Matthew McConnell

Matt McConnell is a second year master’s student in American Studies and Museum Studies at the University of Hawai‘i Mānoa. Matt is from Midland, Michigan and has a background in History of Science and Free-Choice Learning. Matt’s previous graduate work concerned the use of science as a tool of empire in the Eastern Rift Valley lakes of Africa and the impacts that this industrial development had on Indigenous peoples who relied on these lakes for subsistence fisheries. Matt came to O‘ahu after working for several years in California as an environmental educator in a Natural History Museum and public parks setting, where he focused on anthropogenic threats to the sustainable use and biodiversity of local river systems. Matt’s MA thesis examines 20th century colonial science education in Hawai‘i, focusing on the geography textbooks written by Charles W. Baldwin.