How this website came to be
Repost from April 10, 2024
Since entering graduate school in 2020, I've thought about creating a personal website to showcase my work as a scholar and control my online image. However, I assumed I wouldn't need a personal website until I received my PhD. It wasn't until I began mentoring college students in the Nā Hokua program at the University of Hawaiʻi (UH) in 2023 that I learned about electronic portfolios (e-portfolios) and their value for students and educators. In truth, this website started as an e-portfolio, a curated collection of publications and presentations that demonstrate educational and professional achievements. However, as I continued gathering examples of my research, teaching, and service, I realized a deeper purpose for a personal website: to humanize my position in academia and provide resources for future generations of students and scholars.
I found inspiration in the design and function of scholarly websites and e-portfolios, which greatly informed my site's organization and helped me elevate my own research-to-practice approach in the information and resources shared. If you are looking to create your own website, I recommend consulting these exemplars from Indigenous and critical scholars.
www.katscho.com (lots of resources on fellowships, conferences, and reflections)
www.kuakanaka.com (great incorporation of Hawaiian language and cultural images)
www.kyleyoshida.net (mix of personal work and education for travelers to Hawaiʻi)
www.melaniezplasencia.com (scholarly organization, inclusion of creative projects)
Helen Woape Thomas (good example of connecting research-to-practice)
I view this website as a part of my personal kuleana to enact control and agency over my identity as a scholar and my kuleana to the Lāhui Hawaiʻi to dismantle hegemony in academia. Thanks to my connection with Nā Hokua, I also position this website as a manifestation of my pikoʻu, my cultural identity and personal narrative for engaging in the work that I do. In many ways, this site is a passion project because it provides an outlet to be creative and interweave strands of knowledge from multiple disciplines.
As Haunani-Kay Trask (1999) writes, "our story remains unwritten. It rests within the culture, which is inseparable from the land. To know this is to know our history. To write this is to write of the land and the people who are born from her" (p. 121). The moʻolelo of this website is thus ongoing and ever-changing. There will be mistakes; I do not claim or strive for perfection. My hope is that this website provides students and educators with information and resources on critical, Indigenous research and a place to inspire more writing of our resilient stories.
References
Trask, H.-K. (1999). From a native daughter: Colonialism and sovereignty in Hawaiʻi (Revised Edition). University of Hawaiʻi Press.
An early iteration of the "About Me" page on this site (2024)
