Dissertation Defense: Brie Shaw

Tues. April 15, 2025 1:30 pm via Zoom* (this will not be an in-person event)

Advisor: Sonya Atalay

ABSTRACT:  This dissertation draws on ethnographic research conducted with Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) youths between the ages of 18 and 35 that have created and maintain an active presence on Instagram. The research is an examination of the varied possibilities of identity expression and digital community building for Native Hawaiians in diaspora and how connections are maintained and built to structure a digital community in which Indigeneity is a present tense reality of life that combats stereotypical representations rather than a historical concept. I consider specific ways in which social media is utilized as a powerful tool for social expression as well as safe-guarding community in a “post-COVID” social landscape where calls by on-island community members highlight on-the-ground narratives of trauma and social issues that kānaka are facing. I demonstrate multiple ways in which  social media, for as many issues as it has, empowers everyday Native folks to tell their stories in unfiltered and unmediated ways.