Rachel Emerine Hicks, Ph.D.

Rachel Emerine Hicks received her Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of California San Diego in 2024. Her research in Solomon Islands examines the opportunities and challenges young people face during and after secondary education. In her dissertation, she describes how the importance of family and cultural values motivates young people to do well in school even when the opportunities after schooling are limited.  Her academic interests more broadly are related to education, language ideology, and Oceania. She has published in The Australian Journal of Anthropology, The Contemporary Pacific, Departures of Critical Qualitative Research, and the Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development.

She received her B.A. in Anthropology and Intercultural Studies with a minor in Applied Linguistics from Biola University in 2007 followed by an MA in Anthropology from California State University, Long Beach in 2009.  For her MA thesis at CSULB, she conducted fieldwork in the Solomon Islands studying the causes of endangerment of a small language called Engdewu on the island of Santa Cruz. 

In her free time, Rachel is a mother of two little girls and also enjoys running, hiking,  and reading a good book. She loves traveling, discovering new places, and eating delicious food .