Albert Wendt Receives New Zealand’s Highest Literary Award

Yesterday Albert Wendt (shown with New Zealand Prime Minister John Key) was presented with this year’s Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement for Fiction in Wellington. The Samoan-born writer’s previous awards include the Wattie Book of the Year, the Montana Book Award, and two Commonwealth Book Prizes. He is acknowledged as one of the Pacific’s major novelists and poets and an important influence in the development of indigenous writing around the world.

Wendt is the author or editor of numerous books published by University of Hawai‘i Press, including Leaves of the Banyan Tree, Pouliuli, The Adventures of Vela, Sons for the Return Home, Black Rainbow, and Ola. His most recent book, Ancestry, is published by Huia Publishers and will be distributed in the U.S. and Canada by UH Press later this year.

Japanese Buddhist Temples Exhibit Opens at JCCH

An exhibition of Japanese Buddhist temple objects and furnishings will be on display at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai‘i community gallery from December 1, 2012 through February 22, 2013. The show is curated by professors emeriti George and Willa Tanabe, based on their new book, Japanese Buddhist Temples in Hawai‘i: An Illustrated Guide. The book serves a dual role as the exhibition catalog as well as a colorful visitors’ guidebook to the 90 extant temples in the islands.

The Tanabes will also be leading a series of Saturday tours to selected temples on December 8, January 19, January 26, and February 9. For more information, see the JCCH website for details, or call (808) 945-7633 ext. 28 or email [email protected] to make reservations. UPDATE: After each tour, the Tanabes will discuss their book and sign copies.

Journal of Korean Religions, vol. 3, no. 2 (2012): Korean Shamans in the Present Tense

Editor’s Introduction
Laurel Kendall, 5

I agreed to comment on the three contributions to this symposium in a desire to see how the study of shamans in contemporary Korea is developing. I was curious about how and in what ways it continues to attract the attention of young scholars like Dong-kyu Kim and Jun Hwan Park, as well as offering new questions to veterans of Korean shaman studies like Jongsung Yang. As these contributions abundantly demonstrate, and as many of us have argued for a long time, there is no such thing as a fixed “Korean shamanism,” but rather a body of religious practices that survive precisely because they are fluid, responsive to other changes in Korean society. Like quicksilver contemporary South Korea, and the shamans who share in its dynamism, scholarship too is a moving target, with new projects and new approaches continuously added to the conversation. At the same time, all of these works build upon some viable scholarship that has gone before.
Continue reading “Journal of Korean Religions, vol. 3, no. 2 (2012): Korean Shamans in the Present Tense”

Journal of World History, vol. 23, no. 3 (2012)

In Memorium: Jerry H. Bentley, vi

ARTICLES

The Global View of History in China
Liu Xincheng, 491

This is an attempt to trace and contextualize Chinese scholars’ response—either positive or negative—to the “West-imported” concept of a “global view of history” after its emergence in China more than two decades ago. It also introduces how world historians in China are consciously employing this “global view of history” to compile their own world history textbooks, a practice that gave rise to a serious concern about world history methodologies. Continue reading “Journal of World History, vol. 23, no. 3 (2012)”

Moving Images Wins Award from the Society for Visual Anthropology

Moving Images
Moving Images: John Layard, Fieldwork, and Photography on Malakula since 1914, by Haidy Geismar and Anita Herle, is the most recent recipient of the John Collier Jr., Award for Still Photography from the Society for Visual Anthropology. The award is made periodically for work that exemplifies the use of still photography, both historical and contemporary, for research and communication of anthropological knowledge, and for excellence in visual anthropology.

The Collier Committee members were impressed with the authors’ contribution:

“and in particular with the presentation of unpublished archival materials, John Layard’s story, and historical photos supplemented with his contextual field notes integrated in such an engaging format with contemporary visual research and literature, essays, text, and the reintroduction of historical and contemporary photos into the culture today.”

The official presentation of the award was made last week during the 2012 American Anthropology Association annual meeting in San Francisco.

UH Press at American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, November 17-20

AAA logoUniversity of Hawai‘i Press is exhibiting at this year’s annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion, which is being held at McCormick Place Convention Center, November 17-20.

Press acquisitions editor Patricia Crosby and Asian studies product manager Steven Hirashima are attending. Please visit us at Booth 219.

University Press Week Blog Tour – Day 5

University Press Week Blog Tour 2012
The University Press Week Blog Tour comes to an end with New York University Press, Columbia University Press, University of North Carolina Press, University of Alabama Press, University of Virginia Press, and Oregon State University Press.

University of Hawai‘i Press’ entry, “Why University Presses Matter,” contributed by Barbara Watson Andaya, was featured on Tour Day 2: http://wp.me/p3HTB-1lu.

For more information on University Press Week, visit www.universitypressweek.org.

UH Press at American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, November 14-18

AAA logoUniversity of Hawai‘i Press is exhibiting at this year’s annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association, which is being held at the San Francisco Hilton (Union Square) and Hotel Nikko, November 14-18. The meeting’s theme is Borders and Crossings.

Press acquisitions editor Pamela Kelley is attending. Please visit us at Booth 606.

University Press Week – Testimonials

University Press Week Blog Tour 2012University presses have a broad influence in society, and their value is recognized by scholars, writers, booksellers, policy shapers, and public intellectuals of all kinds. The following testimonials show that recognition in these individuals’ own words.

“University presses cover it all, and all of us benefit from their work.” —Dr. Robert A. Gates, former Secretary of Defense, former CIA director, and former president of Texas A&M University

“What words to describe the university press? Patient, ambitious, demanding, sustaining, generous, utterly essential. Serious thinking is unimaginable without it.” —William Germano, Dean of Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Cooper Union

“The role of the university press in the life of book publishing—indeed the life of the mind—has never been more crucial.” —Harold Holzer, Senior Vice President, External Affairs, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

“May the university presses long be sustained in their important imprint, their calling, and their accomplishments.” —Steven Isenberg, Executive Director, PEN American Center

“University presses keep serious intellectual discourse alive in a nation where the profit motive holds greater and greater sway.” —Mark D. Naison, Professor of African American Studies and History, Fordham University, and Principal Investigator, Bronx African American History Project

“University Presses have a unique and sustaining value in shaping, representing, and communicating the best of academic research to a broad public. All academics have a stake in their success.” —James J. O’Donnell, Provost, Georgetown University

“If we are to have a life of the mind, we need carriers of this life. University presses perform that essential function.” —Jay Parini, poet, novelist, and biographer

“University presses serve an invaluable function in bringing titles to the public that have a small but intense readership.” —Edmund White, novelist

For full quotes and a complete list of testimonials, go to http://www.aaupnet.org/events-a-conferences/university-press-week/university-press-week-2012/testimonials. For more information on University Press Week, visit www.universitypressweek.org.

University Press Week Blog Tour – Day 4

University Press Week Blog Tour 2012
Day 4 of the University Press Week Blog Tour continues with Princeton University Press, Indiana University Press, Fordham University Press, Texas A&M University Press, and Georgetown University Press.

University of Hawai‘i Press’ entry, “Why University Presses Matter,” contributed by Barbara Watson Andaya, was featured on Tour Day 2: http://wp.me/p3HTB-1lu.

For more information on University Press Week, visit www.universitypressweek.org.