Eilin Holtan Torgersen

25 years old, MA student at the Department of Social Anthropology, University of Bergen
Academic Background; Minor in Psychology, BA in Social Anthropology from the University of Bergen, including a year of international exchange to the University of Hawaii at Hilo.
Current project: “Ethnic identity and the use of tradition as social protest in Hawaii; Hula and Hawaiian Music among young Native Hawaiians” - a working title. What I seek to discover through my project are ways in which Native Hawaiian adolescents and young people create and maintain their ethnic identity in an Americanized Hawai’i. I will focus on the role of tradition in the forming of ethnic identity, and especially on the Hula and on Hawaiian music. I will also look into ways in which young Hawaiians use these traditions and their identity as social protest against the Americanization of Hawai’i. My fieldwork will be conducted between January and July of 2009, and my thesis will be written the following academic year.