Biography Vol. 38, no. 1, 2015

Auto/biography in Transit

Guest Editors: Jason Breiter, Orly Lael Netzer, Julie Rak, & Lucinda Rasmussen

EDITORS’ INTRODUCTION

Introduction: Auto/Biography in Transit
Jason Breiter, Orly Lael Netzer, Julie Rak, Lucinda Rasmussen, vbio.38.1_front_sm

The essays in this special issue engage with a range of issues relating to Auto/Biography in Transit, the title of the 2014 International Auto/Biography Association (IABA) conference held in Banff, from which the issue emerged. The essays have been divided into two areas of inquiry: Documents and Displacements. Those in the first section address the status of the document as a technology of the self, or think about how cultural producers document their lives. Essays in the second section explore critical approaches and texts that signify how both the study of life writing and its objects of inquiry are themselves in transit, and have the potential to change our ideas about the field itself.

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Biography, vol. 37, no. 4 (2014)

Editors’ Note, iii

ARTICLES
bio.37.4_front_sm
Literary Biography as a Critical Form
Philip Holden, 917
The recent proliferation of formally innovative literary biographies suggests that the genre has an important critical function. Literary biographies are more than simply an ancillary genre; rather, they ask questions regarding the manner in which readers relate to the implied authors of the literary texts they encounter, and their use of this relationship in their own projects of individualization in modern society.

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Biography, vol. 37, no. 3 (2014)

Editors’ Note, v
bio.37.3_front_sm
ARTICLES

Antjie Krog and the Autobiography of Postcolonial Becoming
Elizabeth Rodrigues, 725

Imagination disrupts documentary, as Antjie Krog compares the experience of attending the opening hearings of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission to being reborn. Figuratively placing herself back at the beginning of human development, in the early pages of Country of My Skull Krog registers the profound personal effects of the TRC’s public process of national redefinition, and equates its beginning with the beginning of a new life—or potential beginning, as, fittingly, her rebirth is not yet narrated. Before her, and before the South African nation, stands an imperative of transformation so profound that the comparison to physical birth seems apt, both appropriately extreme and appropriately impossible. No person and no country can literally go “back”; self and nation must attempt immediate change in medias res. Krog’s bold imagining invites us to consider how her autobiographical works stage the narrative of development in the context of postcoloniality as a process that cannot rely on inborn or teleological trajectories for its beginnings and ends but must actively and urgently construct its horizons.

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Pacific Science, vol. 69, no. 2 (2015)

April 2015 issue of Pacific Science now available on BioOne

ARTICLES

Biology and Impacts of Pacific Island Invasive Species. 11. Cinchona pubescens (Red Quinine Tree) (Rubiaceae)PacificScience69_2cover
Heinke Jäger, 133

Abstract: Cinchona pubescens Vahl (red quinine) is an evergreen tree ranging in height from 10 to 25 m with broad leaves and white or pink fragrant flowers arranged in clusters. Growing at altitudes between 130 and 3,300 m, it is one of 23 species in the genus Cinchona and has a natural distribution from Costa Rica to Bolivia. Cinchona pubescens has been cultivated in tropical regions (e.g., in South America, Africa, China, India, and Indonesia) for its quinine-containing bark and has become invasive in some regions. This is especially the case in the Pacific region, where C. pubescens has invaded humid highland areas of Galápagos, Hawai‘i, and Tahiti. It shades out and reduces cover of native plant species and adversely affects endemic birds. In addition, it changes microclimate and nutrient cycling in the soil, especially phosphorus, in Galápagos. Characteristics that make it such a successful invader include production of numerous, windborne seeds and vigorous vegetative reproduction by resprouting from underground stems and fallen trees. In Galápagos, C. pubescens is currently being manually controlled by uprooting the trees and by applying herbicides to cuts in the bark. However, this method requires continuous hand pulling of seedlings to be successful. Disturbance by control actions appears to facilitate establishment and invasion by other nonnative plant species, especially blackberry (Rubus niveus). Quinine and other alkaloids extracted from Cinchona bark are still being used for medicinal purposes today and the wood is increasingly used as construction material in Galápagos. Ironically, C. pubescens is now considered rare and endangered in its native range in Ecuador.

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Journal of Korean Religions, vol. 6, no. 1 (2015): Pure Land Buddhism in Korea

Guest Editor’s Introduction
Richard D. McBride II, 5

The six articles in this special issue explore aspects of the history of Pure Land Buddhism in Korea. Two essays deal with the Three Kingdoms and Silla periods, two papers treat topics in the Koryŏ period, and the final two articles break new ground in the Chosŏn period. Several articles reveal a close relationship between Pure Land practices and the Hwaŏm tradition, which was the dominant doctrinal school during the middle and late periods of Silla (ca. 668–935) and was the most influential intellectual tradition at court in the Koryŏ period (918–1392).

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The Contemporary Pacific, vol. 27, no. 1 (2015)

The Pacific Islands (map)
p. VThe Contemporary Pacific 27#1, 2015

About the Artist: Fatu Feu‘u
Katherine Higgins, VI

ARTICLES

Vulnerable Islands: Climate Change, Tectonic Change, and Changing Livelihoods in the Western Pacific
John Connell, 1

Small Pacific islands, especially atolls, have been widely argued to be in the forefront of climate change. Recent degradation of island environments has primarily been attributed to the impact of sea-level rise. However, physical changes to several small islands can be linked to a range of physical influences and to human modification. La Niña events, cyclones, and wind waves have caused localized flooding and storm damage. Most atoll islands have not significantly changed in size, as deposition balances erosion. Many islands have experienced broadly similar environmental problems in earlier times, at different scales, and over different time periods, now accentuated by human pressures on scarce land areas and resources. Local human factors (including construction and mining), tectonic subsidence, and La Niña events have created some iconic sites that have become symbols of sea-level rise, sometimes erroneously attributed solely to global warming. Limited economic prospects in most small islands, rising expectations, and growing populations have contributed to a culture of migration, marked by international migration and urbanization, that has diversified impoverished livelihoods, extended island geographies, and resulted in accentuated population concentrations. Contemporary climate change exacerbates present environmental changes, stimulates further migration, and points to diasporic futures.
Keywords: atolls, climate change, sea level, tectonics, urbanization, migration

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Azalea: Journal of Korean Literature & Culture, vol. 8 (2015)

Editor’s Note
David R. McCann, ix

Azalea: Journal of Korean Literature & Culture Volume 8, 2015
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:
Once again, readers will discover a rich and varied array of contemporary Korean literary and image work in the current issue of Azalea journal. We celebrate the 100th anniversary of the births of two of the twentieth century’s great Korean writers, Midang Sŏ Chŏngju, the poet, and Hwang Sunwŏn, the short story and novel writer. Periodically, as the cultural, political, and historical tides in Korea have fallen and risen only to fall and rise again, these two writers have been lionized, denigrated, taken as emblems of Korea’s literary capabilities and accomplishments, or set to the side as passé, out-of-sync, politically unacceptable, or just too old to matter. Yet readers will find a rich array of reflections on these two writers and examples of their literary accomplishments. May you savor and treasure. Let us resolve to keep these writers central to our understanding of the terrain that Korean literature traversed in the twentieth century and to comprehend how much it would lose if it did not value, even treasure, these and others in the twenty-first.

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Language Documentation & Conservation, vol. 9 (2015)

June 2015: 3 new articles and 2 book reviews added to
Volume 9 
available here: http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/ldc/?p=603

Greetings from the LD&C team
http://www.nflrc.hawaii.edu/ldc/

On Training in Language Documentation and Capacity Building in Papua New Guinea: A Response to Bird et al.
Joseph D. Brooks, pp. 1–9

In a recent article, Bird et al. (2013) discuss a workshop held at the University of Goroka in Papua New Guinea (PNG) in 2012. The workshop was intended to offer a new methodological framework for language documentation and capacity building that streamlines the documentation process and accelerates the global effort to document endangered languages through machine translation and automated glossing technology developed by computer scientists. As a volunteer staff member at the workshop, in this response to Bird et al. I suggest that it did not in the end provide us with a model that should be replicated in the future. I explain how its failure to uphold fundamental commitments from a documentary linguistic and humanistic perspective can help inform future workshops and large-scale documentary efforts in PNG. Instead of experimenting with technological shortcuts that aim to reduce the role of linguists in language documentation and that construct participants as sources of data, we should implement training workshops geared toward the interests and skills of local participants who are interested in documenting their languages, and focus on building meaningful partnerships with academic institutions in PNG.
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China Review International, vol. 19, no. 4 (2012)

FEATURES

Trekking through Modern Chinese Literary History with Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du mal
Mabel Lee, 509

The First Century of the U.S.–China Philanthropic Partnership: Impetuses, Obstacles, Strategies, and Contributions
Qinghong Wang, 513

The Unification of Ancient Chinese Philosophy: Fischer on the Shizi
James D. Sellmann, 521

Ritual in Early China: Meaning, Practice, Function, and Context
Philip J. Ivanhoe, 530

Questioning Modern Chinese Views of Temporality in Context of Comparative Philosophy
Lin Shaoyang, 543
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Asian Perspectives, vol. 53, no. 1 (2014)

Editors’ Note, 1

ARTICLES

Mapping Local Perspectives in the Historical Archaeology of Vanuatu Mission Landscapes
James L. Flexner, 2
The concept of place is a powerful theoretical tool in the social sciences and humanities, which can be especially useful in archaeological work that involves community-based collaboration. Using place as a starting point, archaeologists can beneficially use their skills to answer questions that are of relevance to the local communities with which we work while also advancing knowledge about the past. For historical archaeology, this often involves engaging in dialogue across multiple lines of evidence, including material remains from the past, written documents, and local oral traditions. Recent fieldwork on the islands of Erromango and Tanna, Vanuatu, exploring early landscapes relating to Christian conversion uses this kind of approach. A major part of preliminary survey work involves mapping features in the mission sites and surrounding areas. Archaeological cartographic techniques help build a sense of place that provides engaging research for a collaborative environment with local Melanesian communities, while also producing new perspectives on colonialism in the South Pacific. This approach is not limited to the recent past, being applicable to any collaborative, community-based archaeological research that incorporates the use of oral traditions.
Keywords
Melanesia, historical archaeology, Vanuatu, missions, landscape archaeology, mapping, oral traditions, community archaeology
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Manoa (28#1, 2016) Curve of the Hook – Hawaiian Historical Society Public Program

On Thursday, May 7 at 7:30 p.m. in Hale ‘Ohia at KCC, Dr. Yosihiko Sinoto and Eric Komori, his longtime research associate, will be talking about their work in Pacific archaeology.

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For nearly six decades, Dr. Sinoto has conducted field research on every island group across the Pacific. His work and discoveries fundamentally changed what is known about early Polynesian migration, ancient ocean voyaging and navigation, sacred places, and the everyday life of the Pacific’s indigenous people.

Partial support for the book’s publication and promotion comes from the Hawai‘i Council for the Humanities, as part of its participation in “The Common Good: The Humanities in the Public Sphere,” an initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities to demonstrate the critical role humanities scholarship can play in our public life, including a better understanding of the relationships between humanities and the natural world.

This event is presented by the Hawaiian Historical Society and is related to the publication of CURVE OF THE HOOK, the Winter 2016 issue of Manoa.

The talk and Curve of the Hook are described on
https://www.hawaiianhistory.org/an-archaeologist-in-polynesia-the-career-of-yosihiko-sinoto/.

Journal of World History, vol. 25, no.2- 3 (2014)

Special Double Issue: Vol. 25, no. 2-3

ARTICLES

Forum: European Encounters with Islam in Asia

Encountering Islam in the Early Modern World
Matthew Lauzon, Matthew P. Romaniello, 195

When Filip Efremov recorded his extensive travel experiences throughout the Muslim world at the end of the eighteenth century, his descriptions of the people he encountered would have been familiar to many Western writers recording their experiences in India or Central Asia. Efremov represented the Enlightened West, observing the customs of Muslims with an “Orientalist” eye—noting their “weak and timid” demeanor, not to mention their “rough manners.”2 Two notes here might have struck another foreign observer as remarkable. First, the non-Muslim Indians are admirable, at least as a slight improvement in comparison to the Muslims. Second, the Muslims of India resembled the nomadic Turkmen, a group more familiar to the Russians. The implication, of course, was that Russia’s ability to control “its” Muslims could translate into the ability to control India’s Muslims, thus extending Russia’s borders quite far to the south.
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