Lucas Dembart

Lucas Dembart is a PhD student in the American Studies department at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. He earned his B.A. from the Gallatin School at New York University, where he designed an individualized concentration in mass media studies, comparative literature, and postcolonial theory. His senior work explored semiotics and symbolism in ancient and contemporary storytelling (including written, performed, and cinematic forms), with a focus on how narrative strands shape and reflect systems of power and knowledge in multicultural and postcolonial contexts. He graduated as a University Honors Scholar and received the Founders Day Award.

After completing his undergraduate studies, Lucas moved to Oʻahu as a 2019 corps member of Teach for America Hawaiʻi. He taught English Language Arts, Hawaiian and Pacific Island Studies, and project-based sustainability courses to public middle school students in Wahiawā and Honolulu. While teaching, he earned a Master of Education in Instructional Leadership from Chaminade University of Honolulu. His capstone project focused on a self-led service-learning partnership with Hui o Hoʻohonua (HOH), examining the effects of place-based pedagogy on academic performance, well-being, and belonging among military-impacted students.
From 2022 to 2024, Lucas served as a Hawaiʻi State Teacher Fellow, collaborating with educators statewide to advise HIDOE leadership on post-COVID education policy and teacher-leader pathways. He was also active in the Hawaiʻi State Teachers Association (HSTA), serving as a school-level representative, Chair of the SHiNE Committee for Honolulu, and a member of the Honolulu Executive Board. Most recently, he worked as Director of Advancement at SEEQS Public Charter School, where he led community engagement, fundraising, and strategic initiatives aligned with the school’s sustainability-focused mission.


Lucas’s research interests span media studies, education, and cultural-political theory. He takes inspiration from the foundational works of scholars like Edward W. Said, Frantz Fanon, Suzanne Césaire, Stuart Hall, bell hooks, Michel Foucault, Paulo Freire, and Roland Barthes. He is particularly interested in the pedagogical and epistemological functions of mass and screen-based media in shaping public perceptions of militarism, colonialism, and imperialism in the United States. Lucas is committed to teaching and learning with a decolonial lens and grounding academic scholarship in community-based praxis.

Category
Current Graduate Students