RESEARCH COMMUNITY
TONIA SUTHERLAND, PHD
Director
Dr. Tonia Sutherland is assistant professor in the Library and Information Science Program in the Department of Information and Computer Sciences at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Sutherland holds a PhD and an MLIS from the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Computing and Information (formerly the School of Information Studies), and a BA in history, performance studies, and cultural studies from Hampshire College.
Global in scope, Sutherland’s research focuses on entanglements of technology and culture, with particular emphases on critical and liberatory work within the fields of archival studies, digital studies, and science and technology studies.
ELLEN-RAE CACHOLA, PHD
Ellen-Rae Cachola is the Evening Supervisor & Archives Manager at the University of Hawai'i School of Law Library. She also lectures for the Department of Ethnic Studies. She is 3rd generation Ilocano from the island of Maui, and her predecessors come from Narvacan, Ilocos Sur, Luzon.
In her research, Ellen asks: How can research on Austronesian heritages re-map relations between Filipinos in Hawai'i, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders away from the teachings of settler colonial heritage? What are the archives that evidence these ancestral Austronesian connections? How can the identities and histories that emerge from this remembering impact political-economic self-determination in Hawai'i?
ALYSSA PURCELL
Alyssa Purcell is a Graduate Assistant at the Hawaiʻi State Archives and an MLIS candidate at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa with a BA in Hawaiian Studies from the Hawaiʻinuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge. Purcell’s research focuses on decolonizing archival description and constructing liberatory practices that center Hawaiian knowledge.
Alyssa's research frames the M-93 Queen Liliʻuokalani Manuscript Collection (M-93) as a relative of the Hawaiian people through the Kānaka ʻŌiwi concept of the ʻaha network. The project enacts the ʻaha network by engaging with both the collection and the Kānaka ʻŌiwi community. This research aims to uncover the ways in which current descriptive practices neglect the kinship between M-93 and Kānaka and attempts to re-discover and re-institute practices that affirm and strengthen such a bond.
JASON FORD
Jason's Apache grandfather inspired his path by instilling an awareness of Indigenous people, history, and worldview within him. His undergraduate studies were in Hawaiian language and Ethnobotany. Passionate about research, he is in LIS to support others in their scholarship, and is interested in integrating Indigenous epistemologies into research and pedagogy.
Culturally grounded Indigenous information literacy frameworks are nonexistent in LIS literature. Jason's research seeks to resolve this by exploring the question, “How can Indigenous research methodologies and epistemologies inform information literacy pedagogy in Indigenous librarianship?” Through the review of Indigenous research methodologies literature, content analysis of Indigenous educational programs at colleges and universities, and focus groups with other Indigenous LIS professionals, he is developing a global framework of Indigenous information literacy that can be adapted to meet a culture’s specific needs, is culturally responsive, and relevant to the full spectrum of educational and research needs an Indigenous scholar may have.