Travis Chai Andrade is Kanaka ʻŌiwi, and was born raised on Hawaiʻi island. He is in the class of 2024 at Princeton and is studying anthropology with certificates in statistics and machine learning, archaeology, and indigenous studies. Travis’s research interest currently focus on how interacting with heiau (traditional Hawaiian temples and places of worship) and other forms of both material and immaterial heritage can influence identity, community, nationhood, and sovereignty, and is currently learning ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian language) to better connect with his culture and in hopes of being able to read and access primary source materials such as newspapers and laws of the Hawaiian Kingdom. He is also a teaching assistant for the course “Nuclear Princeton: An Indigenous Approach to Science & the Environment.”

Alongside his academic pursuits, Travis is involved with many different Native and Indigenous initiatives and advocacy groups at Princeton. He is the co-president of Natives at Princeton, an undergraduate fellow with the Center for Digital Humanities, and served as part of the Residential College Leadership Team for Rockefeller College (Rocky). He is currently advocating for extending Indigenous studies to include Native Pacific Studies as well and, in the upcoming academic year, will serve as an assistant residential college advisor for Rocky.