Book launch by former Director of the EWC Culture Learning Institute

Please join us in welcoming Dr. Verner Bickley back to the East-West Center. From 1972 to 1981, Dr. Bickley served as the first Director of the East-West Center’s Culture Learning Institute. A loyal supporter of the work of the Center, Bickley will give an overview of the history of the Culture-Learning Institute and the EWC drawing from his new book, Steps To Paradise and Beyond (11 April 2013).

The book is prefaced by Dr. Charles E. Morrison, President, East-West Center, who writes: "Dr. Bickley's book should remind us that the present emerges out of the past, and that much of what we today take for granted about our world derives from the ingenuity, labor and persistence of those who came before." In Steps to Paradise and Beyond, Bickley recalls a 1960 meeting that he attended as a British Council officer in Rangoon, Burma, with five senior faculty members of the University of Hawai’i and US Embassy officials to discuss the work of the newly-formed East-West Center.

Bickley joined the Center in 1971 and was appointed the first Director of the Culture Learning Institute in 1972. During his nine-year tenure, EWC students, institute researchers and visiting fellows studied how individuals and societies address issues that arise in multicultural contexts due to differing cultural norms.

In his book, Bickley also reflects on cultural issues in Hawaii’s history, including the legacy left by Captain Cook and the missionaries who followed him. He goes on to consider the controversy surrounding attempts to regain independence from the United States following Hawaii’s annexation in 1898, and refers to the Culture Learning Institute’s support for the first voyage of the canoe, Hõkülea and the cultural significance of that voyage.

Please RSVP by June 9.

Event Sponsor
East-West Center, Mānoa Campus

More Information
808-944-7111, ewcinfo@eastwestcenter.org, http://www.eastwestcenter.org/events/steps-paradise-and-beyond

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