Ishion Hutchinson was born in Port Antonio, Jamaica. He is the author of three poetry collections: Far District; House of Lords and Commons; and School of Instructions.

He received the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry, a Guggenheim fellowship, the Joseph Brodsky Rome Prize, the Whiting Writers Award, the PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature. He is a contributing editor to the literary journals The Common and Tongue: A Journal of Writing & Art. 

Mukoma Wa Ngugi is the author of The Rise of the African Novel: Politics of Language, Identity and Ownership; the novels Mrs.

Yoshiko Okuyama (PhD, University of Arizona) is a professor of Japanese studies in the Department of Languages at the University of Hawai’i at Hilo. Her areas of specialization include Japanese popular culture, disability studies, deaf studies, second language acquisition, and technology-mediated communication.

John I. Carruthers's current scholarship is focused on evaluating environmental remediation projects in the Puget Sound region of Washington State and the value of public education and other amenities in the Seoul Metropolitan Area.

Geographic Research Area: South Asia and Latin America

Teaching/Research Interests: Sarah Thompson utilizes causal inference methods (particularly field experiments and quasi-experimental methods) in her research on the politics of marginalized groups. She also works closely with policymakers in the field. She asks how key institutions can intervene to increase the political agency of women and indigenous populations, who are systematically excluded from state politics around the globe.

Alexandra Dufresne's research focuses on law and policy, children's rights, refugee rights, and state-level policy and advocacy.

Jaclyn Kelley-Widmer’s research focuses on immigration and human rights.

Richard Clark’s research focuses on international organization, international political economy, and international relations.

Beth Lyon’s research focuses on deportation defense, migrant rights, and xenophobic hate speech.

Wendong Zhang’s research focuses on agricultural and environmental economics, Chinese agriculture, agricultural trade, water conservation, and farmland markets.