Time: Every other Wednesday, 12 pm
Place: East-West Center, Burns 2118
Dates:
September 5th: Mark Helbling, American
Studies, UH Manoa
"The Response of African Americans to Lindbergh's Flight
to Paris"
Abstract
On May 21, 1927 at 10:24 pm. Charles Lindbergh
gently touched down on French soil, the first person to fly the
Atlantic alone. Immediately, the world had a new hero--mobbed
wherever he went, the recipient of thousands of letters and
poems, the inspiration for popular as well as classical music.
But what, exactly, Lindbergh meant to his generation and
subsequent generations has remained a source of interest and
controversy. This paper will address what has essentially been
ignored in the scholarship on Charles Lindbergh (1) the response
of African Americans to his historic flight and (2)
methodological issues in constructing this response.
September 27th: Arindam Chakrabarti,
Philosophy,
UH Manoa
"Novelty and the ‘Native Informer’:
Cross-Cultural Studies and the Risk of Epistemic Exploitation"
Abstract
The facts that an ancient land could turn into "the new
world" and English translations of old Asian texts still
claim creditable originality while the home traditions of the
text appear moribundly old show that the concept of
"novelty' deserves a responsible political semantic
analysis. This talk by a philosophy-teacher (blissfully ignorant
of postcolonial theory) will first problematize the concept of
NOVELTY from hermeneutic, logical and ontological points of view.
It will then go on to give a few examples of the continued
"use" of traditional South Asian scholars by Western
"Asianists", commenting on the growing but still
inadequate awareness that such 'cultural exchanges' may turn out
to be forms of epistemic exploitation.
October 3rd: Guobin Yang, Sociology,
UH Manoa
"The Internet and the Rise of a Transnational Chinese
Cultural Sphere"
Abstract
Starting with a broad conception of public sphere, this paper
analyzes the nature, dynamics and political functions of online
Chinese cultural spaces, particularly newsgroups, online
magazines, and bulletin board systems. Although these spaces are
located both in and outside of China, the global nature of the
Internet gives them a transnational character. The dominant
language of communication in these spaces is Chinese and the
"publics" are drawn from what Tu Wei-ming calls
"Cultural China." Analysis based on ethnographic data
reveals the size and diversity of these spaces as well as their
similarities, differences, and connections. Further analysis
shows that these online spaces have had visible influences on
transnational politics and civil society in China. The picture
that emerges from this analysis is that of a transnational
Chinese cultural sphere. The paper concludes with a discussion of
three key conditions of its emergence exploitation.
October 17th: Naoko Shibusawa, History,
UH Manoa
"A No-No Boy?: Tomoya Kawakita and the Meaning of Loyalty"
Abstract
This presentation explores the case of the other Japanese
American convicted of treason for collaborating with the Japanese
during World War II. While many have heard about "Tokyo
Rose," an alias attributed to Iva Toguri d'Aquino, few
Americans recall Tomoya Kawakita.Kawakita spent the war years in
Japan like Toguri and allegedly abused American POWs at a nickel
mine where he served as an interpreter. Returning to California
after the war, he was enrolled at USC when an ex-POW identified
him at a Sear department store in downtown LA and was brought to
trial in 1947. Tried at a time when American media valorized the
all-nisei100/442 Regimental Combat Team and increasingly touted
Japan as America's "junior ally" in the Cold War,
Kawakita's case provided a space in the public discourse to
continue talking about punishing or avenging Japanese (American)
treachery. By focusing on Kawakita, this paper will analyze how
notions of masculinity, ethnicity, and patriotism were mutually
constitutive during a postwar era of heightened anxiety about
national loyalty.
October 31st: Noel Jacob Kent, Ethnic
Studies,
UH Manoa
"South Africa and Hawai‘i: The Rainbow ideal in the
Era of Global Capital and George W."
Abstract
This South Africa and Hawai‘i are two societies which
currently embrace the "Rainbow" ideal of diverse,
multicultural populations living within one political unit in
mutual respect and empowerment. The burden of history, however,
weighs heavily on both sites, as does the political-economy
context in which the "Rainbow" must survive, the era of
Globalization andGeorge W.
November 14th: Ty Kawika Tengan,
Anthropology,
UH Manoa
"Kanaka ‘Oiwi, People of the Bone: Repatriation,
Identity and Mana"
Abstract
This talk will contextualize present-day conflicts over iwi
(ancestral remains) and moepu (funerary objects) in the longer
history of struggles for power and mana in Hawai'i. It is by
looking to the words of our kupuna (ancestors) that contemporary
‘Oiwi (indigenous Hawaiians) may better understand and
practice their kuleana as “People of the Bone,” and in
so doing add to the re-empowerment of our people as a whole.
November 28th: Reshela DuPuis,
International Studies,
HPU
"Practical Politics of Engaged Cultural
Studies: Researching Political Ritual"
Abstract
Maori activist/scholar Linda Tuhiwai Smith has recently called on
academic researchers to enact appropriate practices of
investigation and publication based on culturally sensitive
considerations of the indigenous communities within which they
work. DuPuis’ talk will discuss the possibilities and
problematics of doing research in Hawai‘i in this way, using
her work on a women's political ritual that took place at Queen
Lili‘uokalani’s Uluhaimalama Garden in 1894, and on a
local community-based documentary video about that ritual that
was produced in 1983. Her talk will address the ways in which the
concept of pono practice can have direct and immediate benefits
for the members of the community with whom a researcher works, as
well as for the research itself and the academic more personally.
She will also comment on the criticism this type of approach has
generated within the traditional academy and will discuss
possible responses to such criticism based on her work with both
Native Hawaiians and non-natives she has interviewed during her
research.
December 5th: Special Panel
Geoffrey White, Anthropology, UH Manoa
Jon Goss, Geography, UH Manoa
Marie Thorsten, International Studies, Macalester College
Yujin Yaguchi, American Studies, University of Tokyo
Moderator: Mari Yoshihara, American Studies, UH Manoa
"Disney’s Pearl Harbor: Critical Readings and
Receptions"
The film "Pearl Harbor," premiered by Disney Studios on
the deck of an aircraft carrier in May this year, created another
surge of interest in Pearl Harbor and its significance as a
"turning point" in American history. Despite generally
negative critical reviews, the film is the latest in a longer
genealogy of Pearl Harbor films that has exerted considerable
influence on popular conceptions of history, war, and the nation.
This panel offers critical reflection on the politics and poetics
of this latest film as well as its significance in wider spheres
of American and Japanese popular culture. It is argued that these
readings are more relevant than ever in light of recent
invocations of Pearl Harbor in discussions of the September 11
attacks. The panel includes four presentations: on the production
and promotion of the film (White), on reception of the film in
Japan (Yaguchi), the relationship between Pearl Harbor and
discourses of the nation (Thorsten/White) and on the most
critically acclaimed Pearl Harbor film, From Here to Eternity
(Goss).