Lani Teves, Faculty, Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, UH Mānoa

Lani Teves

Associate Professor, Department Chair
Office: Saunders 721G
Telephone: 1 (808) 956-6928
Email: tevesste@hawaii.edu

Background

I am a Kanaka Maoli feminist born and raised in Ewa Beach. I came to so-called consciousness after watching Haunani-Kay Trask and other Hawaiian scholars/activists fight for Hawaiian sovereignty in the 1990s. I got my BA from this very department! Courses in Women’s Studies greatly shaped my understanding of the necessity and possibilities of feminist analysis. I am deeply committed to public education in Hawaiʻi and aim to support and nurture students in the ways that I was.

Education

  • PhD, American Culture, University of Michigan, 2012
  • MA, American Studies, UH Mānoa, 2005
  • BA, Sociology and Women’s Studies, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, 2002

Research Interests

My research focuses on the study of Hawaiian gender and sexual politics. My approach is informed by Indigenous feminist methodologies and ʻŌiwi epistemologies. I draw upon interdisciplinary methods and analysis in the fields of Indigenous Studies, Gender, and Queer Studies more broadly. In 2025, I created an oral history archive about the experiences of Kanaka ʻŌiwi kūpuna who identify as māhū/LGBTQ.