Research into the brutal shakedown of the Oʻahu Community Correctional Center in 1981, and the experience and backgrounds of delinquent girls and incarcerated women in Hawaiʻi are highlights of the work of former University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa women’s studies program director and professor emerita Meda Chesney-Lind, which is now available online. University Archives has made Chesney-Lind’s collection of research and academic work as a scholar and activist with a focus on women and crime available on ArchivesSpace.
Her extensive contribution to the field of feminist criminology has been recognized nationally, with a large number of publications and prestigious awards.
Chesney-Lind has been with UH Mānoa’s women’s studies department (renamed to the Department of Women, Gender and Sexualily Studies) since 1986. She also previously taught at Honolulu Community College as a lecturer.
Spanning from the 1970s to 2010s, the Meda Chesney-Lind papers provides valuable research materials, including material from various courses taught in juvenile delinquency, human sexuality, women’s studies, criminology, sociology of gender and sex roles; keynote addresses and presentations; and more.
“I have always been on the margins in terms of my work,” said Chesney-Lind. “Living in Hawaiʻi gave me a unique perspective on crime and justice, particularly around issues of race. Of course, being female in a predominantly male field was also influential, directing me to focus on the experiences of girls and women in a largely male oriented criminal justice system.”
Commitment to social activism
Chesney-Lind’s commitment to social activism began with the anti-Vietnam War movement in 1969 which influenced her becoming a criminologist. That same year, she entered the graduate program in sociology at UH Mānoa. Born in Woodward, Oklahoma, it was her first trip to Hawaiʻi, though she had grown up hearing stories about where her mother and grandparents were from.
During her master’s study, she developed an interest in the feminist movement and was involved in the first CR (consciousness raising) group on campus which comprised the majority of faculty wives and female students. In the late 1970s and early 1980s while earning her PhD in sociology at UH Manoa, Chesney-Lind taught courses in the largest co-ed prison in Hawaiʻi as part of her teaching load at Honolulu CC. A decade later, she received an associate professor position in the women’s studies program at UH Mānoa, moved up to serve as director and then became a tenured professor.
Over the years, she taught many courses that focused on the sociology of gender, women and crime. She also served in multiple leadership roles as the chair at Women and Crime Division of American Society of Criminology, president of American Society of Criminology and president of the Western Society of Criminology.
In addition to her numerous awards, she received the UH Board of Regents’ Medal for Excellence in Research and was also identified as an “alumna of merit” by Whitman College. Her recent book on girls’ use of violence, Fighting for Girls (co-edited with Nikki Jones), won an award from the National Council on Crime and Delinquency.
Paying it forward
Chesney-Lind and her husband, Ian Lind, a former investigative reporter with the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, established the Chesney-Lind Women’s Studies Endowed Scholarship in 2020, the first endowed scholarship for the department to support students pursuing a degree or certificate in women’s studies at UH Mānoa.
In retirement, she continues to support the women’s studies department working on Hawaiian criminal justice issues with Professor Meripa Godinet of the Thompson School of Social Work & Public Health on representation of Native Hawaiians in the criminal legal system, and also volunteers with the Women’s Campus Club thrift store.
