Fellowship supports grad students in indigenous languages and culture

Dr. Emanuel Drechsel, retired UH Mānoa professor, and Dr. Teresa Makuakāne-Drechsel (Mānoa ’75, BA Liberal Studies/Linguistics) established the Drechsel-Hubbard Endowed Fellowship for Indigenous Language-Culture Research to support UH Mānoa doctoral students in linguistics from Polynesian or North American Indian communities to do research on their own indigenous languages and cultures. The initial funding for this fellowship came from Emanuel’s sister, Ms. Cornelia Drechsel, and his step-father, Dr. Stanley Lawrence Hubbard.

“Native students of Polynesia and North American Indian communities are traditionally under-served,” says Kamil Deen, Linguistics Department Chair. “This fellowship will have an outsized effect on their academic development and their future contributions to our knowledge about human language and culture.”

Emanuel and Teresa first met at the Linguistic Institute at the University of Michigan in summer 1973. At that time, Emanuel was pursuing graduate studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison; Teresa was a UH Mānoa undergraduate student of linguistics. From summer through fall 1974, Emanuel attended Mānoa as a graduate exchange student; then he returned to the University of Wisconsin to complete his PhD in anthropology with an emphasis on linguistics. Meanwhile, Teresa received a master’s degree in linguistics at the University of Michigan and, subsequently, a doctorate in higher education leadership and policy from the University of Southern California.

Over the years, they have actively supported and promoted the use of Hawaiian language and cultural practices. With Teresa’s family, they established the Daniel and Lydia Makuakāne Endowed Scholarship at UH Hilo. Now, with Emanuel’s family, they add to the lasting impact on advanced scholarship at UH Mānoa.