Dr. Val Kanuha

Biography

Valli Kalei Kanuha was born and raised in a rural town in Hawaii during the 1950s. She is a daughter of a Native Hawaiian father and a Nisei mother. Dr. Kanuha is a critical, indigenous, feminist, activist-practitioner scholar, focusing on gender violence, women and children, as well as the intersections of race/ethnicity, gender, and sexual identity. For the past 45 years, she has worked as a community-based researcher and consultant for organizations in Hawaii and the continental U.S., and lectures widely on violence against women and social justice issues. Her research interests include using indigenous, culturally-based interventions for family and domestic violence; intimate violence against women in same-sex and queer relationships; and alternative, community-based justice innovations to address interpersonal and state violence, critiques of carceral systems, transformative restorative justice, and abolition feminism. Kalei has taught 30 courses in community health, social work, sociology, and women's studies throughout her teaching career. Professor Kanuha has received the NASW Presidential Award for Excellence in Research and the University of Hawaii Board of Regents Excellence in Teaching Award. She is a founding member of the University of Hawaii Hilo Women’s Center, the Asian Pacific Islander Coalition on HIV/AIDS in New York, and INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence. Currently, she serves as a Board member for the Joyful Heart Foundation and API Chaya, and acts as an advisor for community and national projects.

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