I have been conducting academic research of Kanaka ‘Ōiwi (indigenous Hawaiian) culture and history for sixteen years with research that focuses on identity within the Kanaka ‘Ōiwi community.

I have always been interested in identity, especially among mixed-race youth. Over time that interest has broadened to include religious identity.

My current research, a continuation of my research on identity, focuses on how the writers of The Social Process, a journal produced by the University of Hawai’i at Manoa’s Sociology Club and Department of Sociology, examined the sociological changes occurring within Hawaiian society during the territorial period.

"The Neo-Hawaiian":  The Social Process, Racial Relations, and the Creation of the Modern Hawaiian, 1932-1965