ARCHIVES AND INQUIRY VIRTUAL SPEAKER SERIES: “Women in Power: Polynesian Political Leadership in the 19th Century” with author of “When Women Ruled the Pacific: Power and Politics in the Nineteenth Century Tahiti and Hawaiʻi” Dr. Joy Schulz.
April 23, 2024 12pm to 1pm HST

(Honolulu, HI) Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site and Archives is pleased to announce the next installment of the Archives and Inquiry Virtual Speaker Series on Tuesday, April 23, 2024 from 12pm to 1pm Hawaiian Standard Time. The Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site and Archives’ Virtual Speaker Series highlights the discoveries and work of diverse history and humanities scholars that work with Hawaiian Mission Houses' extensive archives, and whose work informs our contemporary world. The Hawaiian Mission Houses' Virtual Speaker Series Archives and Inquiry, is an hour long presentation beginning with the guest speakers and end with Q& A from the audience.

Women in Power: Polynesian Political Leadership in the Nineteenth Century
The nineteenth century was an era of profound change for Polynesian peoples. European and American circumnavigators, followed by merchants, missionaries, and diplomats, flooded the coasts of Pacific Island nations. At the forefront of these early encounters were Polynesian female chiefs who held their own political ambitions and welcomed the foreigners onto their beaches. In these exchanges Polynesian women demonstrated a powerful political acumen consistently misunderstood by Western monarchs and politicians. The strength and wisdom of these women leaders, coupled with their unwavering loyalty to the Polynesian people, continue to serve as powerful examples of true statesmanship.
The talk will be on Zoom at this link:
Zoom Link
Meeting ID: 834 5996 6594
Passcode: archives

Joy Schulz is Teaching Professor of Political Science at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. She is the author of When Women Ruled the Pacific: Power and Politics in Nineteenth-Century Tahiti and Hawaiˊi (University of Nebraska Press, 2023) and Hawaiian By Birth: Missionary Children, Bicultural Identity, and U.S. Colonialism in the Pacific (University of Nebraska Press, 2017). Schulz holds an MA in International Relations from Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska and a PhD in the History of American Foreign Relations from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.