Fall 2025

Talk with Dr. Holly Miowak Guise

The UH Mānoa History Department is pleased to welcome Dr. Holly Miowak Guise for a talk on oral history.

The talk will take place on Wednesday, November 19th, from 1:30-3pm in Sakamaki A201. Unfortunately there will be no Zoom option, and this talk will not be recorded.

This talk covers the militarization of Alaska territory including parallel stories of Unangax̂ and Japanese Alaskan relocation, the formation of an indigenized Alaska Territorial Guard, experiences of Native servicemen, and gendered segregation directed at Native women prohibited from associating with members from the military. More than community organizing, Alaska Native peoples acted as nations during this war between the empires of the North Pacific world including: Japan, the US, and the Soviet Union.

Holly Miowak Guise (Iñupiaq) is an independent historian from Unalakleet and Anchorage. In addition to Alaska Native Resilience: Voices from World War II (University of Washington Press, 2024), she has written articles about Alaska environmental history, Elizabeth Peratrovich and the Alaska Native Sisterhood, and sexual violence by a federal doctor at the Killisnoo wartime relocation camp. Within the digital humanities, she administers the website worldwar2alaska.com, which features oral history videos with elders. She serves on the editorial board for the Alaska History Journal.

This talk is cosponsored by the Center for Oral History, and the Departments of American Studies, English, Ethnic Studies, Political Science, and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.

Any questions or concerns may be directed to Professor Noah Dolim (ndolim@hawaii.edu).