Update: Trask will be posthumously conferred with the honorary doctorate of humane letters degree at the spring UH Mānoa commencement ceremony on May 11, 2024 at the 9 a.m. ceremony.
The late University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Professor Emerita Haunani-Kay Trask was posthumously awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters by the UH Board of Regents at its December 7 meeting. Trask was recognized for her enduring commitments and outstanding contributions to Native Hawaiian education, thought and leadership. She had an influential academic career and a pronounced impact on Indigenous and gender studies, and the university.
“She was keenly aware of just how underrepresented Native Hawalians were as a part of the faculty, and she understood that transforming the university, working to make it truly ‘a Hawaiian place of learning,’ would depend upon not just increasing the faculty in the Center for Hawaiian Studies but also ensuring that Native Hawalians are ultimately on the faculty of every department and discipline,” said Hawaiʻinuiākea Dean Jonathan K. Osorio and American Studies Associate Professor Brandy Nālani McDougall in a nomination letter of support.
Trask was also well known for her contributions to Hawaiian sovereignty and social justice, as a passionate orator, political organizer and as a founder of Ka Lāhui Hawaiʻi. A native of Oʻahu and a graduate of Kamehameha Schools and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Trask spent her entire professional career at UH Mānoa. She played an essential role in founding the Center for Hawaiian Studies, which evolved into the Hawaiʻinuiãkea School of Hawaiian Knowledge.
“In the end, Professor Trask always said that her proudest legacy, and the one she believed would endure the longest—through the enhanced everyday lives of the thousands of students who would pass through its portals—was her involvement with the planning and building and teaching in the UH Mānoa Center for Hawaiian Studies,” said College of Arts, Languages & Letters Dean Peter Arnade and Interim Vice Provost for Academic Excellence Laura Lyons in their nomination letter of support.
National acclaim
She wrote scores of scholarly articles and four books, including the award-winning From a Native Daughter. Trask was invited to give keynote addresses around the world and won fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Rockefeller Foundation and the American Council of Learned Societies.
Trask amassed many accolades during her accomplished career. She was selected as one of USA Today’s Women of the Century, received the Angela Y. Davis lifetime achievement award from the American Studies Association in 2019 and in 2021 was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the oldest and most prestigious honorary societies in the country. Locally, she was recognized as one of the 100 most influential citizens of the twentieth century by the the City and County of Honolulu and named “Islander of the Year” by Honolulu Magazine.
Since her passing, scholars in American studies, Indigenous studies, cultural studies, feminist studies, literary studies, history and political science have organized plenary sessions and symposia in her honor as well as developed special issues of journals devoted to exploring the profound impact of her work across a range of fields. In addition, a biography of her life is forthcoming from UH Mānoa professors, Noelani Goodyear-Kaʻōpua and Erin Kahunawai Wright.
