Category: Astronomy

New Journal Issues: Schooling Journeys in the Southwestern Pacific, #KuToo Online Feminist Movement in Japan, Geographic Analysis of COVID-19 in L.A. + More

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The Contemporary Pacific

Volume 22, Issue 2 (2021)

Special Issue: Schooling Journeys in the Southwestern Pacific

From the Guest Editors Rachel Emerine Hicks, Debra McDougall, and David Oakeshott in The Promise of Education: Schooling Journeys in the Southwester Pacific:

“Schooling journeys” is more than a metaphor in the southwestern Pacific. To step into a classroom, children and youth often travel hours each day or live for months at a time away from their families. The journey of schooling is rarely direct; it often winds between formal and informal learning and in and out of school, work, and home life. And the journey is expensive; many families struggle mightily to gather the money for fees, school supplies, uniforms, and transportation. Young people embark on these precarious journeys, and their families make sacrifices to support them, because schooling promises a better life—a move away from the backbreaking labor of subsistence agriculture toward a reliable salary that will better support their family and community. Because of the structural inequalities in school and a lack of jobs for those who complete schooling, however, few experience the socioeconomic advancement schooling promises. Still, students and their families continue to hope that schooling will lead to well-paid work. Even more important, though, going to school is seen as key to being a competent and effective person in society—increasingly for both women and men.

Yearbook of the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers

Volume 83 (2021)

Editor Craig S. Revels reflects over the COVID-19 pandemic and how it has affected geographers and members as he states:

Last year’s volume was published in a time of great uncertainty as the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the world, and this year’s unfortunately arrives under similar conditions, slowly improving though they may be. The tragedies, disruptions, and general state of societal affairs during the pandemic will not soon be forgotten…

Geographers have been at the forefront of research into the spread of COVID-19 since the earliest days of the pandemic, and Steve Graves and Petra Nichols contribute an analytical perspective on infection rates in Los Angeles County. In particular, they statistically identify a causal relationship between infection and a range of key socioeconomic and demographic variables, a relationship influencing the location and rate of spread for the disease. They leave us to consider how those factors must be addressed in any preparations for future public health crises.

In a significantly different context, Ray Sumner and John Menary
demonstrate that taking students into the field, always a valuable exercise, is even more rewarding when it leads to unexpected discoveries and challenges our carefully laid plans. In this case, a straightforward field methods class oriented around the Los Angeles River instead became an open-ended, student-driven exploration into the social dimensions of heritage, ethnicity,
culture, and urban development.

October 2016 UH Press Author Events

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Several University of Hawai‘i Press authors will be presenting their works this month and next. These events are free and the public is invited to attend. Books will be available for sale and signing, unless otherwise noted.

brownenglishdept-flyerTuesday, October 4, 3:00 to 4:30 pm, Kuykendall Hall 410, UH Mānoa
Assistant professor of religion Marie Alohalani Brown discusses life-writing and her recent book, Facing the Spears of Change: The Life and Legacy of John Papa ‘Ī‘ī. Her talk is part of the UHM English Department Colloquium series.

Thursday, October 6, noon to 1:15 pm, Henke Hall 325, UH Mānoamorales-forasong_100dpi
At this Center for Biographical Research brown bag talk, Rodney Morales  addresses the role that research plays in his fiction, particularly his new novel, For a Song. In fabricating stories that ring true, he not only focuses on documentable events, actual persons, and observable landscapes, as histories and biographies do, but also finds ways to breathe life into them. (See the fall semester Brown Bag Biography schedule here.)

hasinger-astro_basicallybksFriday, October 7, 6:00 to 7:00 pm, Basically Books, Hilo
For this First Friday event in downtown Hilo, UHM Institute for Astronomy director Günther Hasinger expands our understanding of space and time and looks at recent advances in astrophysics, as covered in his book, Astronomy’s Limitless Journey: A Guide to Understanding the Universe.

Wednesday, October 12, 6:30 to 7:30 pm, Kapolei Public Library
baird-dolphinswhales_100dpiMarine biologist Robin W. Baird of Cascadia Research Collective (Olympia, Washington) discusses results from his soon-to-be-published The Lives of Hawai‘i’s Dolphins and Whales: Natural History and Conservation, which includes findings from years of research using satellite tagging, genetics, and photo identification to study resident whales and dolphins in Hawai‘i. (Note: Books will not be available for sale.)

Thursday, October 13, 7:30 to 8:30 pm, Kapi‘olani Community College Hale ‘Ōhi‘a (cafeteria)
Hawaiian Historical Society hosts Marie Alohalani Brown as their program’s featured speaker to present her biography of John brown-facingthespears_100dpiPapa ‘Ī‘ī, Facing the Spears of Change. Doors open at 7 pm for light refreshments and the talk follows at 7:30.

Saturday, October 22, 9:00 to 11:00 am, Wahiawa Botanical Garden KawakamiCOVER12b.indd
The Wahiawa Historical Society honors former longtime resident Barbara Kawakami on the publication of Picture Bride Stories.

Wednesday, October 26, 5:30 to 7:30 pm, King Kamehameha V Judiciary History Center, 417 S. King Street
Dr. Marie Alohalani Brown again shares her work and insight on Hawaiian statesman John Papa ‘Ī‘ī; this time to a downtown Honolulu audience. See more details and register on Eventbrite.
Events to come in November include Rodney Morales at Native Books/Nā Mea Hawai‘i on November 5, 2:30 to 4 pm, and discussions with editors Aya Kimura and Krisnawati Suryanata, along with chapter contributors, to highlight Food and Power in Hawai‘i. A book launch for Food and Power in Hawai‘i is scheduled for November 4, 2:30 to 4:00 pm at UHM Saunders Hall 443. Check our Facebook page for updates.

2016 Hawaii Book & Music Festival: UH Press Tent & Author Events

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University of Hawai‘i Press will once again be among the publishers, booksellers, and nonprofits exhibiting at the 11th annual Hawai‘i Book and Music Festival this weekend, April 30-May 1, on the Frank F. Fasi Civic Grounds between Honolulu Hale and the City Municipal Building. Admission and parking are FREE. Go to the festival website to download a detailed schedule of events and PDF of the program.

Come by the UH Press tent, located on the ‘ewa-mauka side of the grounds, alongside Honolulu Hale (left side of the map). This year we are cosponsors with the Institute for Astronomy for their neighboring booth as well as presentations by IfA director Günther Hasinger for Astronomy’s Limitless Journey and by Roy Gal for Michael West’s A Sky Wonderful with Stars. Also new this year is the O‘ahu Nursery Growers Association plant sale, so several of our gardening books have been added to our display. As always, we’ll have our latest Hawai‘i titles available at a discount and will offer free US shipping on orders taken onsite.

Other UH Press authors participating this year include: Patrick Kirch (Unearthing the Polynesian Past), Kathleen Kawelu (Kuleana and Commitment), Marie Alohalani Brown (Facing the Spears of Change), Victoria Kneubuhl (Murder Frames the Scene), Kimo Armitage (The Healers), James Dooley (Sunny Skies, Shady Characters), Adrienne Kaeppler and Christina Hellmich (Royal Hawaiian Featherwork), Kapa Oliveira and Kahunawai Wright (Kanaka ‘Oiwi Methodologies), George and Willa Tanabe (Japanese Buddhist Temples in Hawai‘i), and more.

Authors will stop by the UHP booth throughout both days following their presentations for signings, so please visit us often!

A Sky Wonderful with Stars Debuts at the IAU XXIX General Assembly

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West_4inNEW RELEASE | EXHIBIT NEWS

A Sky Wonderful with Stars: 50 Years of Modern Astronomy on Maunakea
by Michael J. West

August 2015 | 216 pages | 155 color, 9 b&w illus.
Cloth | ISBN 978-0-8248-5268-9 | $39.99

Released to coincide with the 2015 International Astronomical Union (IAU) General Assembly to be held August 3-14 in Honolulu, A Sky Wonderful with Stars is a spectacular collection of photographs accompanied by short essays by Michael J. West, soon-to-be deputy director for science at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. (West, a former UH Hilo professor and most recently director at the Maria Mitchell Observatory,  starts his new position on August 1 and is unable to attend the IAU gathering.) Through more than 160 photo-essays, the book shows the special beauty of Maunakea’s sky and landscape, its mythical beginnings, and glacial past; tells the story of how the human dream to create the village of the Maunakea observatories endured and became reality; and showcases some of the stunning images and scientific discoveries that have been revealed by the telescopes, which are among the most powerful on Earth.

IAU2015UH Press will be an exhibitor at the IAU meeting, sharing a booth with University of Arizona Press and Princeton University Press, and copies of the book will be available for sale. As usual, the exhibit hall as well as the program sessions are open only to registered attendees. There are public events scheduled, however, including an evening talk on August 11 by Günther Hasinger, director of the Institute for Astronomy at UH Mānoa, whose book, Astronomy’s Limitless Journey, will be published by UHP in October. Dr. Hasinger’s talk, “The Development of Modern Astronomy in Hawai‘i,” will start at 7:30 p.m., following the Exoworld opening ceremony. While the event is free, tickets are required and can be booked here. In a related link, listen to the ByteMark Cafe interview with Dr. Hasinger and assistant astronomer Roy Gal about the IAU.

From Michael West’s preface to A Sky Wonderful with Stars:

Astronomy isn’t just the study of distant planets, stars, and galaxies. It’s also the study of something much closer to home—us. One of astronomy’s most profound discoveries is that we humans are made from the ashes of stars whose fires burned out long ago. . . . Perhaps that’s why we feel compelled to explore the starry skies, as if driven by an innate yearning to know our true ancestral home and ourselves. “You are that vast thing that you see far, far off with the great telescopes,” wrote the philosopher Alan Watts.

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