Vodovnik Žiga

Žiga Vodovnik, PhD, is a Professor of Political Science at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Ljubljana. His research and teaching focus on the study of democracy, political theories, ideologies, social movements, and the history of political ideas. He is the author of numerous scholarly articles, monographs, and edited volumes dealing with these areas or their intersections. As a researcher and/or lecturer, he has regularly visited universities abroad, including Boston University, Harvard University, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Washington, Hawai’i Pacific University, and the University of Hawai’i – Manoa.

During the 2022-23 academic year, he will be a Fulbright Scholar at the Political Science Department of the University of Hawai’i – Manoa. His project, entitled Listen to George Helm: Native Hawaiian Indigeneity Between Tradition and Innovation, will explore the creative tensions and immanent possibilities of Kānaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) indigeneity. More specifically, the project will address how we can understand the complex processes of making/unmaking of Native Hawaiian indigeneity, taking into account the tension that exists between the past and the future in its performativity, and the simultaneous attempts to overcome the expectations of outsiders and the imposed representations. The project will also analyse resurging Kānaka Maoli political, cultural, and economic models and their transformative potential. In doing so, the project will explore how Native Hawaiian values and practices can help us transform the way we live and work, consume and produce, in response to the magnitude and scope of global environmental challenges.