Current MA and PhD Students
The following are select graduate degree candidates.
Angela Amantite
Email: amantite@hawaii.edu
Program: MA
Research Interests: Behavioral Geography, Sustainable Food Systems, Mental Health, Human Nature Connectedness, Ecotherapy, Integrated Wellness, Experiential Learning
Advisor: Krisna Suryanata
Carter Beale
Email: carter45@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD
Research Interests: Environmental Governance, Natural Flood Management, Political Ecology, Social Practice Theory
Advisor: Aurora Kagawa-Viviani
Aron Boettcher
Email: aronab@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD
Research Interests: Forests, Carbon, Biomass, Lidar, Imagery, Satellite, Photosynthesis, Machine Learning
Advisor: Qi Chen
Natalie Budner
Email: nbudner@hawaii.edu
Program: MA
Research Interests: Political Geography, Migration Studies, Cultural Geography, Border Studies
Advisor: Reece Jones
Penmai Chongtoua
Email: penmai@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD
Research Interests: Material Geography, Biomaterial Ecosystems, Green Technology, Land/Sea Connections and Place-Making, Indo-Pacific Material Culture
Advisor: Marina Karides
Wiwik Dharmiasih
Email: dawd@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD
Research Interests: Political Ecology, Political Geography, Multi-scale Environmental Governance, Community-based Resource Management, Environmental Peacebuilding, UNESCO World Heritage Sites
Advisor: Krisna Suryanata
Veronica Gema Cabebe
Email: vcabebe@hawaii.edu
Program: MA
Research Interests: Cultural Geography, Human Mobility, GIS, Cartography, The Impact of Climate Change on Displacement, Disaster Science, Environmental Discrimination, Park and Protected Area Management Through GIS
Advisor: Orhon Myadar
Ashley Clark
Email: anclark@hawaii.edu
Program: MA
Research Interests: Tea Agriculture, Sustainable Farming, Multispecies Interfaces, Ethnography, Taiwan, China
Advisor: Hong Jiang
Chrissy Fitchett
Email: cfitch@hawaii.edu
Program: MA
Research Interests: Climate-Driven Migration, Political Ecology, Creative Environmental Storytelling, Fiji
Advisor: Orhon Myadar
Rollan C. Geronimo
Email: rollan@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD
Research Interests: Ecosystem Approaches to Fisheries Management, Climate and Ocean Change Impacts on Marine Resources, GIS, Remote Sensing, Data Visualization, Spatial Pattern Analyses
Advisor: Camilo Mora
Michelle Harangody
Email: msharan@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD
Research Interests: Political Ecology, STS, Marine Policy and Conservation, Corals, Tourism, Thailand, Hawaiʻi
Advisor: Mary Mostafanezhad
Hunter Heaivilin
Email: huntersh@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD
Research Interests: Political Ecology, Agro-food Systems, Land Use Change and Planning, Climate Change, Pacific Islands
Advisor: Krisna Suryanata
Hongyi Jiang
Email: hjiang3@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD
Research Interests: China Studies, Taiwan Studies, Border Studies, National Identities, Railway, Chinese Civil War
Advisor: Hong Jiang
Justin Kellum
Email: jkellum@hawaii.edu
Program: MA
Research Interests: Remote Sensing, LiDAR, GIS, Spatial Statistics, Agroforestry, Macadamia Nuts
Advisor: Qi Chen
Keegan Kessler
Email: keeganak@hawaii.edu
Program: MA
Research Interests: Anti/Decolonial, Indigenous Methodologies, Community Resilience, GIS, Environmental Justice, Mobility Justice, Disaster Studies, Feminist Political Ecology
Advisor: Orhon Myadar
Tatsuki Kohatsu
Email: kohatsut@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD
Research Interests: Geopolitics, Militarization, Tourism, Islands, Okinawa
Advisor: Mary Mostafanezhad
Dalilah Laidin
Email: dalilahn@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD
Research Interests: Cultural Geography, Heritage Landscapes, Critical Tourism Studies, Southeast Asia
Advisor: Krisna Suryanata
Amanda Lambert
Email: aml7@hawaii.edu
Program: MA
Research Interests: Remote Sensing, LiDAR, GIS, Imagery, Geospatial Technologies, Environment, Climate Change, Water Quality
Advisor: Qi Chen
Karen Lee
Email: karensyl@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD
Research Interests: Remote Sensing, GeoAI, Computer Vision, Geospatial Foundational Models, Climate Change, Adaptive Capacity, GIScience
Advisor: Qi Chen
Andrew Lewis
Email: ajl2@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD
Research Interests: Hydrogeology, Springs, Water Policy, Citizen Science, Polycentric Governance of Natural Resources, Indigenous Cultural Significance of Springs
Advisor: Aurora Kagawa-Viviani
Randie-Leith Lunn
Email: rllunn@hawaii.edu
Program: MA
Research Interests: Ahupuaʻa Restoration, Traditional Hawaiian Land Management Practices, Sustainability, Island Resource Management
Advisor: Marina Karides
Fernando Lopez Oggier
Email: lopezogg@hawaii.edu
Program: MA
Research Interests: Border Dislocation, Geographies of Migration and Resettlement, Spatial Theory, Urban Life, Queer Worldmaking
Advisor: Reece Jones
Amiti Maloy
Email: amiti@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD
Research Interests: Blue Economy, Foodscapes, FDA, Social Change, Marine Conservation, Sustainability, Seafood, Labeling, Geographies of Consumption, Sense of Place, Greenwashing, Geopolitics, Ocean and Coastal Studies
Advisor: Brian Szuster
Olivia Meyer
Email: oliviacm@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD
Research Interests: Political Ecology, Feminist Geographies, Southeast Asia, Plastic Waste, Climate Justice, Feminist Theory, Social Movements, Thailand
Advisor: Mary Mostafanezhad
Duncan Miller
Email: wdmiller@hawaii.edu
Program: MA
Research Interests: Environmental Geography, Environmental Hazards, Climatology, Physical Geography, Geology, Climate Change, Military Geography, Risk, Mitigation, and Response
Advisor: Camilo Mora
Heidi Needham
Email: hneedham@hawaii.edu
Program: MA
Research Interests: Ecological Climatology, Climate Change, Climate Models, Natural Resource Management, Science Education, Outreach Activities with Underrepresented Groups
Advisor: Tom Giambelluca
Xiaoyun Neo
Email: xneo@hawaii.edu
Program: MA
Research Interests: Environmental History, Biodiversity and Wildlife Conservation, Resource Management, Community Resilience, Environmental Education, Narratives, Ecotourism, Southeast Asia
Advisor: Mary Mostafanezhad
John Nightingale
Email: john4225@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD
Research Interests: Political Geography, Critical Border Studies, Migration and Health, Humanitarian Responses, Statecraft
Advisor: Reece Jones
Joan Pan
Email: jpan@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD
Research Interests: Cultural Geography, Tea, Health, Well-Being, Social Media
Advisor: Hong Jiang
Marcus Peng
Email: marcuspe@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD
Research Interests: Coastal Management, Ecosystem Service Valuation, Outdoor Recreation, Experimental Methods, Causal Inference
Advisor: Brian Szuster
Leif Salveson
Email: leifsalv@hawaii.edu
Program: MA
Research Interests: Political Economy, Community Supported Fisheries
Advisor: Krisna Suryanata
Kristen Sanfilippo
Email: ksanfili@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD
Research Interests: Climate Change, Climate Modeling, Statistical Downscaling, Rainfall, Hawaiʻi Climate
Advisor: Tom Giambelluca
Sophia Somerscales
Email: ssomersc@hawaii.edu
Program: MA
Research Interests: Remote Sensing, GIS, Climate Change, Machine Learning, Land Classification, Object Detection
Advisor: Qi Chen
Claire Sremac
Email: sremac@hawaii.edu
Program: MA
Research Interests: Hydroponics, Vertical Agriculture, Sustainable Farming Practices, Container Farming, Urban Agriculture, Precision Agriculture, AgTech Innovation, Eco-Friendly Agriculture, Sustainability in Food
Advisor: Marina Karides
Yuko Stender
Program: PhD
Research Interests: Responses of Coral Reef Communities to Environmental Changes, Coral Reef Recovery From Impacts of Land-Derived Materials, Landscape Ecology, Spatial Statistics, GIS
Advisor: David Beilman
Tara Sutton
Email: thsutton@hawaii.edu
Program: MA
Research Interests: Trust between the Military & Host Communities, Community Recovery from Military-Induced Environmental Contamination
Advisor: Aurora Kagawa-Viviani
Hannah von Hammerstein
Email: hfvh@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD
Research Interests: Coastal & Marine Ecosystems, Effects of Climate Change on Organisms, Climate-driven Species Range Shifts and Their Ecological & Societal Consequences, Eastern Tropical Pacific
Advisor: Camilo Mora
Ivy Wappler
Email: iwappler@hawaii.edu
Program: MA
Research Interests: Beginning Farmers, Social Imaginaries, Agro-Food Systems, Political Ecology, Hawaiʻi, Northeast USA
Advisor: Mary Mostafanezhad
Kira Webster
Email: kiramw@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD
Research Interests: Climate Change, Terrestrial Ecology, GIS, Climate Effects on Plant Productivity, Food Systems and Security
Advisor: Camilo Mora
Laura Williams
Email: lauralw@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD
Research Interests: Political Ecology, Rural Studies, Tourism, Islands, Political Economy, Development
Advisor: Mary Mostafanezhad
Yuting Zhou
Email: yutingzh@hawaii.edu
Program: PhD
Research Interests: Political Ecology, Seed Sovereignty, Food Memory, Community-Based Knowledge, Participatory Research, Community Resilience, Gender and Embodiment, Southeast Asia, Thailand
Advisor: Mary Mostafanezhad