• PhD, Urban Planning and Politics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2023
• MA, Social Sciences, University of Chicago, 2017
• BA, Philosophy and Study of Religion, University of California - Los Angeles, 2015

Kevin is Chamoru (familian Capili), with particular roots in Guåhan, the southernmost island of Låguas yan Gåni (or the Mariånas archipelago). Born/raised in Malaysia and educated in Singapore before moving to Turtle Island for college, his migratory upbringing led him to a decade of working alongside immigrant rights activists––whose lessons have been foundational in every way. Outside of work, he tries to make time for watching arthouse films (preferably with minimal plot), doing amateur calisthenics, and writing bad poetry. Kevin is excited to be a guest in Haudenosaunee lands, and to learn from the storied wisdoms of Haudenosaunee elders and leaders.

Kevin's research currently focuses on (1) Pacific Islander social movements in the United States and Aotearoa New Zealand, which is also the basis of his first book project; and (2) the Indigenous politics of decolonization in Oceania, with a particular focus on Chamoru self-determination in Guåhan (guamstudy.org). He also maintains secondary research interests in Indigenous Oceanic political thought (with Josh Campbell, a political theorist at UCLA), and on the role of community organizations in US workforce development planning (with the UCLA Labor Center).

Social movements, Oceania, empire, migration, panethnicity, labor

Lee, Kevin L., Daniel L. Engelberg, yəhaw̓ Indigenous Creatives Collective, eds. “Planning Just Indigenous Futures.” Projections: The Journal of MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning 17 (2023). https://projections.pubpub.org/17-planning-just-indigenous-futures.  

Lee, Kevin L., Ngoc T. Phan, Nolan Flores, Josiah Gabriel Mesngon, Aria Palaganas, Chauntae Quichocho, Nikki Aubree San Agustin. “Decolonial Subjectivities in Participatory Action Research: Resident Researcher Experiences in the 2021 Guåhan Survey.” Environment and Planning F: Philosophy, Theory, Models, Methods and Practice 2, no. 1-2 (2023), 264-280. https://doi.org/10.1177/26349825221142286.

Thomsen, Patrick, Lana Lopesi, and Kevin L. Lee. “Contemporary Moana Mobilities: Settler-Colonial Citizenship, Upward Mobility and Transnational Pacific Identities.” The Contemporary Pacific 34 no. 2 (2022): 327-352. https://doi.org/10.1353/cp.2022.0055. 

Phan, Ngoc T, and Kevin L. Lee. “Toward a Decolonial Quantitative Political Science: Indigenous Self-Identification in the 2019 Native Hawaiian Survey.” Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics 7 no. 1 (2022): 90–118. https://doi.org/10.1017/rep.2021.39.