• Maile Arvin, Ph.D.

    Co-lead Researcher

  • Derek Taira, Ph.D.

    Co-lead Researcher

  • Eliana Massey

    Student Research Assistant

  • Callie Avondet

    Student Research Assistant

  • Kinny Torre

    Graduate Student Research Assistant

Our Team

In our own words

Maile Arvin, Ph.D.

I am Kānaka Maoli, and my ʻohana are the Awos from Waimānalo. My tūtū Lilia Awo (maiden name Mahi) worked at Koʻolau School (formerly Kawailoa) in the 1960s and 1970s. I grew up in Kentucky, until moving to Hawaiʻi with my mom when I was 15.

I am currently an associate professor of history and gender studies, and director of Pacific Islands Studies, at the University of Utah. My first book, Possessing Polynesians: The Science of Settler Colonial Whiteness in Hawaiʻi and Oceania, was published with Duke University Press in 2019.

Read more about my work at the University of Utah here.

Derek Taira, Ph.D.

Born and raised in Kailua-Kona, Hawaiʻi, I am of Okinawan heritage and come from a long line of public educators. I am fascinated with the history of education in Hawaiʻi as schools in the islands have long been sites of conflict where issues of race, colonialism, and indigenous sovereignty have collided. These clashes continue to inform contemporary debates over equitable access to educational opportunities, resources, and success. 

I am an associate professor of history in the College of Education at the University of Hawaiʻi-Mānoa and hold affiliate positions in the Center of Pacific Island Studies and the Indigenous Politics Program in the Department of Political Science. My first book, Forward Without Fear: Native Hawaiians and American Education in Territorial Hawaii, 1900-1941, is set to be released in the summer of 2024 through the University of Nebraska Press.

Eliana Massey

I am Kanaka Maoli and come from the Chang, Kamai, and Paiaina ʻohanas. My Chang ʻohana were the kiaʻi (guardians and keepers) of Chief Līloa’s burial cave and the Lalakea loko iʻa (fishpond) in Waipiʻo Valley during at least the first quarter of the 1900s. My grandfather graduated from Kamehameha Schools in 1964. I also have roots in Mexico (along the Rio Grande/Río Bravo river), Germany (near the Saale drainage basin, a tributary of the Elbe River), and England (near the coast of the English Channel and North Sea).

I was born in San Antonio, Texas and grew up in Wichita Falls, Texas, about 90 miles south of Riverside Indian School. I grew up unaware of the history of nearly 100 Indian boarding schools that once existed near me. I also grew up fairly disconnected from Kanaka Maoli history and culture. I feel a kuleana (relational responsibility) to learn more about and share the history of child institutionalization in Hawaiʻi. I am currently pursuing bachelor’s degrees in museum studies and philosophy of science at the University of Utah. I am engaged in projects to improve the experience of Pasifika students at the University of Utah, create K-12 educational resources about Pasifika Utah history, and support Pasifika community gardening in Utah.

Kinny Torre

I am a CHamoru PhD student from Guåhan (Guam) in Communication at the University of Utah. My research is concerned with how Indigenous Pacific Islanders create communities in transnational contexts, how knowledge and memories are passed down through generations, and how sovereignty is expressed through daily acts. In summer 2023, I participated in and researched a CHamoru language revitalization program in Guåhan. 

Callie Avondet

I am an undergraduate at the University of Utah studying history and sociology. I mostly grew up in Kansas, but also lived in Utah and Massachusetts. I am connected to Hawaiʻi and the history of colonization because my great aunt and uncle moved back and forth between Utah and Hawaiʻi as Mormon missionaries and church leaders before he became the superintendent at Kalaupapa. My research interests are broadly in the history of education with a focus in race, student and educator protest, and curriculum.

Community Advisory Board