Spring 2025

“The Exchange” at the East-West Center

For the past two months, history doctoral student Nakota DiFonzo has been hosting “The Exchange” at the East-West Center. This graduate student-led lecture and performance series invites speakers and performers to present their ideas and/or artistic talents for East-West Center participants.

This semester’s theme was “Tensions and Resolutions,” in which invited speakers and performers were asked to make presentations about tensions that characterize the twenty-first century, such as the effects of COVID, populism, social media’s influence on politics, and other important topics meant to help students think about resolutions to these tensions. The series ran from February 3 to April 7, 2025.

Guests included: Shannon Dorsey, a U.S. diplomat who recently served in Japan; Shana Brown, history professor at UH Mānoa; Maya Soetoro-Ng, a researcher at the Matsunaga Institute for Peace and an advisor at the Obama Foundation; Hawaiʻi State Senator Stanley Chang (Hawaiʻi District 9); Michael Bruno, Provost of UH Mānoa; Mona Pasquil Rogers, the 47th and acting Lt. Governor of California who served alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger; and Peter Haymond, who served as ambassador to Laos during the first Trump administration and the Biden administration.

Photos from this semester’s talks may be viewed at the link here.