
Bio
Kaylani is a William Fontaine Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania whose research examines Chamorro healing practices, matriarchal governance, and ancestral presence in the Mariana Islands and its diaspora. Drawing on her apprenticeship as a contemporary Chamorro healer, she explores spectral sovereignty, personhood, and folklore-making through multi-sited ethnography. Her work bridges Indigenous studies, medical anthropology, and semiotics. Prior to Penn, Kaylani earned an MSc in Biology, studying local perspectives on Chamorro medicine and its relationship to environmental change, biomedicine, and disease prevalence. Her methodology integrates genetic, epidemiological, and botanical approaches with multi-media documentation, linguistic analysis, and critical theory.
Education
B.Sc., Biology, University of Colorado Colorado Springs
M.Sc., Biology, University of Colorado Colorado Springs
Research Interests
Anthropology of Religion Biology, Culture and Disease Environment and Society Ethnohistory Folklore Genetics and Behavior Indigenous Studies Language and Semiotics Medical Anthropology and Global Health Museums, Monuments, and Heritage Studies Social Change