Category: Polynesia

Book Launch and Reading for Talking Hawaii’s Story

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Talking StoryA book launch and reading for Talking Hawai‘i’s Story: Oral Histories of an Island People, edited by Michi Kodama-Nishimoto, Warren S. Nishimoto, and Cynthia A. Oshiro, is scheduled for Sunday, October 18, 2009, 2:00-3:30 pm, at the School of Architecture Auditorium, University of Hawai‘i, Mānoa. The reading will be directed and produced by Aloha Shorts. Light refreshments and free on-campus parking will be available.

This event is sponsored by the Center for Oral History, the Center for Biographical Research, and the Hawai‘i Council for the Humanities. For more information, contact the Center for Oral History (phone: 956-6259 or email: wnishimo@hawaii.edu) or the Center for Biographical Research (phone: 956-3774 or email: biograph@hawaii.edu).

Talking Hawai‘i’s Story is published by University of Hawai‘i Press for the Center for Oral History and Center for Biographical Research.

Ben Norris Retrospective in Boston

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Ben NorrisChilds Gallery in Boston is presenting a career-defining retrospective of works by Ben Norris to celebrate the recent publication of Ben Norris: American Modernist, 1910-2006, distributed by University of Hawai‘i Press for Copley Square Press. The exhibit runs to November 14, 2009. For more information, contact Childs Gallery, 169 Newbury Street, Boston, MA, 02116, 617-266-1108, email: info@childsgallery.com.

Work from the retrospective can be viewed here.

Van Dyke receives UH Regents’ Medal for Excellence in Research

Posted on by stephchun

University of Hawai‘i law professor Jon Van Dyke, author of Who Owns the Crown Lands of Hawai‘i?, has been awarded the University of Hawai‘i Regents’ Medal for Excellence in Research. The medal for research recognizes “scholarly contributions that expand the boundaries of knowledge and enrich the lives of students and the community.”

Professor Van Dyke and the two other recipients of this year’s award will be recognized at the annual convocation ceremony on September 15, 10 a.m., at UH’s Kennedy Theatre.

Hawaiian Art and National Culture of the Kalakaua Era

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Arts of KingshipThe Arts of Kingship: Hawaiian Art and National Culture of the Kalakaua Era, by Stacy L. Kamehiro, offers a sustained and detailed account of Hawaiian public art and architecture during the reign of David Kalakaua, the nativist and cosmopolitan ruler of the Hawaiian Kingdom from 1874 to 1891. Kamehiro provides visual and historical analysis of Kalakaua’s coronation and regalia, the King Kamehameha Statue, ‘Iolani Palace, and the Hawaiian National Museum, drawing them together in a common historical, political, and cultural frame. Each articulated Hawaiian national identities and navigated the turbulence of colonialism in distinctive ways and has endured as a key cultural symbol.

August 2009 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3358-9 / $24.00 (PAPER)

MP3 Files Now Available for Gagana Samoa and Fundamental Written Chinese

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Accompanying MP3 audio files are now available for download:

Gagana Samoa: A Samoan Language Coursebook, Revised Edition, by Galumalemana Afeleti Hunkin at http://www.hawaii.edu/uhpress/mp3/gagana/;

Fundamental Written Chinese, by Nora Yao, Margaret Lee, and Robert Sanders, at http://www.hawaii.edu/uhpress/mp3/fwc/.

Streaming RealAudio files for both books will be available shortly.

Gossip and the Everyday Production of Politics

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Although 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 author Niko Besnier’s intimate ethnographic knowledge of Nukulaelae Atoll, Tuvalu, Gossip and the Everyday Production of Politics 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.

July 2009 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3338-1 / $49.00 (CLOTH)

Eleanor Nordyke at Barnes & Noble, June 28

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Eleanor Nordyke, author and publisher of Pacific Images: Views from Captain Cook’s Third Voyage, Second Edition, will appear at Barnes & Noble, Kahala Mall, on Sunday, June 28, 1:00–2:00 p.m., to sign the newly released second edition of her acclaimed work. She will show a DVD on the topic and display large reproductions of some of the engravings in the book. Pacific Images is distributed by University of Hawai‘i Press.

Ms. Nordyke and Pacific Images were recently featured in the Honolulu Advertiser: http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20090531/LIFE/905310326.

Samoan Language Coursebook

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This revised edition of Gagana Samoa, by Galumalemana Afeleti Hunkin, is an important modern Samoan language resource. Designed for both classroom and personal use, it features a methodical approach suitable for all ages; an emphasis on patterns of speech and communication through practice and examples; 10 practical dialogues covering everyday social situations; an introduction to the wider culture of fa‘asamoa through photographs; more than 150 exercises to reinforce comprehension; a glossary of all Samoan words used in the coursebook; oral skills supplemented by an optional CD.

June 2009 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3131-8 / $26.00 (PAPER)

Movement, Gender, and Cook Islands Globalization

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Dancing from the Heart: Movement, Gender, and Cook Islands Globalization, by Kalissa Alexeyeff, is the first study of gender, globalization, and expressive culture in the Cook Islands. It demonstrates how dance in particular plays a key role in articulating the overlapping local, regional, and transnational agendas of Cook Islanders. Alexeyeff reconfigures conventional views of globalization’s impact on indigenous communities, moving beyond diagnoses of cultural erosion and contamination to a grounded exploration of creative agency and vital cultural production.

“Dancing from the Heart is written from the heart. This book is a wonderful evocation of contemporary Polynesian life, joy, and loss. Yet it is also analytically adventurous. Cook Island dance becomes a lens through which questions of gender, performance, embodiment, and globalization come into focus in novel ways. This is surely one of the finest of recent Pacific ethnographies.” —Nicholas Thomas, Univeristy of Cambridge

March 2009 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3244-5 / $55.00 (CLOTH)

The Public vs. Private School Debate in Hawai`i

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Going Against the Grain: When Professionals in Hawai‘i Choose Public Schools Instead of Private Schools is about passion, advocacy, and the willingness of parents to “go against the grain.” It’s about Hawai‘i professionals choosing public education for their children in a state that adheres to a commonly held belief that “public schools are failing and private schools are succeeding.” University of Hawai‘i education professor Ann Bayer interviewed fifty-one parents, including five who chose private schools. Physicians, professors, attorneys, military officers, teachers, legislators, business executives and entrepreneurs, bankers, and administrators of both genders and from a wide range of ethnic backgrounds were among those interviewed.

Bayer begins by asking parents why they chose to send their children to public schools. She also asks them to describe the reaction of families, friends, and colleagues to their decision and their children’s school experiences—both positive and negative. From these conversations the concept of what constitutes a “good public school” emerges as well as the opportunities provided by such schools. Several parents remark that their children have gone on to attend the same colleges and universities as private school graduates. Other chapters examine more closely the prevalent belief in the superiority of Hawai‘i’s private schools and its impact on students, parents, and teachers. Bayer argues that it is important to understand this belief system and how both newcomers and longtime residents are exposed to it given its influence on parental decisions about schooling. Finally, she returns to interviews with parents for suggestions on how to improve public education in Hawai‘i and to address the question “Why should we care about the public school system?” Responses spark frank discussions on the broader implications for the civic and economic health of a community fragmented by two-tiered schooling.

March 2009 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3339-8 / $26.00 (PAPER)

New Edition of Oceania Map Now Available

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Completely revised and updated with enhanced readability, James A. Bier’s Reference Map of Oceania, Second Edition, is the most comprehensive Pacific map in existence. Its main map and 52 inset maps of all major parts of the region provide a wealth of information in one source. Principal cities, towns, and villages are shown along with roads, topography, and population figures where available. The main map’s Mercator projection is useful for planning routes. Time zones for the Pacific and individual countries are also included. It is the only map that clearly focuses on the political units of Micronesia, Polynesia, and Melanesia, using as its boundaries the 200-mile Extended Economic Zone. With more than 3,400 place names, Oceania will be an invaluable reference for everyone interested in or living in the Pacific islands, including teachers, students, historians, anthropologists, businesses, and travelers.

“Making sense of as complex an area as Oceania challenges the best of cartographers. Bier and the University of Hawaii Press have risen to that challenge producing a manageable double-sided sheet full of well laid-out information.” —Special Libraries Association Bulletin

February 2009 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3108-0 / $9.95, color

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