Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of Texas at Austin
Hi’ilei Julia Kawehipuaakahaopulani Hobart is an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Texas-Austin. She holds a PhD in food studies from New York University, an MA in studies in the decorative arts, design, and culture from the Bard Graduate Center and an MLS in archives management and rare books from the Pratt Institute.
Her research and teaching is broadly concerned with Indigenous foodways, Pacific Island studies, settler colonialism, urban infrastructure, and the performance of taste. Her book on the social history of comestible ice in Hawai’i, forthcoming from Duke University Press, investigates the sensorial and affective dimensions of Native dispossession. In particular, she is interested in how personal and political investments in coldness facilitate ideas about race, belonging, comfort, and leisure in the Pacific.