Graduate Student Directory

Research Interests

Designated Emphasis in Critical Race & Ethnic Studies 

Biography, Education and Training

B.A., Critical Race & Ethnic Studies and History, University of California, Santa Cruz

M.A., History, University of California, Santa Cruz

Executive Team/ Oral History Team Lead: the Okinawa Memories Initiative 

Profile in Tuesday Newsday: https://news.ucsc.edu/2022/06/mcclellan-ufugusuku-lex-un.html 

Profile by The Humanities Institute: https://thi.ucsc.edu/graduate-profile-lex-mcclellan-ufugusuku-history-doctoral-student/ 

Honors, Awards and Grants

• UC President's Pre-Professoriate Fellowship 2024-2025
• Western Women's Lacrosse League Division II Coach of the Year 2023
• Judy Yung Memorial Fellowship in Asian American and Pacific Islander studies 2023
• Humanities Without Walls National Predoctoral Career Diversity Fellowship
• Thom Gentle Endowment Award for History 2023
• University of Wyoming American Heritage Center Travel Grant 2023
• United Nations Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Peoples grantee 2022 to the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
• OMI Luce Foundation Fellow 2022
• Center for Innovations in Teaching and Learning: Pedagogy Fellowship 2022 
• National Endowment for the Humanities Funded Seminar: The Search for Humanity after Atrocity 2021
• Social Science Research Council Dissertation Proposal Development Program (SSRC DPD) 2021
• National Humanities Center GSSR Fellow 2020 
• Thom Gentle Endowment Award for History 2020 
• Graduate Student Association Research and Travel Grant 2019
• History Department Summer Research Funding 2019, 2020
• Institute for Humanities Research: Humanities Undergraduate Research Award    
• Chancellor's Undergraduate Intern (CUIP) for the Center for the Study of Pacific War Memories

Selected Publications

• McClellan-Ufugusuku, Alexyss. "List of Recommended readings," Shimanchu nu Kwii: The Voices of Shimanchu. Vol 1, Issue 2. Spring 2022. 
• McClellan-Ufugusuku, Alexyss. "Between a Rock and Two Nation-States: Positing Shimanchu Indigeneity against the Futenma Replacement Facility," The Avery Review. February 2021.   
• In the News:
• "Indigenous Ryukyuans say it’s time for US military to leave Okinawa" https://grist.org/global-indigenous-affairs-desk/indigenous-ryukyuans-say-its-time-for-u-s-military-to-leave-okinawa/ 
• "琉球独立学会、辺野古やPFAS問題を国連で訴え　先住民族問題の常設フォーラムに単独で初参加　声明文発表" 
  https://ryukyushimpo.jp/news/entry-1697956.html 
• "In Their Fight to Stop a New US Military Base, Okinawans Confront Two Colonizers"
  https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/okinawa-japan-us-military/ 
• 「PFASで長期的な健康被害を懸念」米軍による基地被害、国連で訴え　琉球独立学会  https://ryukyushimpo.jp/news/entry-1545333.html
• 米軍医が残した写真　アメリカ統治下時代の沖縄が分かる写真展　米国の大学生も来場者と交流  https://ryukyushimpo.jp/news/entry-949743.html

Selected Presentations

Community Presentations:

• Centro de Pesquisa e Formação "Ryukyu-Okinawa: (des) militarização, sustentabilidade e paz" (August 2022)
• World Uchinaanchu Festival "Keeping the Spirit of Uchinaa Alive Youth Panel Session" (Spring 2022)
• Ichariba Chōde podcast "Preserving History" (December 2021)
• Ukwanshin Kabudan Umanchu Suruti online series (October 2021 and May 2020) 

Academic Presentations:

• "The Ryukyus, Indigeneity, and the United Nations" New York University Symposium on Critical Indigeneities and the UN: Parallax Visions of the Ryukyus (2023)
• "Shimanchu, Okinawan, Ryukyuan, Okinawense? Teaching History and memory in the 'Okinawan' islands" Modern Language Association Annual Conference (2022) 
• "Roundtable Discussion: Okinawan Diaspora, Academia, and Activism" Association for Asian American Studies Annual Conference (2021)
• Panelist: "The Koza Uprising in Global Perspective" The Humanities Institute's Memory lecture series (2020)
• "Uchinānchu Indigeneity in a "Homogenous" Japan: The Marines, the United Nations, and the Rise of Denny," Harvard Graduate Conference in International History- Militarization: Methods, Approaches, and New Directions (2019) 
• "Champuru Conversations as Multinational Dialogue," Oral History Association Annual Conference (2019) 
• "An Okinawan-American Dialogue," American Historical Association Annual Conference (2018)
• "Systematizing Obedience: Assimilation through Tattoo Bans in the Japanese Empire," UCSC Digital Humanities Symposium (2017)

Selected Recordings

• For the side event: "Nuchi nu Miji" at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (April 2023) recording courtesy of the Ichariba Chōdee Podast:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRsuRMfALNY
• For the event: The Koza Uprising in Global Perspective (December 2020): https://okinawamemories.org/the-koza-uprising/
• Ichariba Chōdee podcast episode: https://www.shimanchupodcast.com/post/episode-6-preserving-history-with-the-okinawa-memories-initiative 

• From The California Report (NPR): https://www.kqed.org/arts/13814125/students-help-okinawan-history-come-alive-in-uc-santa-cruz-exhibit 

Teaching Interests

Teaching certificates:

UCSC CITL: "Course Design and Delivery" (2023) 

Pedagogy Fellow: Center for Innovations in Teaching and Learning (2022)

UPitt World History Center: "Teaching Indigenous History as World History" (2021)

UCSC CITL: "Teaching Disciplinary Writing" (2021)

National Humanities Center: "Passionate Teaching in the Research Environment: Meaningful Onliine Teaching" (2020) 

UCSC CITL: "Teaching with Technology" (2019) 

Instructor of Record:

History 150D- The Japanese Empire 1868-1945 (Summer 2023)

History 150E- History and Memory in the Okinawan Islands (Winter 2023)

Recent TA Assignments:

History 150A- Ancient Japan: Emperors and Outcasts (Fall 2021)

History 4- History of the Present (Winter 2022)

History 82- Global History of the California Gold Rush (Spring 2022)

History 80C- Global China (Fall 2022)

History 40B- Modern East Asia (Spring 2023)