Dr. Uahikea Maile is a Kanaka Maoli scholar, activist, and practitioner from Maunawili, O’ahu. His research interests include history, law, and activism on Hawaiian sovereignty; Indigenous critical theory; settler colonialism; political economy; feminist and queer theories; and decolonization.

His book manuscript, Nā Makana Ea: Settler Colonial Capitalism and the Gifts of Sovereignty in Hawaiʻi, examines the historical development and contemporary formation of settler colonial capitalism in Hawai‘i and gifts of sovereignty that seek to overturn it by issuing responsibilities for balancing relationships with ‘āina, the land and that who feeds.

Before coming to Chicago, Maile was an Assistant Professor of Indigenous Politics in the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto, St. George. He earned his PhD in American Studies in 2019 from the University of New Mexico.