Kika Kila: The Hawaiian Guitar and the Indigenization of American Music

FAIN: FT-59242-11

John William Troutman
University of Louisiana at Lafayette (Lafayette, LA 70503-2014)

I am applying for an NEH summer stipend to complete research and to write two chapters of a book on the colonial and cultural history of the Hawaiian steel guitar. Focusing on the history of the instrument, the book will complicate the intersecting histories of Native Hawaii, U.S. imperialism, tourism, race and technology from the 1880s through Hawaiian statehood in 1959, demonstrating that expressive culture has played a profoundly significant role in shaping and conjoining those histories. The book will also demonstrate the place of the instrument, largely unrecognized by scholars, as a pivotal, indigenous technology in the history of American music. The NEH summer stipend will allow me to access several essential archival collections in Honolulu, HI, completing my research, and will support the beginning of the project's writing phase. If awarded the stipend, I will begin this phase of the project on June 20th, 2011, and will complete this phase on August 20th, 2011.