University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa | American Studies

Congratulations to our Spring 2013 Graduates!

amst — Thu, 16 May 2013 19:35:05 +0000

Congratulations to the following students who graduated from the department this semester. We wish them good luck in all their future endeavors!

PhD:

Johanna F. Almiron

Dissertation: “Now’s the Time: Signifying the Social and Cultural Politics in the Art of Jean-Michel Basquiat”

Angela Krattiger

Dissertation: “In Service of Empire: Hawaii, Statehood and the Cold War”

Aidan Smith

Dissertation: “All in the Family: Presidential Candidates & Representations of General Power within the Nuclear Family”

Paul Stader

Dissertation: “Rice v. Cayetano: America’s Evolving Legal Debate with Race, and the Consequences of Applying “Color-Blind” Constitutionalism to Law Affecting Indigenous Peoples”

Sean Trundle

Dissertation: “Cowboys on the Endless Frontier: State Scientists and the Popular Imagination from the Post-War Era to the Present”

MA:
Mellissa Rand and Daniel Dinges

BA:
Robin Reynolds
Meagan Kubojiri
Ka Yu Chan
Franklin Fegurgur
Emily Pruett
Lawrence Bennett
Kiilani Spencer
Aileen Marquez
Danielle Kawasaki
Nicholas Yim
Patrick Kekua Jr.

Historic Preservation Student Presentations

amst — Fri, 10 May 2013 19:55:12 +0000

On May 6, 2013, the following students made presentations on the capstone projects they completed for the Graduate Certificate in Historic Preservation. Congratulations to all three for completing their certificate.

Mary Kodama:

“Mapping Downtown Honolulu’s Urban Past: Exploring the Potential of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps for Historic Preservation”

Tuyen “Isvan” Quang:

“Rethinking Conservation: Champa Temple Towers in Vietnam: A Case Study in Ninh Thuan Province”

Charmaine Wong:

“Historic Waikiki: Creating a Self-Guided Walking Tour Map”

Sean Trundle Wins 2013 Biography Prize

amst — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 19:03:03 +0000

Sean Trundle, who just defended his dissertation and will be getting his PhD very shortly, has won the 2013 Biography Prize for the best dissertation in life writing. The prize is awarded by the Center for Biographical Research at UH and comes with a cash prize of $500. The award will be formally presented at the award ceremony this Thursday at noon. Congratulations, Sean!

Aidan Smith was also nominated for the prize; although she was not given the award, the selection committee also thought very highly of the rigor of analysis and quality of writing in her dissertation.

American Studies Coffee Talk this Thursday

amst — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 00:00:31 +0000

On Thursday, 4 April we will be having an American Studies CoffeeTalk in conjunction with the Career Center on applying to grad school as well as having some of our current students speak on their experiences with applying. These talks are generally geared towards our AMST undergraduates, but all are welcome to come! We will be joined by Melanie Takahashi of CC who will be going over some invaluable tips and additional information.

Brandy Nālani McDougall Appears on Hawai’i Public Radio

amst — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 22:47:51 +0000

American Studies Assistant Professor Brandy Nālani McDougall appeared on HPR’s “The Conversation” on Tuesday, January 22 to discuss her upcoming public lecture (see below). The interview can be heard on HPR’s website here.

Spring 2013 Faculty Lecture Series examines compositional practice of kaona

Contact: Teri L Skillman, (808) 956-8688
Events & Communications Coordinator, University of Hawaii at Manoa

The Spring 2013 Faculty Lecture Series begins with a lecture by Brandy Nālani McDougall, assistant professor of Indigenous Studies in the American Studies Department at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Her presentation, Gathering in the Dark and Putting Down Roots, will examine the compositional practice of kaona, or “hidden meaning,” and how kaona continues in contemporary Kānaka Maoli literature. The lecture will be held at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, January 29, 2013, in Hamilton Library 301.

By focusing on the work of Haunani-Kay Trask, Māhealani Perez-Wendt, Victoria Nālani Kneubuhl and other writers, McDougall examines contemporary kaona references to Papahānaumoku, Wākea, and Hāloanaka, and how their employed kaona emphasizes the genealogical relationship Kānaka Maoli have to the land, implicit political and cultural claims to sovereignty, and the filial responsibility Kānaka Maoli have to enact these claims.

Born and raised on Maui, McDougall is of Kanaka Maoli (Hawaiʻi, Maui, Oʻahu and Kauaʻi lineages), Chinese and Scottish descent. She is the author of a poetry collection, The Salt-Wind, Ka Makani Paʻakai (Kuleana ʻŌiwi Press 2008), the co-founder of Ala Press and Kahuaomānoa Press, and the co-star of an amplified poetry album, Undercurrent (Hawaiʻi Dub Machine 2011). In 2012 she was awarded the national College Composition and Composition Convention Richard Braddock Award for a critical article on Kaona and Hawaiian Rhetoric that she co-wrote with Georganne Nordstrom. Her scholarship and poems have been published in journals and anthologies throughout Hawaiʻi, the Pacific and Turtle Island.

The Faculty Lecture Series is presented by the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research & Graduate Education, the Office of Research Relations and UH Mānoa Library.

LEGACY OF HALLA PAI HUHM: Film Screening and Korean Dance Performance

amst — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 19:01:34 +0000

ART BUILDING, ART AUDITORIUM RM 132
UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI‘I AT MĀNOA
SUNDAY FEBRUARY 3 , 2013 4 PM

To honor Korean dance pioneer Halla Pai Huhm (1922-1994) on the 110th anniversary of Korean Immigration to Hawai‘i, please join us for this exciting documentary screening of the recently premiered Moving
Home: The Legacy of Halla Pai Huhm (2012) and a performance by the Halla Huhm Korean Dance Studio. Q&A with AMST graduate student and filmmaker Billie Lee and reception will follow.

Free Event . RSVP to hallahuhm@gmail.com by Jan 20th or visit www.legacyofhallahuhm.com

Charity Begins at Home: Philanthropy, Remittances, and Filipino Diaspora

amst — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 01:45:37 +0000

Joyce Mariano is the last of our three candidate lecture for the Asian American/Filipino/a American Studies search.

Discourses of return to the Philippines mediate larger structures of hope and loss produced by the past four decades of international migration. This presentation explores representations of diasporic social and economic returns, or, more specifically, ways that Filipinos give back to the Philippines. It focuses on the discursive production of the two iconic figures of Filipino mobility through their characteristic modes of return: the Filipino American by way of philanthropy and the overseas migrant worker through remittances. While Filipino Americans and itinerant migrant workers are traditionally seen as competing figures, largely in terms of their loyalty to the nation, I argue that they are mutually produced through their giving, particularly through state-sponsored giving structures and initiatives.

Joyce Mariano earned her PhD from the American Studies Department at the University of Minnesota. She is currently a Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Asian American Studies Department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she is working on her book manuscript on the politics of giving in the Filipino American diaspora.

FRIDAY, December 7
2:30 p.m.
WEBSTER 203

Jose Garcia Villa’s Love Affair with God: On Race, Gender, Sexuality and Filipino American (Im)possibilities

amst — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 23:42:09 +0000

This talk will be presented by the second candidate for the American Studies Filipino/a American Studies search.

Jose Garcia Villa’s Love Affair with God: On Race, Gender, Sexuality and Filipino American (Im)possibilities

a public lecture by Amanda Lee A. Solomon, PhD

Tuesday, December 4
2:30 p.m.
Center for Korean Studies Auditorium

Focusing on the modernist poetry of Jose Garcia Villa, this talk explores the contradictions of the Philippine Commonwealth period, the granting of the archipelago’s independence in 1946, and the beginnings of Filipino America and its literature. Analyzing the highly sexualized representations of Filipino immigrants during the debates over the passage of the Tydings McDuffie Act as well as the rash of anti-Filipino riots up and down the west coast in the 1920s and 30s, Professor Solomon demonstrates how US recognition of Philippine sovereignty was not the advent of liberation. Rather, the focus on Filipino sexuality that fueled the passage of Tydings McDuffie racialized, sexualized, and gendered Filipinos in America in violently dehumanizing ways. Against this background, she traces the erotic moments in Jose Garcia Villa’s divine lyrics, moments that break down the racialized hierarchies between genders, sexualities, and nations, calling into question what constitutes the human and the divine and suggesting the productive (im)possibilities of Filipino American poetics and politics.

Amanda Lee A. Solomon received her PhD in Literature in 2011 from the University of California at San Diego. She specializes in Asian Pacific American literature generally and Filipino American cultural studies specifically. Currently, she is associated faculty at UCSD’s Literature and Ethnic Studies Departments. She also serves as the Executive Director of the Kuya Ate Mentorship Program, a non-profit educational organization focused on intergenerational mentorship, social justice, and bringing critical Filipino American Studies to the local San Diego community.

Mobile U.S. Colonials: Studies of Filipino Labor Migrants in the Pacific

amst — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 20:11:52 +0000

This talk is being given by one of the finalists for our Filipino/a American Studies specialist position:

Talk: Mobile U.S. Colonials: Studies of Filipino Labor Migrants in the Pacific

Friday, November 30 at 2:30 p.m.

Center for Korean Studies auditorium

Abstract: This talk will explain the term U.S. colonials, which focuses on the impact of U.S. federal government policies on the labor and migration of people, like Filipinos, who have come under American authority. These groups have faced unique work and migration experiences, as well as differential treatment, because of their special political-legal relationship with the United States. Filipinos and other U.S. colonials have also experienced unique circumstances when they move intra-colonially, or from one colonized place, like the Philippines, to other colonized places, like Hawai‘i and American Sāmoa.

JoAnna Poblete is an assistant professor of History at the University of Wyoming. She received her B.A. from UC Davis, her M.A and Ph.D. from UCLA, and completed postdoctoral work at UNC-Chapel Hill. Her research and teaching focus on the influence of U.S. colonialism on Filipino and other ethnic labor migrants during the twentieth century.

Talks by Conservationists Dr. Tim Winter and Ms. Kecia Fong

amst — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 23:42:10 +0000

On Monday, November 26th at 6pm, in Moore 328, the AMST Graduate Program in Historic Preservation is sponsoring two talks by conservationists, Dr. Tim Winter and Ms. Kecia Fong. Dr. Winter will be speaking on “East/West: Heritage Conservation and Questions of Difference.” He is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Culture and Society, University of Western Sydney. His work centers on how heritage is shaped through certain knowledge practices; and how it figures in issues like nationalism, post-conflict recovery, sustainability, postcolonial identities and urban development. He has published widely on these themes and his recent books include Routledge Handbook of Heritage in Asia and Shanghai Expo: An International Forum on the Future of Cities.

Ms. Fong’s talk is titled “Rethinking Conservation from Practice to Theory.” Ms. Fong is a conservator and PhD candidate at the Institute for Culture and Society at the University of Western Sydney. She has worked internationally in the field on diverse projects such as the revitalization of the historic Islamic core of Cairo, ancient Peubloan sites in the American southwest and on the emergency conservation and stabilization of the ancient city of Zeugma in Turkey. Prior to joining ICS she worked on issues of conservation education globally for the Getty Conservation Institute. Her current research focuses on conservation practices in Burma as a means to explore existing conservation paradigms in a globalized context. She is Associate Editor for Change Over Time: An International Journal of Conservation and the Built Environment.