Isaiah Walker

Isaiah Walker is a Professor and department chair in the History Department at Brigham Young University–Hawaii, within the Faculty of Culture, Language & Performing Arts. His research focuses on Hawaiian history, colonialism, and indigenous resistance, particularly through the lens of surfing culture and masculinity studies.

• PhD, University of California - Santa Barbara, 2006
• MA, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, 2000
• BA, Brigham Young University–Hawaiʻi, 1997

Walker's research examines Hawaiian colonial resistance via surfing culture, analyzing how ocean spaces became sites of empowerment and subversion. His work includes studies of the 1976 North Shore Hui Nalu surfing club as a framework for understanding historical and contemporary struggles against colonial hierarchies.

His publications include Hui Nalu, Beachboys, and the Surfing Boarder-lands of Hawaiʻi (2008) and Terrorism or Native Protest (2005), which explore surfing's intersection with cultural resistance. He is currently revising his dissertation for publication by the University of Hawaii Press.

Walker teaches courses spanning World Civilizations, Hawaiian History, Pacific Islands History, and methodological training in historical research and writing. His professional journey includes teaching roles at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo (2005-2006) and Loyola Marymount University (2003-2005).