• Exciting News: CELJ Award for Graphic Medicine

    The Center for Biographical Research is thrilled to announce that “Graphic Medicine,” a special
    issue of Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly (volume 44, numbers 2 & 3) guest edited by
    Erin La Cour and Anna Poletti, has been selected as Honorable Mention (second place) for the
    Best Special Issue Award in this year’s Council of Editors of Learned Journals contest.
    The CELJ judges offered the following assessment of the special issue:


    Honorable Mention: “Graphic Medicine,” a special issue of Biography 
     
    The number and quality of submissions for the 2022 CELJ Best Special Issue Award was
    truly impressive, making adjudication both delightful and difficult. We were inspired by
    the range of topics and approaches. In making our decision, we considered the clarity of
    editorial vision, the significance of the contribution, whether or not an issue was
    conceptually interesting beyond a single field, formal and methodological innovation, and
    evidence of collaborative engagement across individual contributions to the broader
    project of the issue.


    The award review committee recognizes “Graphic Medicine,” a special issue
    of 
    Biography on life narratives in the medium of comics, with an honorable mention. The
    decision to include different genres—both scholarly essays and original autobiographical
    comics—resulted in a multi-genre issue that compellingly explores the possibilities and
    concerns raised by living with (and/or alongside) illness and disability. The scope of the
    articles encompassed a broad but interrelated investigation into the topic, and the editor’s
    introduction effectively contextualized these articles in relation to the field of
    interdisciplinary medical humanities while making a persuasive argument about how
    comics “expose the subjective experiences of health and healthcare systems that may be
    difficult for both practitioners and patients to understand or explain in either verbal or
    visual language alone.” We appreciated the wholistic approach taken in developing the
    issue, with contributions being collectively workshopped as part of the process. Finally,
    the layout, typesetting, and graphics all contributed to an excellent reading experience. 


    Congratulations to the coeditors—Erin La Cour and Anna Poletti—and the contributors to the
    special issue—Safdar Ahmed, Suzy Becker, Kiene Brillenburg Wurth, Jared Gardner, Crystal
    Yin Lie, John Miers, Nancy K. Miller, JoAnn Purcell, Susan Squier, and Julia Watson.

    Biography has been recognized by CELJ for special issues twice before: in 2017, when it won
    the Special Issue Award for “Indigenous Conversations about Biography” edited by Alice Te
    Punga Somerville, Daniel Heath Justice, and Noelani Arista, and in 2012, when it won for
    (Post)human Lives” edited by Gillian Whitlock and G. Thomas Couser.


    Released digitally on Project Muse in June 2022, the issue was also published as a book by the
    University of Hawai‘i Press in August 2022.


    In Graphic Medicine, comics artists and scholars of life writing, literature, and comics explore
    the lived experience of illness and disability through original texts, images, and the dynamic
    interplay between the two. The essays and autobiographical comics in this collection respond to
    the medical humanities’ call for different perceptions and representations of illness and disability
    than those found in conventional medical discourse. The collection expands and troubles our
    understanding of the relationships between patients and doctors, nurses, social workers,
    caregivers, and family members, considering such encounters in terms of cultural context,
    language, gender, class, and ethnicity. By treating illness and disability as an experience of
    fundamentally changed living, rather than a separate narrative episode organized by treatment,
    recovery, and a return to “normal life,” Graphic Medicine asks what it means to give and receive
    care.


    Comics by Safdar Ahmed, John Miers, and Suzy Becker, and illustrated essays by Nancy K.
    Miller and Jared Gardner show how life writing about illness and disability in comics offers new
    ways of perceiving the temporality of caring and living. Crystal Yin Lie and Julia Watson
    demonstrate how use of the page through panels, collages, and borderless images can draw the
    reader, as a “mute witness,” into contact with the body as a site where intergenerational trauma is
    registered and expressed. Kiene Brillenburg Wurth examines how microscripts productively
    extend graphic medicine beyond comics to “outsider art.” JoAnn Purcell and Susan Squier
    display how comics artists respond to and reflect upon their caring relationship with those
    diagnosed with an intellectual disability. And Erin La Cour interrogates especially difficult
    representations of relationality and care.


    During the past decade, graphic medicine comics have proliferated―an outpouring accelerated
    recently by the greatest health crisis in a century. Edited by Erin La Cour and Anna
    Poletti, Graphic Medicine helps us recognize that however unpleasant or complicated it may be,
    interacting with such stories offers fresh insights, suggests new forms of acceptance, and
    enhances our abilities to speak to others about the experience of illness and disability.


  • BROWN BAG BIOGRAPHY: SPRING 2023

    We’re excited to announce the schedule for Brown Bag Biography, Spring 2023. Most of our talks will be presented online via Zoom, meaning that anyone, anywhere, can join!

    As with last semester, some of our talks will be in hybrid format, with the option to attend the presentations in person in Biomed B-104 (UH Mānoa). We will hold one talk, Shawna Yang Ryan’s “Assisted Memory,” in KUY 410. We look forward to seeing some of you in person again!

    We will also record and post many of the talks. You can find some past presentations on our YouTube channel here.

    THE CENTER FOR BIOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH, UNIVERSITY OF HAWAIʻI AT MĀNOA

    PRESENTS

    BROWN BAG BIOGRAPHY

    DISCUSSIONS OF LIFE WRITING BY & FOR TOWN & GOWN •  THURSDAYS, 12:00 NOON–1:15 PM HST •  CHECK SCHEDULE FOR FORMAT

    All are welcome to attend. For more information, please visit the Center for Biographical Research’s website http://blog.hawaii.edu/cbrhawaii/, contact us at 808-956-3774 or gabiog@hawaii.edu, or sign up for our mailing list at https://forms.gle/Sr9WdvNBD9WdwG7EA.

    Spring 2023 SCHEDULE

    February 2: Mālama I Ka Wai

    Ernie Lau, Manager and Chief Engineer, Board of Water Supply 

    Kathleen M. Pahinui, Public Information Officer, Board of Water Supply

    Cosponsored by the Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi, Hawaiʻi Peace and Justice, Shut Down Red Hill Coalition, Hamilton Library, the Hawaiʻinuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge, Hui ʻĀina Pilipili: Native Hawaiian Initiative, the Center for Oral History, the Spark M. Matsunaga Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, the School of Cinematic Arts, the School of Communication & Information, the Departments of Anthropology, History, and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

    Presentation Format: Zoom

    Time: 12:00–1:15 pm HST

    Zoom link: https://hawaii.zoom.us/j/98912195994

    Zoom Meeting ID: 989 1219 5994

    Password: 385105

    February 9: “Flow: Outdoor Counternarratives by Women from Rivers, Rock, and Sky”

    Denisa Krásná, Doctoral Candidate and Student Assistant for Central European Association for Canadian Studies (CEACS), Department of English and American Studies, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

    Cosponsored by Hamilton Library, the Hawaiʻinuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge, the Spark M. Matsunaga Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, the School of Cinematic Arts, the School of Communication & Information, the Departments of Anthropology, History, and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

    Presentation Format: Hybrid (Biomed B-104 and Zoom)

    Time: 12:00–1:15 pm HST

    Zoom link: https://hawaii.zoom.us/j/97819261096

    Zoom Meeting ID: 978 1926 1096

    Password: 246138

    February 16: Mai Ka Hunalepo a Kaneikapuahiohio: From a dust mote to Kaneikapuahiohio

    D. Kauwila Mahi, Graduate Research Assistant and Student, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, and Instructor, University of Victoria, British Columbia

    Cosponsored by Hamilton Library,  the Hawaiʻinuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge, Hui ʻĀina Pilipili: Native Hawaiian Initiative, the Center for Oral History, the Spark M. Matsunaga Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, the School of Cinematic Arts, the School of Communication & Information, the Departments of Anthropology, History, and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

    Presentation Format: Hybrid (Biomed B-104 and Zoom)

    Time: 12:00–1:15 pm HST

    Zoom link: https://hawaii.zoom.us/j/95116865752

    Zoom Meeting ID: 951 1686 5752

    Password: 287490

    February 23: Radical Wāhine of Honolulu, 1945”

    Mari Matsuda, Professor of Law, Retired, and MFA Candidate, Department of Art and Art History, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa

    Cosponsored by Hamilton Library, the Hawaiʻinuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge, Hui ʻĀina Pilipili: Native Hawaiian Initiative, the Spark M. Matsunaga Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, the School of Cinematic Arts, the School of Communication & Information, the Departments of Anthropology, History, and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

    Presentation Format: Zoom

    Time: 12:00–1:15 pm HST

    Zoom link: https://hawaii.zoom.us/j/93726513101

    Zoom Meeting ID: 937 2651 3101

    Password: 146708

    March 2: The Unsaid

    Yasmine Romero, Associate Professor of English, University of Hawai‘i-West O‘ahu 

    Cosponsored by Hamilton Library, the Hawaiʻinuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge, the Center for Oral History, the Spark M. Matsunaga Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, the School of Cinematic Arts, the School of Communication & Information, the Departments of Anthropology, History, and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

    Presentation Format: Zoom

    Time: 12:00–1:15 pm HST

    Zoom link: https://hawaii.zoom.us/j/91920749515

    Zoom Meeting ID: 919 2074 9515

    Password: 064093

    March 9: Damu, color concepts, and chief in Fijian”

    Apolonia Tamata, Fulbright Scholar-In-Residence (2022-2023), Hawaiian Theatre and Performance Studies, Department of Theatre and Dance, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, and Senior Lecturer in Fijian Language Studies, School of Pacific Arts Communication and Education, University of the South Pacific

    Cosponsored by Hamilton Library, the Hawaiʻinuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge, Hui ʻĀina Pilipili: Native Hawaiian Initiative, the Spark M. Matsunaga Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, the School of Cinematic Arts, the School of Communication & Information, the Departments of Anthropology, History, and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

    Presentation Format: Hybrid (Biomed B-104 and Zoom)

    Time: 12:00–1:15 pm HST

    Zoom link: https://hawaii.zoom.us/j/92903661186

    Zoom Meeting ID: 929 0366 1186

    Password: 421816

    March 16: Spring Break

    March 23: “Assisted Memory”

    Shawna Yang Ryan, Associate Professor, Department of English, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa

    Cosponsored by Hamilton Library, the Hawaiʻinuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge, the Spark M. Matsunaga Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, the School of Cinematic Arts, the School of Communication & Information, the Departments of Anthropology, Asian Studies, History, and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

    Presentation Format: In Person (KUY 410)

    Time: 12:00–1:15 pm HST

    March 30: “Dog Years: A Life in Dance”

    Dr. Betsy Fisher, Professor Emerita, Former Professor of Dance, Department of Theatre and Dance, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa

    Cosponsored by Hamilton Library, the Hawaiʻinuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge, the Center for Oral History, the Spark M. Matsunaga Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, the School of Cinematic Arts, the School of Communication & Information, the Departments of Anthropology, History, and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

    Presentation Format: Hybrid (Biomed B-104 and Zoom)

    Time: 12:00–1:15 pm HST

    Zoom link: https://hawaii.zoom.us/j/98409463023

    Zoom Meeting ID: 984 0946 3023

    Password: 082889

    April 6: The Zone of Pure Doubt: A Poetics of Line Crossing

    Judd Morrissey, Associate Professor, Art & Technology Studies & Writing, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

    Cosponsored by Hamilton Library, the Hawaiʻinuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge, the Spark M. Matsunaga Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, the School of Cinematic Arts, the School of Communication & Information, the Departments of Anthropology, History, and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

    Presentation Format: Hybrid (Biomed B-104 and Zoom)

    Time: 12:00–1:15 pm HST

    Zoom link: https://hawaii.zoom.us/j/92427319905

    Zoom Meeting ID: 924 2731 9905

    Password: 503699

    April 13: Break

    April 20: “Moʻolelo, the Foundation of Hawaiian Knowledge: Retaining Our Heritage

    Moderated by Tammy Haili‘ōpua Baker, Associate Professor, Department of Theatre and Dance, and C. M. Kaliko Baker, Associate Professor, Kawaihuelani Center for Hawaiian Language, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa

    Cosponsored by Hamilton Library,  the Hawaiʻinuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge, Hui ʻĀina Pilipili: Native Hawaiian Initiative, the Center for Oral History, the Spark M. Matsunaga Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, the School of Cinematic Arts, the School of Communication & Information, the Departments of Anthropology, History, and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

    Presentation Format: Hybrid (Biomed B-104 and Zoom)

    Time: 12:00–1:15 pm HST

    Zoom link: https://hawaii.zoom.us/j/97701653194

    Zoom Meeting ID: 977 0165 3194

    Password: 058294

    April 27: “Moʻolelo: ke kīpaipai e kūkulu ai ka hale kanaka

    Moderated by Kaipulaumakaniolono Baker, PhD Student, Department of English, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa

    Cosponsored by Hamilton Library, the Hawaiʻinuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge, Hui ʻĀina Pilipili: Native Hawaiian Initiative, the Center for Oral History, the Spark M. Matsunaga Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, the School of Cinematic Arts, the School of Communication & Information, the Departments of Anthropology, History, and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

    Presentation Format: Hybrid (Biomed B-104 and Zoom)

    Time: 12:00–1:15 pm HST

    Zoom link: https://hawaii.zoom.us/j/97258007876

    Zoom Meeting ID: 972 5800 7876

    Password: 519166


  • AVAILABLE NOW: BIOGRAPHY 45.2

    We are pleased to announce the publication of Biography 45.2, which which includes a tribute to Miriam Fuchs and our annual bibliography of works on life writing. Find it on Project Muse:  https://muse.jhu.edu/issue/49784.

    Biography 45.2, Table of Contents

    Editor’s Note

    Remembering Miriam Fuchs

    Miriam Fuchs, Life Writing, and Life

    Craig Howes

    A Voyage Beyond the Text as Self: Remembering Miriam Fuchs Holzman

    Cynthia G. Franklin

    Miriam: The Text Is Herself

    Ellen G. Friedman

    Miriam: Friend, Mentor, Scholar, and Teacher

    Sarita Rai

    Miriam, The Bookies, and I

    Joseph H. O’Mealy

    In the Warm Waters of Lanikai: Paddling with Miriam

    Leinaala Davis

    A Tribute to Miriam Fuchs: With Love from Her Student

    Amy Carlson

    Annual Bibliography of Works about Life Writing, 2021

    Compiled by Zoë E. Sprott and Caroline Zuckerman

    Books

    Edited Collections and Special Issues

    Articles and Essays

    Dissertations


  • AVAILABLE NOW: BIOGRAPHY 45.1

    We are pleased to announce the publication of Biography 45.1, which includes open-forum articles and reviews. Find it on Project Muse: https://muse.jhu.edu/issue/49084

    Biography 45.1, Table of Contents

    Editor’s Note

    Open-Forum Articles

    Screening Clara Schumann: Biomythography, Gender, and the Relational Biopic

    Julia Novak

    This article examines four biopics about nineteenth-century musicians Clara Schumann and Robert Schumann as gendered manifestations of the “Schumann biomyth.” It traces the development of the figure of Clara in relation to the films’ historical and political contexts, changing genre conventions, and the demands of (inter)national film industries.

    Textile Auto/biography: Protest, Testimony, and Solidarity in the Chilean Arpillerista Movement

    Lisa Ortiz-Vilarelle

    Beginning in 1975, arpillera workshops allowed women to work collectively to document the acts of violence committed against their loved ones under Augusto Pinochet’s regime in Chile. Arpilleras, burlap embroidered with patchwork depictions of people and landscapes, are made from garments of the dead and disappeared. This essay focuses on the clandestine nature of this artwork and features images of arpilleras from one of the largest known collections.

    Identity Work, Sexuality, and the Reception of Testimony:
    On Identification with Anne Frank

    Hannah Jakobsen

    In a group of online personal essays, readers of Anne Frank’s Diary narrativize their identification with Frank as the turning point in a coming-out story. Pointing to one Diary passage in particular, these reader-essayists describe relating to a sexuality that they perceive in Frank. I first ask how identification functions in life writing, examining its role in the negotiation and articulation of sexual identity in these cases. I then ask how and why—particularly given their focus on sexuality—these reader-essayists identify with the author of a canonical testimony to atrocity.

    Autobiographical Convergences: A Cultural Analysis of Books by Swedish Digital Media Influencers

    Gabriella Nilsson

    Through a close reading of autobiographical books written by Swedish digital media influencers, individuals who live and make a living from their daily online life narratives, this article analyzes how the life narratives are plotted and framed to fit the auto­biographical format. Two interwoven but contradictory narrative themes are found. One is the depiction of digital media as a positively charged, colorful sanctuary, a cyborg world appearing to the authors in a time of need. The other theme is the individual life histories of the authors, who strive to create chronologies and seek causal explanations for the various events and experiences of their lives. While the depiction of digital media appears to be a way to justify their current lifestyle, the life history stands out as a way to counter the fragmentation of digital media.

    Reviews

    Research Methodologies for Auto/biography Studies, edited by Kate Douglas and Ashley Barnwell

    Reviewed by Desirée Henderson

    The Oxford History of Life-Writing: Volume 1, The Middle Ages, by Karen A. Winstead

    Reviewed by Derrick Higginbotham

    Romanticism and the Letter, edited by Madeleine Callaghan and Anthony Howe

    Reviewed by Mary A. Waters

    Prison Life Writing: Conversion and the Literary Roots of the U.S. Prison System, by Simon Rolston

    Reviewed by D. Quentin Miller

    The Territorialities of U.S. Imperialism(s): Conflicting Discourses of Sovereignty, Jurisdiction and Territory in Nineteenth-Century U.S. Legal Texts and Indigenous Life Writing, by Jens Temmen

    Reviewed by Katrina Phillips

    Americánas, Autocracy, and Autobiographical Innovation: Overwriting the Dictator, by Lisa Ortiz-Vilarelle

    Reviewed by Renata Lucena Dalmaso

    Indian Travel Writing in the Age of Empire, 1830–1940,
    by Pramod K. Nayar

    Reviewed by Shaswat Panda

    Sports Journalism and Women Athletes: Coverage of Coming Out Stories, by William P. Cassidy

    Reviewed by Michael Tsai

    Templates for Authorship: American Women’s Literary Autobiography of the 1930s, by Windy Counsell Petrie

    Reviewed by Pamela L. Caughie

    Contemporary Feminist Life-Writing: The New Audacity,
    by Jennifer Cooke

    Reviewed by Kate Drabinski

    Charlotte Salomon and the Theatre of Memory, by Griselda Pollock

    Reviewed by Julia Watson


  • BROWN BAG BIOGRAPHY: FALL 2022

    We’re thrilled to announce the schedule for Brown Bag Biography, Fall 2022. As with the last few semesters, all of our talks will be presented online via Zoom, meaning that anyone, anywhere, can join!

    This semester, however, some of our talks will be in hybrid format, with the option to attend the presentations in person in Biomed B-104 (UH Mānoa). We look forward to seeing some of you at the Center again!

    We will also record and post some of the talks. You can find some past presentations on our YouTube channel here.

    THE CENTER FOR BIOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH, UNIVERSITY OF HAWAIʻI AT MĀNOA

    PRESENTS

    BROWN BAG BIOGRAPHY

    DISCUSSIONS OF LIFE WRITING BY & FOR TOWN & GOWN
    THURSDAYS, 12:00 NOON–1:15 PM HST
    ALL SESSIONS ON ZOOM; SOME ALSO IN PERSON IN BIOMED B-104 (UH MĀNOA)

    Fall 2022 SCHEDULE

    September 21: “History in Crisis, History in Focus—What History does Hawaiʻi need, and Why does it Matter?”
    Shannon Cristobal, Director of Hawaiʻi History Day and K-12 Humanities Programs, Hawaiʻi Council for the Humanities
    Noelani Goodyear-Kaʻōpua, Professor of Political Science, Indigenous Politics Program
    Amy Perruso, Hawaiʻi State House Representative, District 46, DOE Social Studies and Civics Teacher, former secretary-treasurer, HSTA
    Moderated by Davianna Pōmaikaʻi McGregor, Professor of Ethnic Studies and Director, Center for Oral History, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
    Sponsored by Hawaiʻi Ponoʻī Coalition 
    NB: Time: 6:00–7:30 pm HST
    Website: http://hawaiianhistorymonth.org 
    Zoom registration link: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_3IhskxUTTIa1EhxL4kl_Vg

    September 23: “Hawaiian History and Culture K-12 and Beyond—Across the Curriculum, Across the Pae ʻĀina”
    Whitney Aragaki, Science Teacher, Waiakea High School, State Teacher of the Year 2022
    Patricia Espiritu Halagao, Professor and Chair, Curriculum Studies, College of Education, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
    Cheryl Kaʻuhane Lupenui, President and CEO, Kohala Center, and Founder, The Leader Project
    Christopher Pike, Fifth Grade Teacher, Chiefess Kapiʻolani Elementary School
    Lyz Soto, Communications Officer, Hawaiʻi Council for the Humanities
    Moderated by Jonathan Kay Kamakawiwoʻole Osorio, Dean, Hawaiʻinuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
    Sponsored by Hawaiʻi Ponoʻī Coalition 
    NB: Time: 6:00–7:30 pm HST
    Website: http://hawaiianhistorymonth.org 
    Zoom registration link: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_hMROuc-QSyKf8ebqQSmVlw

    September 29: “Peeking Behind the Curtains at Catherine the Great: Celebrity in the Eighteenth Century” 
    Ruth Dawson, Prof. Emerita, Dept. of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, UH Mānoa; Honorary Fellow, Institute of Modern Languages Research, University of London
    Presentation Format: Hybrid (Biomed B-104 and Zoom)
    Time: 12:00–1:15 pm HST
    Zoom link:  https://hawaii.zoom.us/j/98160195964
    Zoom Meeting ID: 981 6019 5964, Password: 651017

    October 6: “The Unimagined Journey: Nova Scotia to Hawai‘i”
    Dr. Clem Guthro, University Librarian UH Manoa and Interim Director and Publisher, University of Hawai‘i Press
    Presentation Format: Hybrid (Biomed B-104 and Zoom)
    Time: 12:00–1:15 pm HST
    Zoom link:  https://hawaii.zoom.us/j/94535100181
    Zoom Meeting ID: 945 3510 0181, Password: 779100

    October 13: “The Representation of Space in Edward Said’s Out of Place
    Lili Chen, PhD Student in Institute of World Literature, Peking University, specializing in American Immigrant Autobiography
    Presentation Format: Hybrid (Biomed B-104 and Zoom)
    Time: 12:00–1:15 pm HST
    Zoom link:  https://hawaii.zoom.us/j/94072405841
    Zoom Meeting ID: 940 7240 5841, Password: 438940

    October 20: “Crafting a Life: Writing the Biography of a 20th-Century Woman Artist Born and Raised in Hawai‘i”
    Dr. Sharon Weiner, Department of English, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa
    Presentation Format: Hybrid (Biomed B-104 and Zoom)
    Time: 12:00–1:15 pm HST
    Zoom link:  https://hawaii.zoom.us/j/98547221272
    Zoom Meeting ID: 985 4722 1272, Password: 591805

    October 27: “From Masking to Masquerade: Autofictional Forms and Effects in Diachronic Perspective”
    Dr. Alexandra Effe, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Oslo.
    Presentation Format: Hybrid (Biomed B-104 and Zoom) 
    Time: 12:00–1:15 pm HST
    Zoom link:  https://hawaii.zoom.us/j/96172869118
    Zoom Meeting ID: 961 7286 9118, Password: 336906

    November 3: Graphic Medicine: Stories Drawn from Illness, Health, and Caregiving”
    Suzy Becker, Author/Illustrator and New Yorker Cartoonist
    Jared Gardner, Professor of English and Director of Popular Culture Studies, The Ohio State University
    Crystal Yin Lie, Assistant Professor of Comparative World Literature, Cal State University, Long Beach
    JoAnn Purcell, Faculty and Program Coordinator, Illustration, Seneca College
    Susan Squier, Brill Professor Emeritus of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and English, Penn State University and Board Member Graphic Medicine Collective  
    Julia Watson, Professor Emerita of Comparative Studies, The Ohio State University
    Presentation Format: Zoom
    Time: 12:00–1:15 pm HST
    Zoom link: https://hawaii.zoom.us/j/97632020673
    Zoom Meeting ID: 976 3202 0673, Password: 813967

    November 10: “Atoll Depth: The Case of the Funafuti Expedition, 1896–98”
    Dr. Carla Manfredi, Assistant Professor, Department of English, The University of Winnipeg 
    Presentation Format: Hybrid (Biomed B-104 and Zoom) 
    Time: 12:00–1:15 pm HST
    Zoom link: https://hawaii.zoom.us/j/97793395796
    Zoom Meeting ID: 977 9339 5796, Password: 921205

    November 17: “In Community with Our Shared Place: A Teacher’s Journey”
    Whitney Aragaki (she/they), 2022 Hawaiʻi State Teacher of the Year, 2022 National Teacher of the Year Finalist
    Presentation Format: Zoom
    Time: 12:00–1:15 pm HST
    Zoom link:  https://hawaii.zoom.us/j/98769665844
    Zoom Meeting ID: 987 6966 5844, Password: 774603

    November 24: Thanksgiving

    December 1: “He Aloha No Kaualilinoe: The Nūpepa Writings of a Kanaka from Mānoa”
    J. Hauʻoli Lorenzo-Elarco, Instructor of Hawaiian Language, Honolulu Community College; PhD Student, Ka Haka ʻUla o Keʻelikōlani, University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo
    Presentation Format: Zoom 
    Time: 12:00–1:15 pm HST
    Zoom link: https://hawaii.zoom.us/j/97463593162
    Zoom Meeting ID: 974 6359 3162, Password: 606520


  • Available Now: Graphic Medicine

    We are pleased to announce the release of Graphic Medicine as both a special issue of Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly on Project Muse and as a book available through the University of Hawai‘i Press

    Edited by Erin La Cour and Anna Poletti, Graphic Medicine brings together scholars and comics artists to consider how life narratives in the medium of comics open up new channels of communication between medical staff, patients, their loved ones, and the community. These include creating alternative sites for community building among patients and their loved ones with regard to specific conditions and their related treatments, and educating medical practitioners about patient experiences within healthcare systems. By treating illness and disability as experiences of fundamentally changed living, rather than as separate narrative episodes organized by treatment, recovery, and a return to “normal life,” Graphic Medicine asks what it means to give and receive care.

    Through autobiographical comics and illustrated essays, Safdar Ahmed, John Miers, Suzy Becker, Nancy K. Miller, and Jared Gardner offer alternative modes of understanding illness and disability, caring relationships, and temporality. Crystal Yin Lie and Julia Watson demonstrate how use of the page through panels, collages, and borderless images can draw the reader, as a “mute witness,” into contact with the body as a site where intergenerational trauma is registered and expressed. Kiene Brillenburg Wurth examines how microscripts productively extend graphic medicine beyond comics to “outsider art.” JoAnn Purcell and Susan M. Squier display how comics artists respond to and reflect upon their caring relationships with those diagnosed with an intellectual disability. And Erin La Cour interrogates especially difficult representations of relationality and care. 

    During the past decade, graphic medicine comics have proliferated—an outpouring accelerated recently by the greatest health crisis in a century. Graphic Medicine helps us recognize that however unpleasant or complicated it may be, interacting with such stories offers fresh insights, suggests new forms of acceptance, and enhances our abilities to speak to others about the experience of illness and disability.

    Table of Contents

    Erin La Cour and Anna Poletti, “Graphic Medicine’s Possible Futures: Reconsidering Poetics and Reading”

    John Miers, “Conflict or Compromise?: An Imagined Conversation with John Hicklenton and Lindsay Cooper about Living with Multiple Sclerosis” 

    Jared Gardner, “Out of Sync: Chronic Illness, Time, and Comics Memoir”

    Nancy K. Miller, “‘Is this recovery?’: Chronicity and Closure in Graphic Illness Memoir” 

    Erin La Cour, “Face as Landscape: Refiguring Illness, Disability, and Disorders in David B.’s Epileptic” 

    JoAnn Purcell, with Simone Purcell Randmaa. “Disability Daily Drawn: A Comics Collaboration” 

    Susan M. Squier, “Reframing ‘Nothing About Us Without Us’: Comics and Intellectual Disability” 

    Safdar Ahmed, “Graphic Confessions and the Vulnerability Hangover from Hell”

    Julia Watson, “Drawing Is the Best Medicine: Somatic Dis-ease and Graphic Revenge in Miriam Katin’s Letting It Go” 

    Suzy Becker, “If That’s What You Want to Call It: An Illustrated Rx-Ray for Graphic Medicine”

    Crystal Yin Lie, “Drawn to History: Healing, Dementia, and the Armenian Genocide in the Intertextual Collage of Aliceheimer’s” 

    Kiene Brillenburg Wurth, “Outsider Writing: The Healing Art of Robert Walser”


  • Congratulations Biography Prize Co-Winners 2022!

    The Center for Biographical Research is pleased to announce the winners of this year’s Biography Prize for outstanding creative, critical, or theoretical work in the field of life writing by University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa graduate students. 

    This year’s awardees produced outstanding research on Hawaiʻi subjects. The doctoral award goes to a full biography of a 20th century Hawaiʻi artist. The masters award this year is especially notable, as it honors the first prize-winning submission composed entirely in ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi. More detailed descriptions of the projects, and the judges’ comments appear below. 

    “Juliette May Fraser: A Kamaʻāina Life in Art” by Sharon Weiner

    The judges appreciated how detailed, well researched, and clearly written your chapter was. We found the details about camouflage work particularly interesting. We also admired how you put the chapter’s details, many of them seemingly mundane, together in a compelling way to tell a rich narrative about Fraser and her expanding circle of influence. As well, we appreciated the diversity of your sources, and your skill in providing contexts for those featured in the chapter.

    “Heleleʻi Ka Ua Lilinoe, Ola Ka Honua” by Jacob Hauʻoli Lorenzo-Elarco

    The evaluator described how you used an arresting framework to address how we come up with pen names; your extensive research in the Hawaiian-language newspapers along with pertinent secondary/English-language sources; and your success in combining intellectual biography and using clues in that work to write a speculative biography on limited information. He also appreciated your discussion of kapu, and your writing style, which he found reminiscent of the nineteenth century author you are writing about. He praised your use of sustained metaphors of mist, rain and water that he noted would be particularly valued by those who read traditional moʻolelo. Our committee reached clear consensus based on these strengths that your thesis is deserving of the prize.


  • 2022 Biography Prize Nominations Now Open

    Criteria for Nomination:

    • The candidate should be a PhD or MA student in any graduate department of the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa (or have graduated with an MA or PhD in December 2021).
    • The submission can be work written for a class, a section of a thesis or dissertation, or a completed thesis or dissertation. If written for a class, it should be work completed between May 2021 and April 2022 (and not previously submitted for a Biography Prize).

    The project should be 3,000 to 10,000 words in length. Longer projects can be submitted in their entirety, with a particular chapter or section highlighted for consideration. The work should demonstrate knowledge or awareness of central debates and theorizing in the field and study of life writing.

    Please send nominations (graduate student’s name and subject or title of project) and contact information to Paige Rasmussen (biograph@hawaii.edu) by Thursday, April 14.

    Once you send your nomination, the Center for Biographical Research will notify the student to arrange for submission of the project. Candidates may also nominate their own work for the award. The deadline for submissions is Monday, April 25.

    The winner of the Biography Prize receives a monetary award and is invited to give a presentation in the Brown Bag Biography lecture series.


  • Brown Bag Biography, Spring 2022

    We are delighted to announce the schedule for Brown Bag Biography, Spring 2022. This semester, as with the last few semesters, all of our talks will be presented online via Zoom, meaning that anyone, anywhere, can join in! We will also record and post some of the talks. You can find some from Fall 2020, Spring 2021, and Fall 2021 on our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWW2zPhLyvpDGVpFPUmHHLw.

    THE CENTER FOR BIOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH, UNIVERSITY OF HAWAIʻI AT MĀNOA

    PRESENTS

    BROWN BAG BIOGRAPHY

    DISCUSSIONS OF LIFE WRITING BY & FOR TOWN & GOWN
    THURSDAYS, 12:00 NOON–1:15 PM HST • ONLINE VIA ZOOM


    SPRING 2022 SCHEDULE

    February 3: “The Making of Reel Wahine of Hawai‘i
    Vera Zambonelli and Shirley Thompson, series co-producers and directors
    Meleanna Meyer, visual artist and filmmaker, season III cast member
    Joy Chong-Stannard, live television and documentary director, season III cast member
    Cosponsored by Hamilton Library, the Spark M. Matsunaga Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, the Academy for Creative Media, Hui ʻĀina Pilipili: Native Hawaiian Initiative, the Hawaiʻinuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge, the School of Communications, the Center for Oral History, the Departments of Ethnic Studies, Political Science, and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and the University of Hawai‘i West Oʻahu Academy for Creative Media
    Zoom Meeting ID: 936 7791 2215
    Password: 184444

    February 10: “Constructing the Ghoul Boys: Queerying Ethics and Identity in Buzzfeed Unsolved and Its Real-Person Fiction (RPF)”
    Zoë E. Sprott, MA Candidate, English; Reviews Editor and Editorial Assistant at the Center for Biographical Research, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa
    Cosponsored by Hamilton Library, the Spark M. Matsunaga Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, the Academy for Creative Media, the School of Communications, and the Departments of Political Science and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
    Zoom Meeting ID: 920 0132 6880
    Password: 589979

    February 17: “Hawaiʻiloa and the End of the Kanaka Diaspora”
    Michael David Kaulana Ing, Associate Professor, Department of Religious Studies, Indiana University
    Cosponsored by Hamilton Library, the Spark M. Matsunaga Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, Hui ʻĀina Pilipili: Native Hawaiian Initiative, the Hawaiʻinuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge, and the Departments of Religion, Ethnic Studies, and Political Science
    Zoom Meeting ID: 967 2316 5685
    Password: 493614

    February 24: “Memorializing Dr. Haunani-Kay Trask”
    M. Healani Sonoda-Pale, Kanaka Maoli and Citizen of Ka Lāhui Hawaiʻi
    Cosponsored by Hamilton Library, the Spark M. Matsunaga Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, Hui ʻĀina Pilipili: Native Hawaiian Initiative, the Hawaiʻinuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge, and the Departments of Ethnic Studies, Political Science, History, and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
    Zoom Meeting ID: 953 4618 1006
    Password: 421123

    March 3: “Inclusion: How Hawaii Protected Japanese Americans from Mass Internment, Transformed Itself, and Changed America”
    Tom Coffman, Political Journalist, Author, Filmmaker
    Cosponsored by Hamilton Library, the Spark M. Matsunaga Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, Hui ʻĀina Pilipili: Native Hawaiian Initiative, the Hawaiʻinuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge, and the Departments of History, Ethnic Studies, and Political Science
    Zoom Meeting ID: 969 7952 5765
    Password: 697708

    March 10: “Sharing Stories of Pain on Social Media”
    L. Ayu Saraswati, Associate Professor, Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa
    Cosponsored by Hamilton Library, the Spark M. Matsunaga Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, the Academy for Creative Media, and the School of Communications, and the Departments of Political Science and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
    Zoom Meeting ID: 942 1123 1535
    Password: 700655

    March 24: “Indigenizing the Writing Center”
    Georganne Nordstrom, Associate Professor, Department of English, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa; Vice President, International Writing Center Association 
    Kalilinoe Detwiler, MA Candidate, English; Center Coordinator, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa Writing Center 
    Kayla Watabu, MA Candidate, English; Research/Workshop Coordinator, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa Writing Center
    Cosponsored by Hamilton Library, the Spark M. Matsunaga Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, Hui ʻĀina Pilipili: Native Hawaiian Initiative, the Hawaiʻinuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge, the School of Communications, and the Departments of Ethnic Studies, Political Science, and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
    Zoom Meeting ID: 954 9657 0215
    Password: 975259

    March 31:Sweat and Salt Water: Generating a Testament to the Legacy of Teresia Kieuea Teaiwa”
    Dr. April K. Henderson, Director of Va’aomanū Pasifika—Programmes in Pacific Studies and Samoan Studies, Te Herenga Waka/Victoria University of Wellington
    Terence Wesley-Smith, Professor (retired), Center for Pacific Islands Studies, UHM
    Katerina Teaiwa, Professor of Pacific Studies and Deputy Director – Higher Degree Research Training in the School of Culture, History and Language, and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, Australian National University
    Cosponsored by Hamilton Library, the Spark M. Matsunaga Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, Hui ʻĀina Pilipili: Native Hawaiian Initiative, the Hawaiʻinuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge, and the Departments of Ethnic Studies, Political Science, and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
    Zoom Meeting ID: 964 6893 6495
    Password: 765773

    April 7: “‘Trouble Enough’: Enslaved Women’s Testimony as an Ethics of Care”
    Elizabeth Colwill, Associate Professor, Department of American Studies, and Affiliate Faculty for the Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa
    Cosponsored by Hamilton Library, the Spark M. Matsunaga Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, and the Departments of History, Ethnic Studies, Political Science, and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
    Zoom Meeting ID: 919 2757 7192
    Password: 208236

    April 14: “From Research to Curriculum: Grassroots Strategies for Getting Your Life Stories into Classrooms”
    Ron Williams Jr., PhD, Archivist at the Hawaiʻi State Archives, and Owner of Ka ʻElele Research and Writing and For Goodness Sake, a community education non-profit
    Cosponsored by Hamilton Library, the Spark M. Matsunaga Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, Hui ʻĀina Pilipili: Native Hawaiian Initiative, the Hawaiʻinuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge, and the Departments of Ethnic Studies and Political Science
    Zoom Meeting ID: 991 1226 0590
    Password: 345501

    April 21: “Talking Story: A Panel on the Bamboo Ridge Oral History Project”
    Eric Chock and Darrell Lum, founding editors
    Juliet Kono, current editor-in-chief
    Jean Toyama, past guest editor, lead on the Bamboo Ridge preservation project
    Moderated by Donald Carriera Ching and Ken Tokuno
    Cosponsored by Hamilton Library, the Spark M. Matsunaga Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, Hui ʻĀina Pilipili: Native Hawaiian Initiative, the Hawaiʻinuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge, the School of Communications, the Center for Oral History, and the Department of Ethnic Studies
    Zoom Meeting ID: 981 9620 8507
    Password: 980287


  • BIOGRAPHY 44.1: INTERNATIONAL YEAR IN REVIEW & ANNUAL BIBLIOGRAPHY

    The latest issue of Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly, vol. 44, no. 1, 2021, can be accessed on Project Muse here: https://muse.jhu.edu/issue/46786

    Remembering Lauren Berlant

    More Flailing in Public

    Anna Poletti

    National Fantasies about the Self

    Rebecca Wanzo

    An excerpt from Riva Lehrer’s Golem Girl: A Memoir

    International Year in Review

    From Individual to Collective Memories: The Year in Aruba

    Rose Mary Allen and Jeroen Heuvel

    Burning Shame, Decolonizing (His)tory, and Writing Illness
    and Disability: The Year in Australia

    Kylie Cardell

    Viennese Modernism and No End: The Year in Austria

    Wilhelm Hemecker and David Österle

    COVID-19 Emergency Diaries: The Year in Brazil

    Sergio da Silva Barcellos

    Lives Interrupted: The Year in Canada

    Alana Bell

    “Diaries in the Lockdown City”: The Year in China

    Chen Shen

    To Belong—or Not to Belong: The Year in Denmark

    Marianne Høyen

    “Is the World Still There?”: Estonian Lockdown Diaries:
    The Year in Estonia

    Leena Kurvet-Käosaar and Maarja Hollo

    Stories of Secrets, Wounds, and Healing: The Year in Finland

    Kirsi Tuohela

    “Ways of Worldmaking”: The Year in France

    Joanny Moulin

    Complicit Filmmakers, Self-Made Women, and the Weltgeist
    on Horseback: The Year in Germany

    Tobias Heinrich

    Parallel Pathways: The Year in Hungary

    Ágnes Major and Zoltán Z. Varga

    Eyes Wide Open with Paper in Hand: The Year in Italy

    Ilaria Serra

    Prison Narratives: The Year in South Korea

    Heui-Yung Park

    Illness Writing and Revolution, Converging Narratives:
    The Year in Lebanon

    Sleiman El Hajj

    “A Place on the Banknote”: The Year in Malawi

    Nick Mdika Tembo

    Periodismo, crimen, misoginia: El año en México

    Gerardo Necoechea Gracia

    A Profusion of Perspectives: The Year in Netherlands

    Hans Renders and David Veltman

    Pandemic Diaries: The Year in Poland

    Paweł Rodak

    Fighting Against Traditions of Silence: The Year in Portugal

    Cláudia Maria Ferreira Faria

    Documenting Lives: The Year in Romania

    Ioana Luca

    Narratives of a Pandemic: The Year in Spain

    Ana Belén Martínez García

    Imagining Gender+ Justice amid the Pandemic:
    The Year in Turkey

    Hülya Adak

    Necrography: The Year in the United Kingdom

    Tom Overton

    Pandemic Reading: The Year in the United States

    Leigh Gilmore

    Annual Bibliography of Works about Life Writing, 2020

    Compiled by Zoë E. Sprott

    Books

    Edited Collections and Special Issues

    Articles and Essays

    Dissertations