The Columbia University Libraries is currently hosting an exhibition entitled: “Welcome is a Woman: Hawai’i and Tourism in the US Imagination” in Lehman Library, 300 International Affairs Building.   The exhibition is curated by Caroline Mendoza (CC ’25), who has generously responded to our questions:

Hello Caroline, would you please introduce yourself, your intellectual background and interests:

My name is Caroline Mendoza and I’m a senior undergraduate at Columbia College, majoring in human rights (concentration gender studies) and minoring in French. I’m interested in collective and cultural knowledge, particularly how knowledge about people, groups, and places is produced as a result of colonial or imperial processes. I drew on these themes as a 2024 Global Thought Scholar, where I developed my research around knowledge production through media, specifically tourism and advertisements as they portray Hawaiian women. This project then inspired my directed research at the Columbia Global Center in Paris, where I analyzed how La Malinche, a Mexican cultural symbol and collective “mother,” links to contemporary perceptions of Mexican sex workers. My background in non-profit and museum work has definitely fueled the intellectual passions that I hope to continue in postgraduate studies.

How did the idea of the exhibition come to you?

I think a lot about the concept of the “museum,” and how museums serve as institutions of learning specifically for the general public. My work with the LA Holocaust Museum and US Holocaust Memorial Museum pushed me to consider museum accessibility and the invisible barriers that often exist between non-expert audiences and the academic, elitist, and Euro-centric values that dominate the art and museum world. I was interested in tourism advertisements because of their intentional appeal to the public, and wanted to accessibly exhibit these advertisements in a way that can be unpacked and re-interpreted by their target audiences, regardless of academic background or interest.

What was the degree of your familiarity with the Library collection prior to embarking on this curatorial journey?

Prior to this project, I knew that Columbia Libraries offered collections but was unaware of the extent and depth of what is available to students! I met with subject specialists who helped me navigate different historical databases (ProQuest Historical Newspapers, Indigenous Newspapers in North America, Lexis Nexis) and magazine archives (National Geographic, Life) that I had no idea existed. There are also very helpful subject research guides; I used the Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies guide, South Asian guide, and Film and Television guide as starting points. I also made a lot of use of physical books that librarians helped me pull and pick up from Butler, which was a large part of my initial literature review. All sources used for the exhibit (including which databases the sources came from) can be found in the project’s bibliography here.

 

What was the curatorial process or principle you followed, and how did you come up with the various panel themes?

The exhibition and panels largely reflect the two major sections of my completed research. Beyond establishing that Hawaiian women are portrayed through a racialized, sexualized, colonial, etc. lens, I wanted my research to 1) establish that Hawaiian women are intentionally portrayed this way to forward the US colonial agenda, and 2) that part of this colonial agenda is to equate Hawaiian women with Hawaiian land, both of which, in the eyes of the US and tourists, are then understood as equally violatable and possessable. These messages are most explicit with the newspaper clippings, where we can see the language and rhetoric used to create a particular narrative of Hawaii and Hawaiian people. In section two, I thought it would be interesting to show how these messages are still conveyed in the advertisements with no words: after learning reading the clippings from section one, section two is predominately posters that only feature or focus heavily on a Hawaiian woman, and through her image alone the posters are still able to convey a message of possession and ownership.

Which items from the exhibition are your favourites, and why?

I’ve grown really attached to the very first poster of the exhibit (Matson 1938), mostly because it was the first one that I found that I felt really embodied the above analysis I was trying to establish, and also because I think the poster is inadvertently really accessible: the woman on the poster is depicted in the same way that the “Hula Girl” exists in collective knowledge. We think of grass skirts, tanned skin, some form of tropical flowers, and, notably, a smile. I also really like the Montgomery County Sentinel heading from 1960. The “Hawaii is the Answer” in bold, paired with the shoreline, can be unpacked many ways and I think the print turned out great.

 

What were some of the most rewarding things you encountered?

It was very rewarding to work with Kaoukab Chebaro (Libraries’ Global Studies division head) and Sarah Witte (Gender & Women’s Studies librarian), as well as Dr. Laura Neitzel and Farryl Last (Committee on Global Thought). I feel really grateful to be supported by academics who see value in student work and questions, because I often feel, especially as an undergraduate, that most work that I do is probably arbitrary. I don’t think I would have felt motivated or confident enough to do something more with this research if it hadn’t been for the adults/scholars/professionals that made me feel included and recognized rather than below or unworthy. It was also very rewarding to work with librarians that are clearly so smart and passionate about the collections they manage.

 

Thank you, Caroline!  It was a pleasure to work with you on the exhibition and we wish you best of luck with future projects!

Kaoukab Chebaro, Global Studies, Head, Columbia University Libraries

Sarah Witte, Gender & Women’s Studies Librarian

This exhibition has relied extensively on the Columbia University Libraries’ resources on gender studies and international, global studies. For Library collections related to:

Women & Gender Studies, please contact: Sarah Witte (shs4@columbia.edu)

Hawaii and Oceania, please contact: Gary Hausman, South Asian Studies Librarian (gjh2119@columbia.edu)

US History and American Studies, please contact: John Tofanelli, jt628@columbia.edu

Global Studies and various areas of the world, please contact Kaoukab Chebaro (Libraries Global Studies Head) at kc3287@columbia.edu or visit our Global Studies web page where our subject experts’ contact info is listed.

The exhibition is supported by a grant from the Committee on Global Thought, and a Community Engagement Grant from the Columbia University Libraries