4 Hawaiian scholars earn fellowships

Four Native Hawaiian scholars have been selected as 2014-2015 Mellon-Hawaii Doctoral and Postdoctoral Fellows.

The Mellon-Hawaii Doctoral and Postdoctoral Fellowship Program supports the work of Native Hawaiian academics and others who are committed to the advancement of knowledge about the Hawaiian natural and cultural environment, Hawaiian history, politics and society, according to a press release. The program provides a stipend and mentoring for doctoral fellows to complete their dissertations, and for postdoctoral fellows to publish original research early in their careers.

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and The Kohala Center, with the support of Kame­ha­meha Schools, established the fellowship program in 2008. The Kohala Center in Kamu­ela on Hawaii island administers it. Since its inception the fellowship program has awarded 29 fellowships totaling $1.3 million.

The 2014-2015 Mellon-Hawaii Fellows are:

» Doctoral fellow Noe­lani Puni­wai, candidate in the Natural Resources and Environmental Management program at University of Hawaii at Manoa. Puni­wai evaluates how and why different ocean user groups socially construct and delineate marine space just as coastal areas are ecologically delineated through definitions of functional space.

» Doctoral fellow Liza Keanue­nue­oka­lani Wil­liams, candidate in the American Studies Department at New York University. Wil­liams’ research focuses on ways that tourism, the military and the prison industrial complex shape cultural politics for kanaka maoli both historically and in the contemporary moment.

» Postdoctoral fellow Noa Keku­ewa Lincoln, Interdisciplinary Environmental Research (2013), Stanford University. Lincoln’s research examines combining traditional and modern knowledge of land management to evaluate corporate and policy decisions from a social utility, rather than an economic, basis.

» Postdoctoral fellow Rebecca ‘Ilima Luning, cultural and educational specialist in the Department of Educational Psychology at UH-Manoa and project coordinator of the Mohala na Pua Program at the Center for Research on Education, Diversity and Excellence. Her research involves understanding a Hawaiian ethno-theory of learning through analyzing Hawaiian cultural practitioners’ and classroom educators’ teaching philosophies, cultural goals, values and purposes of learning in a modern Hawaiian context.

"Over the years we have been impressed by the thoughtfulness and relevance of the topics that the Mellon-Hawaii Fellows have chosen to engage in their advanced studies and academic publishing," Matthews M. Hama­bata, president and chief executive officer of The Kohala Center, said in a press release.