Background
Heidi Nicholls (she/her) is a haole (white/settler) scholar and sociologist of race and U.S. empire. Her research analyzes race through the material and cultural processes of empire, claims to sovereignty, and people(s)' relationships to state power. Her first book project, Inherent Empire, demonstrates how racialization reorients politics in ways that reinforce the power of the empire-state by comparing settler uses of race in Hawai'i and Virginia.
Nicholls received a PhD in sociology at the University of Virginia in 2022 and was a Black Beyond Data postdoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins University and a Council on Library and Information Resources postdoctoral fellow. Her research can be found in Political Power and Social Theory, Humanity and Society, and Sociology Compass. Her current research agenda intersects with health, medicine and environmental sociology through her work analyzing the experiences of those directly impacted by the Red Hill water crisis on the island of O‘ahu, Hawai'i.
Select Publications
- Nicholls, Heidi. (2022). "Antiracism amidst empire? Understanding the United States’ relationship to whiteness." Sociology Compass, e13017.
- o Nicholls, Heidi. (2021), "Colonial and Decolonial Resignification: US Empire-state Sovereignty in Hawai'i." White, A.I.R. and King, K.Q. (Ed.) Global Historical Sociology of Race and Racism (Political Power and Social Theory, Vol. 38), Emerald Publishing Limited, Bingley, pp. 191-220.
- o Nicholls, Heidi. (2023), “Citizen, Subject, Human: For a Humanist Sociology at the End of the Eurocene.” Humanity & Society.
- Lee, Kristina and Heidi Nicholls. (2023), “Reflections from the CHS Mini Conference Organizers, Philadelphia 2023.” Trajectories, Newsletter of the ASA Comparative and Historical Sociology Section, Vol 34 No. 1 Fall 2023.
- Nicholls, Heidi and Matthew Ito (2020) “Kū Kiaʻi Mauna: Mauna Kea, Protecting the Sacred, and the Thirty Meter Telescope.” Religion, Race, and Democracy Lab, University of Virginia.
Education
- Sociology PhD, University of Virginia
- Sociology MS, University of Virginia
- Social Science BA, Westmont College
Research Interests
- Settler colonial whiteness
- U.S. empire
- Militarism in Oceania
- Anti-racism beyond the state
- Indigenous and settler solidarities
Teaching Interests
- Race and racism
- Decolonial politics
- Comparative-historical sociology
- Environmental sociology
- Health and medicine
Awards
- NEH Institutes for Higher Education Faculty, awarded to “Health Humanities: Dismantling Structural Injustices in Healthcare.” Johns Hopkins University (Senior Faculty), 2023
- Department of Sociology Teaching Award. University of Virginia, 2022
