanna Stone
Email: jstone@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD (Indigenous Politics)
Research Interests: Original Food Cultivation Systems, Ancestral Moana Nui Epistemologies & Knowledge Systems, Kapu, Rahui, Seasonal Harvest Restrictions
Advisor: Noenoe Silva
Kaiqing Su
Email: ksu4@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD (Comparative Politics, Indigenous Politics, International Relations, Political Theory)
Research Interests: Decolonization, Postcolonial Theory, Infrastructure, Development, Political Ecology, Aesthetics, Cartography, Historiography, Translation, China, Oceania
Advisor: Sankaran Krishna
Mahina Tuteur
Email: ntuteur@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD (Indigenous Politics, Law and Policy)
Research Interests: Indigenous Law and Social Movements, Natural Resource Management, Land and Water, Critical Race Theory
Advisor: Noenoe Silva
Chantrelle Melenani Waialae
Email: cwaialae@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD (Indigenous Politics, Law and Policy)
Research Interests: Native Hawaiian Law, Family Law, Violence Against Women, Public Policy, Native Hawaiian Rights, Indigenous Politics, Conflict Resolution, Pu'uhonua
Advisor: Jonathan Goldberg-Hiller
Griffin Werner
Email: gbwerner@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD (Alternative Futures, Political Theory)
Research Interests: Nihilism, Emptiness, Political Critique, Cybernetics, Aesthetics, Education, Kyoto School Philosophy, Zen Buddhism, Continental Philosophy, Philosophy for Children (p4c)
Advisor: Jairus Grove
Kalaniakea Wilson
Email: knwilson@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD (Indigenous Politics, International Relations, Law and Policy)
Research Interests: Ko Hawaii Pae Aina, Aloha kekahi i kekahi, I ka wa ma mua, I ka wa ma hope, He alii ka aina, He kauwa ke kanaka, Occupation, Colonization, Genocide, Power, Race, Treaties, War Crimes, Propaganda, Lies
Advisor: Noenoe Silva