Welcome! I was born in California to a Kahuku-born Dad and an Alabama-born Mom who met in the Marshall Islands via the US military. Before entering graduate school at UH Mānoa, I spent 15 years outside academia as a health educator, theater artist, and mediator in San Francisco and Maui. My research focuses on U.S. empire in the Philippines and Hawaiʻi; Asian/ American studies; as well as diasporic Filipinx Studies with an emphasis on Indigenous, Feminist, and Queer critique. In my activism, teaching, and scholarship, I am interested in how the story of empire becomes more evident through continued engagement with each other’s stories of resistance. When given support, I believe students can take charge of their educations and confront those forces that aim to silence them. For educators at public institutions, I believe this is our mandate.
Ph.D., University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, 2017
MA, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, 2010
BA, Agnes Scott College, 1992
Assistant Professor of History, Humanities Division, University of Hawaiʻi - West O‘ahu (August 2020-present)
Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Asian American Studies Department; Postdoctoral Affiliate with the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies (August 2018-July 2020)
University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, English and Ethnic Studies departments (Aug 2010 – May 2017)
Executive Director, Mediation Services of Maui (Wailuku, Maui), 2003-2008
Training Director, Health Initiatives for Youth (San Francisco), 1997-2002
HIST 379 - History of U.S. Empire
HIST 373 - Filipinx American History
HIST 371 - African American History
HIST 363 - History of U.S. Pop Culture (LGBTQIA+ focus)
HIST 318 - Asian American History
HUM 300 - Humanities Seminar
HIST 282 - U.S. History II
HIST 281 - U.S. History I
“Internationalizing Abolition: Toward Transformative Justice for Women Living (and Dying) Along the Fenceline.” Asian American Contemporary Activism: Movement Moments and New Visions for the 21st Century Eds. Diane Wong and Mark Tseng-Putterman (NYU Press, forthcoming).
“Mock Press Conference.” Alon: Journal for Filipinx American and Diasporic Studies 2, no. 3, (Nov 2022): 371-376.
“A Filipinx Settler Ally Manifesto.” Kim Compoc, Kathleen Aspillaga Corpuz, and Vernadette Vicuña Gonzalez. Closer to Liberation: Pin[a/x]y Activism in Theory and Practice. Eds. Amanda Solomon Amorao, DJ Kuttin Kandi and Jen Soriano. (San Diego: Cognella, 2023), 171-184.
“Considerations from the U.S.-Occupied Pacific.” Filipinx American Studies: Reckoning, Reclamation, Transformation, Eds. Rick Bonus and Tony Tiongson (New York: Fordham UP 2022), 267-274.
“Grappling with War, Grappling with Grief: Filipina Poets in Hawaiʻi and Diasporic Visions of Sovereignty,” Journal of Asian American Studies 24, no. 2 (June 2021): 273-297.
“You’re Here, You’re Queer, but You’re Still a Tourist,” in Q&A - Voices from Queer Asian North America, Eds. Kale B. Fajardo, Alice Y. Hom, and Martin F. Manalansan (Philadelphia: Temple UP, 2021), 95-102.
"Okinawa, Guåhan and Hawai'i: Feminist Insights into the Linkages between Colonization, Militarism and COVID-19." Margo Okazawa-Rey, Suzuyo Takazato, Lisa Linda Natividad, Ayano Ginoza, and Kim Compoc. Okinawan Journal of Island Studies 2 (2021): 129-144.
“From Hawaiʻi to Okinawa: Confronting Militarization, Healing Trauma, Strengthening Solidarity.” Kim Compoc, Joy Lehuanani Enomoto, and Kasha Ho. Frontiers: A Journal of Women’s Studies 42, no. 1 (2021): 204-224.
“Weaving Our Sovereignties Together: Maximizing Ea for Filipinx and Hawaiians.” Amerasia 45, no.3 (December 2019): 315-334.
“Standing Firm Against Torture: An Interview with Antonio Taguba.” Amerasia 42, no. 3 (December 2016): 91-107.
“’The Village of Maleafou Does Not Mourn’: Three Suicides in Sia Figiel’s Where We Once Belonged.” Span: Journal of the South Pacific Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies 64 (2011): 127-153.
Encyclopedia Entries and Reviews:
Review: Unsustainable Empire: Alternative Histories of Hawaiʻi Statehood, by Dean Saranillio. Native American Indigenous Studies Journal 7, no. 2 (Fall 2020): 173-174.
Review: “Pinay: Culture Bear ers of the Filipino Diaspora,” Edited by Virgie Chattergy and Pepi Nieva. Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly 41, no. 2 (Spring 2018): 401-404.
Encyclopedia Entries: “Asian American Fiction" and "Asians in Hawai‘i." In Asian American Culture: From Anime to Tiger Moms, Vol. 1, Edited by Lan Dong. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO (2016): 274-281; 335-339.
Professional Development Design Team, Filipino Curriculum Project, Hawai‘i Department of Education, November 2023-present
Organizer/Grant writer, Women’s Voices, Women Speak (Honolulu) 2013-present
Co-founder, Mauna Kea Solidarity Group, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, Aug 2019-October 2020
Co-founder/Organizer, Decolonial Pin@ys (Honolulu) 2013-2018
Co-founder/Vice President, Talking Stories (Maui), 2003-2008
World Water Day Social Media Campaign, UHWO Institute for Research & Engaged Scholarship, 2022
Mauna Kea Solidarity at UIUC, 2019
Outsmarting Empire: Filipinx in Hawaiʻi and Contemporary Visions of Decolonization. (Book Manuscript in Progress)
My research focuses on U.S. empire in the Philippines and Hawaiʻi; Asian/ American studies; as well as diasporic Filipinx Studies with an emphasis on Indigenous, Feminist, and Queer critique.
“Filipinos and Statehood in Hawaiʻi: Reflections on American Assimilation and Settler Complicity” (Master's thesis, 2010)
"Love Letters to Water," (organizer and panelist) UHWO Panel Discussion on military contamination of water, April 28, 2022.
"Grappling with War, Grappling with Peace: Filipina Poets in Hawai'i and Diasporic Visions of Sovereignty," Women's Studies Colloquium, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, November 12, 2020
Solidarity Works: Lessons from Mauna Kea (organizer and moderator), a collaboration between UHWO and Mauna Kea Solidarity at University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, October 12, 2020
“People’s Budget for Survival and Peace,” Filipinx Hawai‘i Collective Webinar Series on (anti)Blackness in Occupied Hawai‘i, August 1, 2020
"U.S. Imperialism from Hawai'i to Iraq: Connecting Our Stories, Outsmarting Empire," University of Baghdad, June 6, 2020
“Uses and Misuses of Fanon: A Proposal for a Settler of Color Reading Strategy” (panel paper), Native American Indigenous Studies Association Conference, Aotearoa/New Zealand, June 2019.
“No Base, No Rape, No Tears: Mourning the Deaths of Jennifer Laude and Rina Shimabukuro in U.S.-occupied Philippines and Okinawa” (panel paper) and “Thriving on a Postdoc: A Roundtable” (Chair), Association for Asian American Studies Conference, Madison, April 2019
“Decolonizing Academia: Filipina Settler Kuleana in Hawaiʻi and Guåhan.” (Re)Mapping Indigenous and Settler Geographies in the Pacific Conference, Honolulu, 2018
“Diasporic Filipina Settler Kuleana: Navigating the Politics of Indigenous Self-Determination in Hawaiʻi and Guåhan (Guam).” Association for Asian American Studies Conference, San Francisco, 2018
“Tutelage Gone Awry: Antonio Taguba, Filipino Americanism, and the Critique of Torture.” Public Lecture, Center for Biographical Research, Honolulu, 2017
“Forging Solidarity: Diasporic Filipinas and the Politics of Indigeneity.” Native American Indigenous Studies Conference, Honolulu, 2016
American Association of University Women, Dissertation Completion Fellowship, 2016
Ford Foundation, Pre-Doctoral Fellowship, 2011
Fulbright Hays-Group Projects Abroad - Language and Culture Program, De La Salle University - Dasmariñas, Summer 2023
FANHS, Filipino American National Historical Society
Speaker, “Try Think” series, Women's Community Correctional Center, program of Hawai‘i Council for the Humanities (March 14, 2023 and November 1, 2022)
Member, Kapwa Council, UHWO (2020-present)
Member, Service-Learning Committee, UHWO (Fall 2022-Present)
Member, UHWO Faculty Senate (2022-2024)
Manager, @UHWOHistory Instagram Account