Profile | Utah Valley University

Faculty Member

Tecun Hernandez

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Phone: 801-863-4869

Biography

Tecun is a Wīnak intellectual who was first taught by his parents, is still learning with family, and nurtured by community. He is also a professional nerd with academic training from Salt Lake Community College, University of Utah, U of U's institute of Religion, and Waipapa Taumata Rau (University of Auckland). His scholarly background is in education, socio-cultural anthropology, and ethnomusicology - with regional experience and focus in Utah, Turtle Island, Iximulew, Te Moana Nui a Kiwa, Aotearoa, and Tonga. His research and teaching interests are based in global-local Indigeneity and the study of kava, food, popular culture/music, ecology, identity, and metaphysics/religion with relational ethics grounded in Tā-Vā (Tongan tempo-spatiality) and Cosmovisíon Maya.

Education

PhD, Waipapa Taumata Rau (University of Auckland), 2019

Major: Anthropology

M.Ed. (Master of Education), University of Utah, 2013

Major: Education, Culture and Society

BA, University of Utah, 2012

Major: Anthropology

Graduate Diploma and Advanced Certificate, University of Utah Institute of Religion, 2012

AA/AS, Salt Lake Community College, 2008

Teaching

ANTH 4750R

Current Topics in Anthropology, Summer 2026

ANTH 4750R

Current Topics in Anthropology, Summer 2026

ANTH 4130

Contemporary Theory and Debates, Spring 2026

ANTH 4750R

Current Topics in Anthropology, Spring 2026

ANTH 1010G

Social Cultural Anthropology, Spring 2026

ANTH 1010G

Social Cultural Anthropology, Spring 2026

Presentations

Tecun, Arcia (Presenter Only), Tonga Research Association , "The Global Relevance of Critical Tongan Studies_ Thoughts across Time-Space by a Mayan Voyager on a Tongan Kalia", Tonga Research Association, San Francisco (San Mateo), California, USA. (October 31, 2025)

(Daniel Hernandez), Arcia Tecun (Panelist), Common Ground_ Nature for Health, Community, and Connection, "Panelist", Nature and Human Health Utah, West Valley City, Utah. (October 23, 2025)

Tecun, Arcia (Presenter & Author), Water Commons, "Many Houses along the River_ Local and Global Indigenous Water Cultures", University of Utah Environmental Humanities, Salt Lake City, Utah. (September 19, 2025)

(Daniel Hernandez), Arcia Tecun (Panelist), Healing Waters_ Restoring Our Relationship with Utah Lake - Public Event, "Visions for the future of the watershed panel", UVU Museum of Art, Utah Humanities, This Watershed Moment, Utah Valley University. (September 16, 2025)

Tecun, Arcia (Presenter Only), Mellon Humanities Speaker , "Honoring Multiple Relations in Shared Space and Contested Place_ Reflections on Global-Local Indigenous Socio-Ecological Knowledge in Utah", National Parks, Online. (July 16, 2025)

Tecun, Arcia , Kātoanga‘i ‘o Tā-Vā: Celebrating a living legacy of Tā-Vā, Time-Space , "A Tribute to Hūfanga and the Ha'a Tā-Vā", Māngere Arts Centre, Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland), Aotearaoa (New Zealand). (February, 2025)

Scholarly/Creative Works

Tecun, Arcia , (2026) "Book Review_ Forever Familias - Race, Gender, and Indigeneity in Peruvian Mormonism" (Issue: 1, vol. 52). Illinois: Journal of Mormon History. https://muse.jhu.edu/issue/55826/online

Tecun, Arcia , (2025) "Nourishing Possibilities_ A Food and Water Genealogy of Place" . SLC, UT: West View Media. https://www.westviewslc.org/articles/opinion-nourishing-possibilities

Tecun, Arcia , (2024) " A Wīnak Perspective on Cosmovisíon Maya and Eco-Justice Education" (Issue: 2, vol. 6). Keenasaw, Georgia: Maya America. https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/mayaamerica/vol6/iss2/5/

Tecun, Arcia , (2024) "Book Review_ Mayalogue - An Interactionist Theory of Indigenous Cultures" (Issue: 2, vol. 6). Keenasaw, Georgia: Maya America. https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/mayaamerica/vol6/iss2/3/

Tecun, Arcia , (2024) " Indigeneity as a Post-Apocalyptic Genealogical Metaphor " (Issue: 3, vol. 8). Genealogy . https://www.mdpi.com/2313-5778/8/3/121

Hafoka, Inoke , Tecun, Arcia , Ka'ili, Tevita , Siu'ulua, S. Ata , (2023) "Indigenous Performance in Rugby_ Ruptures and Re-creations of Time and Space in Tongan Identity" (Issue: 2, vol. 46). La'ie, Hawai'i: Pacific Studies. https://napelacenter.byuh.edu/pacific-studies-journal

ANTH 3460

Anthropology of Mormonism, Fall 2025

ANTH 3200

Food and Culture, Fall 2025

ANTH 1010G

Social Cultural Anthropology, Fall 2025

ANTH 1010G

Social Cultural Anthropology, Fall 2025

ANTH 475R

Current Topics in Anthropology, Summer 2025

ANTH 4130

Contemporary Theory and Debates, Spring 2025

ANTH 3050

Intro to Ethnomusicology, Spring 2025

ANTH 101G

Social Cultural Anthropology SS GI, Spring 2025

ANTH 101G

Social Cultural Anthropology SS GI, Spring 2025

ANTH 475R

Current Topics in Anthropology, Fall 2024

ANTH 101G

Social Cultural Anthropology SS GI, Fall 2024

ANTH 101G

Social Cultural Anthropology SS GI, Fall 2024

Tecun, Arcia , Environmental Humanities Community Practitioner in Residence Lecture, "Stories of Place", , University of Utah Environmental Humanities, University of Utah. (October 17, 2023)

Tecun, Arcia , Indigenous Perspectives on the Meaning of “Lamanite”, "Contested Curses and Shared Birthrights_ A Messy Reflection on the Imagined Global Lamanite", , Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, California, United States of America. (April, 2023)

Tecun, Arcia , Siu'ulua, S. Ata , (2023) "Tongan Coloniality_ Contesting the 'Never Colonised' Narrative" . London: Postcolonial Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/13688790.2022.2162353

Fehoko, Edmond , Fa'avae, David , Tecun, Arcia , Siu'ulua, S. Ata , (2022) "Digital Vā: Pacific perspectives on the shift from ‘ordinary practices’ to ‘extraordinary spaces’ during the COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand" (Issue: 4, vol. 43). London: Anthropological Forums. https://doi.org/10.1080/00664677.2023.2172549

Tecun, Arcia , (2022) "Knew World Undercurrents" . Wellington: Bridget Williams Books. www.bwb.co.nz/books/grammar-of-race

Tecun, Arcia , (2022) "Pedro and Pita Built Peter Priesthood’s Mansion and Now They Work the Grounds_ Whose Masc Does “the Lamanite” Wear?" (Issue: 1, vol. 9). Champaign, Illinois: Mormon Studies Review. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1213&context=msr2

Tecun, Arcia , Lopesi, Lana , Sankar, Anisha , (2022) "Towards a Grammar of Race in Aotearoa New Zealand" . Wellington: Bridget Williams Books. https://www.bwb.co.nz/books/grammar-of-race/

Tecun, Arcia , Fehoko, Edmond , Hafoka, 'Inoke , (2021) "Faikava: A Philosophy of Diasporic Tongan Youth, Hip Hop, and Urban Kava Circles" . Seattle: University of Washington Press. https://uwapress.uw.edu/book/9780295748573/reppin/

Fehoko, Edmond , Hafoka, 'Inoke , Tecun, Arcia , (2021) "Holding Tightly onto Land and People During a Pandemic_ Kava Pedagogies and Tertiary Learning Relationships in Vahaope" (Issue: 1, vol. 5). Australia: Journal of Global Indigeneity. https://www.journalofglobalindigeneity.com/article/19432-holding-tightly-onto-land-and-people-during-a-pandemic-kava-pedagogies-and-tertiary-learning-relationships-in-vahaope

Tecun, Arcia , (2021) " Seleka’s profane potency_ Kava artists and rebellious music in Tonga " (Issue: 2, vol. 20). Sheffield: Perfect Beat_ The Asia Pacific Journal of Research into Contemporary Music and Popular Culture. https://journal.equinoxpub.com/PB/article/view/19929

Zemke, Kirsten , Tecun, Arcia , (2021) "Special Issue_ Popular Music, Decolonization, and Indigenous Studies" (Issue: 2, vol. 11). Liverpool: International Association for the Study of Popular Music_ IASPM. https://iaspmjournal.net/index.php/IASPM_Journal/issue/view/71

Tecun, Arcia , (2021) "Kava Rootz" (Issue: 1, vol. 5). Bergen: Journal of Anthropological Films. https://boap.uib.no/index.php/jaf/article/view/2844

Hernandez, Daniel , (2021) " A Divine Rebellion_ Indigenous Sacraments among Global “Lamanites” " (Issue: 4, vol. 12). Basel: Religions. https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/12/4/280

Fa’avae, David Taufui Mikato, Tecun, Arcia , Siu'ulua, Sione , (2021) "Talanoa vā: indigenous masculinities and the intersections of indigeneity, race, and gender within higher education" (Issue: 4, vol. 41). London: Higher Education Research & Development. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07294360.2021.1882402

Sankar, Anisha , Tecun, Arcia , Hartendorp, Kassie , (2020) "Imagining elsewhere_ A critically romanticized conversation on Indigenous futures" . New Zealand: Economic and Social Research Aotearoa. https://esranz.bigcartel.com/product/whose-futures

Tecun, Arcia , Siu'ulua, Sione Ata, (2020) "Mormon masculinity, family, and kava in the Pacific" . Abingdon: Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-Handbook-of-Mormonism-and-Gender/Petrey-Hoyt/p/book/9781032336268

Tecun, Arcia , Reeves, Robert , Wolfgramm, Marlena , (2020) " The Past Before Us_ A Brief History of Tongan Kava " (Issue: 2, vol. 129). Auckland: The Journal of the Polynesian Society. https://www.thepolynesiansociety.org/jps/index.php/JPS/article/view/469

Tecun, Arcia , (2019) "Book Review_ Silva, Noenoe K. The Power of the Steel-Tipped Pen_ Reconstructing Native Hawaiian Intellectual History." (Issue: 3, vol. 128). Auckland: The Journal of the Polynesian Society. https://thepolynesiansociety.org/jps/index.php/JPS/article/view/431/330

Tecun, Arcia , Hafoka, 'Inoke , 'Ulu'ave, Lavinia , 'Ulu'ave-Hafoka, Moana , (2018) "Talanoa: Tongan epistemology and Indigenous research method" (Issue: 2, vol. 14). Auckland: AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1177180118767436

Bell, Adrian Viliami, Hernandez, Daniel , (2017) "Cooperative Learning Groups and the Evolution of Human Adaptability_ (Another Reason) Why Hermits Are Rare in Tonga and Elsewhere" (Issue: 1, vol. 28). Berlin: Springer Nature. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12110-016-9276-5

Tecun, Arcia , (2017) "Tongan Kava_ Performance, Adaptation, and Identity in Diaspora" (Issue: 1, vol. 1). Dunedin: Performance of the Real. https://performancereal.pubpub.org/pub/ilutv30j/release/2

Tecun Hernandez

Biography

Education

Teaching

ANTH 4750R

ANTH 4750R

ANTH 4130

ANTH 4750R

ANTH 1010G

ANTH 1010G

Presentations

Scholarly/Creative Works

ANTH 3460

ANTH 3200

ANTH 1010G

ANTH 1010G

ANTH 475R

ANTH 4130

ANTH 3050

ANTH 101G

ANTH 101G

ANTH 475R

ANTH 101G

ANTH 101G

Student

Employees

Community

Utility