Center for Pacific Island Studies

core faculty

• vilsoni hereniko

• terence wesley-smith

• lola quan bautista

• julie walsh kroeker

staff

• managing editor

• outreach coordinator

• administrative asst

affiliate faculty

graduate students

Julie Walsh Kroeker

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Junior Specialist
Center for Pacific Islands Studies
PhD University of Hawai'i at Mānoa (2003)

E-mail: jwalsh@hawaii.edu

Julie Walsh Kroeker joined the Center in 2008 as a junior specialist to focus on the development of an undergraduate program in Pacific Islands Studies. Dr Kroeker holds degrees in cultural anthropology from Louisiana State University (MA 1995) and the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa (PhD 2003).

Her work in the community is supplemented by scholarship that engages Marshallese perspectives and histories. Dr Kroeker coauthored a history of the Marshall Islands for use by the RMI Ministry of Education, and has served in various institutions in the Marshalls: the College of the Marshall Islands, Alele Museum, the Historic Preservation Office, and the Ministry of Education (where she facilitated the development of the ministry's five-year strategic plan, 2006-2011).

Dr Kroeker's research interests include Marshallese models of leadership and authority, RMI-US relations, Marshallese histories, Micronesian traditions and politics, immigrant experiences, indigenizing education, cross-cultural adoptions, and public anthropology.

She also currently serves as Reviews Editor for The Contemporary Pacific.

Selected publications

2000	Political Review of the Marshall Islands, July 1998 through June 1999. The Contemporary Pacific 12:204-211. Download pdf
2001	Political Review of the Marshall Islands, July 1999 through June 2000. The Contemporary Pacific 13:211-216. Download pdf
2001	Exposure and Disclosure: Public Anthropologies.” Public Anthropology. Available online
1999	Janet Bell award-winning adoption article: 1999 Adoption and Agency: American Adoptions of Marshallese Children. Download pdf

DISSERTATION

2003	Imagining the Marshalls: Chief, Tradition, and the State on the Fringes of US Empire. Download pdf

Her doctoral research explored local views of the United States and expectations of the US role in the bilateral US-RMI Compact of Free Association, while engaging participants in grassroots and national debates that challenged the roles of traditional leaders and elites. A divisive national gambling legislation debate in the 1st session of the Nitijela (Parliament) in 1998 created a context for discussions about the expectations and limits of authority and leadership. Discussions pointed to the powers of traditional authorities and modern elites as agents in the processes of globalization as well as in indigenous practices of resistance. The dissertation analyzes historical and contemporary examples of Marshallese leaders who have used rhetoric about or relationships with foreign third parties, such as the United States, as enemies or allies to shore up sides in local contests.