Born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, Kiwi studies the legal history of East Africa in the International and World History Dual Degree's 2026 cohort. Kiwi graduated with Distinction from the University of Virginia in 2022 with a B.A. in History and Foreign Affairs. Kiwi’s undergraduate research included capstone papers on how enslaved African Americans in the Antebellum American South owned and profited from property, the influence victims and survivors of the Holocaust had over the Nuremberg Military Tribunals, and how subaltern historical accounts show that U.S. political leadership conceived of 19th century westward expansion as an imperial conquest. Kiwi’s research into the effects of gender, racial, and ethnic diversity of judges on U.S. federal courts was also published in the undergraduate Seriatim Journal of American Politics.
Since graduating from UVA, Kiwi has taught 5th and 6th grade World History in Kansas City and worked as a Investigator for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission which investigates allegations of workplace harassment and discrimination. In 2024, Kiwi also continued his historical research through his @timelesskiwihistory handle on YouTube and TikTok. Notable projects include an investigation into the 8th century Abbasid “Banquet of Blood,” historical commentary on the Assassin’s Creed game franchise, and a series on the 9th century Zanj rebellion of East African enslaved workers in the Abbasid Caliphate.
With the working title "Indian Lawyers in the East African Littoral: Shaping Law in the Early British East African Protectorate (1897-1910)," Kiwi's research at Columbia and the LSE investigates the role of lawyers of South Asian descent practicing law in the early stages of formal British imperial rule in what is now Kenya. Despite being a vast minority of the population in British East Africa, South Asians as lawyers and litigants were involved in upwards of 30% of cases reported in the East African Law Reports during the early period of British rule (1897-1908). Kiwi's research poses a few simple questions: why were South Asians overrepresented in court? Did South Asians have an impact on the law? How did other ethnic communities under British rule view South Asian legal activities? Through this research, Kiwi hopes to bring to light the ways communities under colonial rule have and can leverage legal regimes to survive and advance together.
