{"id":128337,"date":"2020-10-06T15:18:53","date_gmt":"2020-10-07T01:18:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=128337"},"modified":"2021-04-08T18:13:16","modified_gmt":"2021-04-09T04:13:16","slug":"ethnic-studies-celebrates-50-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2020\/10\/06\/ethnic-studies-celebrates-50-years\/","title":{"rendered":"UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa ethnic studies celebrates 50 years"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 5<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
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Marion Kelly speaks at an ethnic studies meeting at the Kaimuk\u012b Public Library in 1972. (Photo courtesy: Ed Greevy)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

2020 marks the 50th anniversary of the ethnic studies<\/a> program at the University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M\u0101noa<\/a>. What began as a two-year experimental program during the civil rights, anti-Vietnam War, ethnic empowerment and students\u2019 rights movements in the fall of 1970 has flourished into a department providing a quality education for its students and serving as a major contributor in the community.<\/p>\n

“For 50 years now, ethnic studies has empowered Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>\u2019s peoples through research and teaching that serves our Native Hawaiian and local communities—‘Our History, Our Way.’ Now in the current moment of racial reckoning and economic restructuring, we are working to ensure that a post-pandemic Â鶹´«Ã½foregrounds social justice and Oceanic connections—‘Our Future, Our Way,’” Department Chair Ty Tengan<\/strong> said.<\/p>\n

Evolution of department<\/h2>\n
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Buddy Ako from Hauʻula<\/span> speaking at a rally before a campus sit-in in 1972. (Photo courtesy: Department of Ethnic Studies)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Inspired by political movements of the 1960s and \u201970s, UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa community members advocated for the university to establish the Department of Ethnic Studies. After an experimental program was launched, classes were offered on the history of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>\u2019s ethnic groups, and faculty actively engaged students with issues surrounding the communities they were involved in.<\/p>\n

For the next several years, the program underwent frequent evaluation, but its faculty and students fought to keep it going. The program gained permanent status in 1978 with the appointment of full-time Director Franklin Odo<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Some of the prominent community issues in the 1970s included the political struggle over Kalama Valley, where local communities faced eviction, Department of Hawaiian Home Lands reform, the H\u0101lawa Housing eviction struggle, the U.S. using Kahoʻolawe<\/span> for military exercises, and the Wai\u0101hole-Waik\u0101ne struggle, which resulted in long-term leases for farmers and residents.<\/p>\n

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Pete Thompson speaks at an ethnic studies meeting at the Kaimuk\u012b Public Library in 1972. (Photo courtesy: Ed Greevy)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Throughout the 1980s, its faculty continued to develop the program, which doubled faculty positions by 1991. The program then enhanced its national and international academic reputation by hosting and participating in worldwide conferences. Professor Marion Kelly<\/strong>, one of the program\u2019s early leaders, worked to develop a pro-Hawaiian sovereignty working group as part of Kanaka ʻ\u014ciwi<\/span> organizations committed to sovereignty for Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>.<\/p>\n

In 1995, the UH<\/abbr> Board of Regents transformed the program into a department offering a bachelor of arts degree. Since then, the department has hired the next generation of faculty members engaged with issues related to Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>\u2019s community. The Department of Ethnic Studies<\/a> is in the UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa College of Social Sciences<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The impact over five decades<\/h2>\n

Professor Davianna P\u014dmaikaʻi<\/span> McGregor<\/strong>—a co-founder of the department, where she has been a faculty member since 1974 and current director of the Center for Oral History<\/a>—has played an important role to stop the bombing of Kahoʻolawe<\/span>, which was used beginning in World War II as a U.S. military firing range. She is currently working with the Molokaʻi<\/span> community to designate the north coast of the island as a community-based subsistence fishing area and assisting other communities with protecting cultural resources.<\/p>\n

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Davianna McGregor\u2019s students after a day of trail stabilization work on Kahoʻolawe<\/span>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“I look upon all of the students—more than one generation of students—who have come through our department and have gone on to play important roles in our communities,” McGregor said. “Those from my class are most familiar working with the Protect Kahoʻolawe<\/span> ʻOhana<\/span>, some of them in the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, or in private business in the Hawaiian community.”<\/p>\n

McGregor added, “I look at all that we\u2019ve done for and with communities, standing side-by-side with communities, to help them do background research to support their initiatives.”<\/p>\n

Professor Ibrahim Aoude<\/strong>, who has written various texts on the department, recalled many important milestones in the department\u2019s history and stressed that the community needs this discipline more than ever.<\/p>\n

“Now, the matter that\u2019s happening globally and in the United States in terms of Black Lives Matter and Pacific Islanders, it is all the more reason for the State of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> and the University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>—since UH<\/abbr> talks about a Hawaiian place of learning and the local place of learning—to connect those communities with the university and give more support than ever before,“ Aoude said.<\/p>\n

Assistant Professor Laurel Mei-Singh<\/strong> was born and raised in Honolulu before heading to the U.S. mainland to attend college. It was then that she decided to eventually return home to give back to the community. In 2014, during a doctoral program in New York City, Mei-Singh moved back to conduct her dissertation research in Waiʻanae<\/span> and landed a position in the department as a part-time lecturer.<\/p>\n

“The faculty of ethnic studies see scholarly research and community engagement as wholly intertwined; they study the world in order to change it,” Mei-Singh said. “On our 50th anniversary, it is vital that we continue building on this important legacy educating our ʻ\u014dpio<\/span> (younger) and developing public scholarship for Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>‘s people and our world.”<\/p>\n

50th anniversary events<\/h2>\n

The Department of Ethnic Studies is hosting events surrounding its 50th anniversary throughout the 2020–21 academic year:<\/p>\n