Category: Pacific

Teaching and Learning across Asia and the Pacific

Posted on by stephchun

Remaking Area StudiesRemaking Area Studies, edited by Terence Wesley-Smith and Jon Goss, identifies the challenges facing area studies as an organized intellectual project in this era of globalization, focusing in particular on conceptual issues and implications for pedagogical practice in Asia and the Pacific. The crisis in area studies is widely acknowledged; various prescriptions for solutions have been forthcoming, but few have also pursued practical applications of critical ideas for both teachers and students. The collection not only makes the case for more culturally sensitive and empowering forms of area studies, but indicates how these ideas can be translated into effective student-centered learning practices through the establishment of interactive regional learning communities.

April 2010 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3321-3 / $45.00 (CLOTH)
Published in association with the School of Pacific and Asian Studies, University of Hawai‘i

Revised Edition of Shore Fishes of Hawaii

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Shore Fishes of HawaiiFirst published in 1996, this new edition of Shore Fishes of Hawai‘i, by John E. Randall, updates our knowledge of Hawaiian fishes and has been expanded to include 372 species. All are illustrated by the author’s 475 superb photographs. The most important characteristics to identify a fish are given as well as the size attained and its distribution. Each species account begins with the American common name, followed by the Hawaiian name (when known), and the scientific name. Because it is necessary to use some scientific terminology when giving the principal diagnostic characteristics of families or species of fishes and what they eat, a handy glossary appears at the back of the book before the Index.

March 2010 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3427-2 / $19.99 (PAPER)

Russian Encounters and Mutiny in the South Pacific

Posted on by stephchun

Twelve Days at Nuku HivaIn August 1803 two Russian ships set off on a round-the-world voyage to carry out scientific exploration and collect artifacts for Alexander I’s ethnographic museum in St. Petersburg. Russia’s strategic concerns in the north Pacific, however, led the Russian government to include as part of the expedition an embassy to Japan, headed by statesman Nikolai Rezanov, who was given authority over the ships’ commanders without their knowledge. Between them the ships carried an ethnically and socially disparate group of men: Russian educated elite, German naturalists, Siberian merchants, Baltic naval officers, even Japanese passengers. Upon reaching Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas archipelago on May 7, 1804, and for the next twelve days, the naval officers revolted against Rezanov’s command while complex crosscultural encounters between Russians and islanders occurred.

In Twelve Days at Nuku Hiva: Russian Encounters and Mutiny in the South Pacific, Elena Govor recounts the voyage, reconstructing and exploring in depth the tumultuous events of the Russians’ stay in Nuku Hiva; the course of the mutiny, its resolution and aftermath; and the extent and nature of the contact between Nuku Hivans and Russians.

March 2010 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3368-8 / $49.00 (PAPER)

English-Tahitian Tahitian English Dictionary Back in Print

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English-Tahitian Tahitian English DictionaryThe English-Tahitian Tahitian English Dictionary is the most useful and comprehensive dictionary of its kind available. The author, Dr. Sven Wahlroos, who was a devoted student of Tahitian for more than three decades, provides an extensive introduction to the language with detailed notes on grammar, usage, and pronunciation.

This reprint edition has been re-sized to 6 inches x 9.25 inches, making it a convenient and handier alternative to larger-sized dictionaries.

“A labor of love that is also a big, solid reference that will get loads of use.” —Honolulu Star-Bulletin

March 2010 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3473-9 / $64.00 (CLOTH)
Distributed for Eva Wahlroos

The Adventures of Vela Shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize

Posted on by stephchun

The Adventures of VelaThe Adventures of Vela, by Albert Wendt and published last fall by UH Press, has been shortlisted for the 2010 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize (Southeast Asia and Pacific Best Book division).

The critically acclaimed Commonwealth Writers’ Prize is in its 24th year and offers an exceptional opportunity for new writers to demonstrate their talent and for authors already on the literary scene to strengthen their reputation. The prize is presented by the Commonwealth Foundation with support from the Macquarie Group Foundation. The final program, starting on April 7, 2010, in Delhi, India, will bring together the finalists from the different regions of the Commonwealth, and the two overall winners will be announced there on April 12.

Catholicism and Women’s Work in a Micronesian Society

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Mary, the Devil, and TaroCatholicism, like most world religions, is patriarchal, and its official hierarchies and sacred works too often neglect the lived experiences of women. In Mary, the Devil, and Taro: Catholicism and Women’s Work in a Micronesian Society, Julianna Flinn looks beyond these texts and reveals how women practice, interpret, and shape their own Catholicism on Pollap Atoll, part of Chuuk State in the Federated States of Micronesia. She focuses in particular on how the Pollapese shaping of Mary places value on indigenous notions of mothering that connote strength, active participation in food production, and the ability to provide for one’s family.

January 2010 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3374-9 / $47.00 (CLOTH)

Gossip and the Everyday Production of Politics Now Available in Paperback

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GossipAlthough gossip is disapproved of across the world’s societies, it is a prominent feature of sociality, whose role in the construction of society and culture cannot be overestimated. In particular, gossip is central to the enactment of politics: through it people transform difference into inequality and enact or challenge power structures. Based on the author’s intimate ethnographic knowledge of Nukulaelae Atoll, Tuvalu, Gossip and the Everyday Production of Politics, by Niko Besnier, uses an analysis of gossip as political action to develop a holistic understanding of a number of disparate themes, including conflict, power, agency, morality, emotion, locality, belief, and gender. It brings together two methodological traditions—the microscopic analysis of unelicited interaction and the macroscopic interpretation of social practice—that are rarely wedded successfully.

November 2009 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3357-2 / $25.00 (PAPER)

UH Press Authors at the Daughters of Hawaii Annual Book Day

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University of Hawai‘i Press authors Gavan Daws, Eleanor Nordyke, Art Whistler, and Bob Dye will be among the writers attending the Daughters of Hawai‘i 4th Annual Book Day, Friday, November 6, 3:00-6:00 pm, at Queen Emma Summer Palace. Purchase books at a discount and get your copies signed in time for the holidays! All proceeds from the event will go to the Daughters of Hawai‘i, in support of their mission to preserve Queen Emma Summer Palace and Hulihe‘e Palace in Kailua-Kona.

Refreshments will be served. There will be a special performance by the Queen Emma Summer Palace Ukulele Club and free tours of the Summer Palace will take place from 3:00-4:00 pm, so be sure to come early!

Hawaiian Birds of the Sea

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Hawaiian Birds of the Sea
More than 300 species of seabirds range across the world’s oceans. In excess of 14 million birds, representing nearly two dozen species, make their home in the Hawaiian islands. These are na manu kai, the birds of the sea.

More than 135 color photographs illustrate Hawaiian Birds of the Sea: Na Manu Kai, by Robert J. Shallenberger. This beautiful book showcases the seabirds of Hawai‘i—from the far eastern tip of the Big Island to the recently created Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument.

A Latitude 20 Book
November 2009 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3403-6 / $21.99 (PAPER)

A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Hawaii

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Photographic Guide to the Birds of Hawai‘i
Hawai‘i is home to some of the most beautiful and sought after birds in the world. From the offshore waters, where graceful seabirds glide on the cool, refreshing trade winds, to the lush ancient forests of the mountains, where colorful endemic honeycreepers reside, Hawai‘i’s birds are wonderfully diverse. Introduced species and long-distance migrants contribute to the splendid assortment. Some island bird species are extremely abundant and instantly familiar since we encounter them daily in our outdoor activities. Others are so rare they are glimpsed only once in a lifetime. In these magnificent islands there is something for birders of every sort. Superbly illustrated in color by author Jim Denny and Jack Jeffrey, two of Hawai‘i’s best nature photographers, A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Hawai‘i includes nearly every species of bird on land and at sea in the main Hawaiian Islands.

A Latitude 20 Book
November 2009 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3383-1 / $19.99 (PAPER)

Jim Denny is also the author of The Birds of Kauai.

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