Rate My Professor Justina Mattos

Justina Mattos serves as Chair of the Performing Arts Department and Associate Professor of Drama at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo. An alumna of the university, she earned a B.A. in liberal studies with an emphasis in theatre from UH Hilo in 1990, an M.A. in theatre from the University of Oregon in 1993, and a Ph.D. in theatre history and criticism from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in 2002. Mattos began her career at UH Hilo in 2002 as a lecturer in the communication and English departments, advancing to her current roles and receiving tenure as Associate Professor of Drama in 2022. Her academic interests center on local theatre of Hawaiʻi, Pidgin and Hawaiian language plays, and theatre history and criticism.

Mattos is a prolific playwright and director, having written works such as Moʻo Huelo: Tale of a Tail, a Hawaiian language musical for children produced at the KEAKA Hawaiian Language Theatre Festival in 2019; Kakahiaka, another Hawaiian language musical for the same festival in 2016; and Hilo Rains, a pidgin mystery performed in 2001. She has directed numerous productions at UH Hilo and community venues, including Rent in 2019, Aloha Las Vegas in 2018, The Trial of Liliʻuokalani in 2013, and pandemic adaptations like MOORE: A Pacific Island Othello in 2020 and the Wailau online storytelling series since 2020. Key publications include the novel After Dawn (Lulu Publication Co., 2014), “Ola Nā Iwi: A Postmodernist Look at Science and Culture” presented in 2007, and “A Guide to the Archival Records of Kumu Kahua Theatre 1971-1997” (1997). She received the 2021 UH Regents’ Medal for Excellence in Teaching. Mattos facilitates the annual statewide Keaka Hawaiian Language Theatre Festival, conducts community outreach to rural students through afterschool programs, and delivered the keynote address at UH Hilo's 2023 Spring Commencement, significantly influencing Hawaiian language theatre and education.