J. Kēhaulani Kauanui, a professor of American studies at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, was recognized with the American Indian History Lifetime Achievement Award, given by the Western History Association. For the last 20 years, the award has been given to one individual every year who has served in the trenches on all fronts to advance Indigenous history.
Dr. Kauanui is one of the six co-founders of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association, which was formed in 2008. She is the author of Hawaiian Blood: Colonialism and the Politics of Sovereignty and Indigeneity (Duke University Press 2008) and Paradoxes of Hawaiian Sovereignty: Land, Sex, and the Colonial Politics of State Nationalism (Duke University Press 2018).
Her third book is an edited volume, Speaking of Indigenous Politics: Conversations with Activists, Scholars, and Tribal Leaders (University of Minnesota Press, 2018), which draws from interviews she conducted on public affairs radio programs, one of which was called “Indigenous Politics: From Native New England and Beyond.” The show aired for seven years (2007-2013) and was syndicated on a dozen stations across 10 states through the Pacifica radio network.
Professor Kauanui earned a bachelor’s degree in women’s studies at the University of California, Berkeley. She holds a Ph.D. in the history of consciousness from the University of California, Santa Cruz.