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Archived Events

date: Thursday, April 04, 2013
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American Studies Coffee Talk

On Thursday, 4 April we will be having an American Studies Coffee Talk 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.




date: Friday, March 22, 2013
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Johanna F. Almiron, Doctoral Candidate Dissertation Final Defense

Now's the Time: A Study of the Social Statements in the Art of Basquiat

Johanna F. Almiron, Doctoral Candidate
American Studies

Dissertation Final Defense
Friday, March 22nd
3pm
Moore 328

Johanna F. Almiron's doctoral thesis explores the social and cultural significance of the visual artwork and performance of Jean-­‐Michel Basquiat. Almiron analyzes thematic symbols and narratives in Basquiat’s paintings through the lens of social history and cultural politics, paying particular attention to his treatment of topics like commodification, racial violence, and police brutality. Almiron argues that Basquiat’s work does not just visually represent the historical memory of these experiences, it also acts as a meta-­‐commentary on how such social catastrophes are rendered visible or invisible in the larger cultural sphere. As the auction value of Basquiat’s artwork swells beyond twenty-­‐six million dollars, this research clarifies his artistic contribution and cultural import beyond the ahistorical mythology surrounding his celebrity persona.

Although scholars have addressed many dimensions of Basquiat’s artwork in chapter or essay form, this is one of the major comprehensive studies of the artistic and social relevance of Basquiat’s artwork from an interdisciplinary analytic framework. This manuscript analyzes the convergence of aesthetic, literary, theoretical and ideological dialogics within Basquiat’s artwork alongside contemporary cultural politics, social discourse and history. The study begins by exploring the rich artistic and aesthetic facets of the artwork and then progresses into a cultural inquiry, paying special attention to the political import of Basquiat’s visual allusions and literary references. Almiron's research grounds the aesthetic and cultural significance of Basquiat’s artwork in the context of his time, examining how his social statements reflected the historical contingency of his raced, classed, and gendered social position. 




date: Friday, March 08, 2013
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"The Books That Changed Our Lives"

In Spring 2013 we have been hosting a series of talk-story sessions called "The Books That Changed Our Lives," where American Studies faculty and invited guests talk about the books that have had greatest impact on their intellectual and personal lives. The first two sessions have been exciting and lively, and the next session is surely going to be just as wonderful. For the third session this Friday, the panelists will be Professor Richard Rath (from the History Department), Professor Karen Kosasa, and Professor Robert Perkinson. Come join us, and bring your friends!

Friday, March 8  3-5pm (please note that we're starting at 3pm instead of our usual 3:30pm)
Moore Hall Rm 323




date: Sunday, February 03, 2013
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LEGACY OF HALLA PAI HUHM: Film Screening and Korean Dance Performance

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

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 filmmaker and AMST graduate student Billie Lee and reception will follow.

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




date: Thursday, January 31, 2013
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27th Annual Experts at the Palace Lecture Series

Experts at the Palace

27th Annual Lecture Series

Winter 2013, January 31-March 7
Old Archives Building, ‘Iolani Palace Grounds
Thursdays, 12 Noon to 1:00 PM

Hawai`i Architectural Modernism will be the theme of the 2013 annual Experts at the
Palace lecture series, now in its 27th year. The free weekly lecture is open to the public.

Sponsored by the Historic Preservation Program, Department of American Studies,
University of Hawaii Manoa; Friends of ‘Iolani Palace; and Historic Hawaii Foundation

  • January 31: Louis Fung, AIA (Fung Associates Inc.): “The Foundation of the Modern Movement in                                Hawai`i: Modernism in American Architecture”
  • February 7: Don Hibbard, Ph.D.: "Evaluating Mid-Century Low-Rise Apartments in Hawai`i"
  • February 14: Kiersten Faulkner, APA (Executive Director, Historic Hawaii Foundation): “The Unique Challenges, Threats and Opportunities Facing Modern Historic Resources”
  • February 21: Glenn Mason, AIA (Mason Architects): "Technical Innovation and the Emergence of New Building Materials InMid-20th Century Architecture"
  • February 28: Tonia Moy, AIA (Fung Associates Inc.): “The Range of Modern Architectural Resources in Hawai`i, 1939-1979”
  • March 7: Angie Westfall, AIA (Architecture Branch Chief, State Historic Preservation Division): "Surveying Hawai`i's Mid-Century Subdivisions"



date: Tuesday, January 29, 2013
note: This event has passed

Professor Brandy Nālani McDougall to speak at Faculty Lecture Series

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
Posted: Jan. 22, 2013

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.



date: Friday, December 07, 2012
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Charity Begins at Home: Philanthropy, Remittances, and Filipino Diaspora

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



date: Tuesday, December 04, 2012
note: This event has passed

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

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.



date: Friday, November 30, 2012
note: This event has passed

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

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.

 




date: Friday, November 30, 2012
note: This event has passed

American Studies Coffee Hour

This week (Friday, 30 Nov), we will be having a American Studies Coffee Talk for our undergrads on deadlines as well as instructions on how to apply for FAFSA, scholarships, and financial aid. We will be joined by student rep, Kari Barnes, as well as representatives from the Office for Financial Aid.