UHM Center for Pacific Islands Studies | CPIS

Events

The Ecotone – IGSC 2026 Keynote Address by Professor Katerina Teaiwa

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The Ecotone Scholarly Forum Series Presents a Keynote Address in Honor of the 25th Anniversary International Graduate Student Conference 2026 featuring Professor Katerina Teaiwa

12 February 2026, 4:00-5:30 PM at Kuykendall 101, reception to follow
Register via the QR code or go to go.hawaii.edu/DRp

Dr Katerina Teaiwa is an interdisciplinary scholar, artist, and award-winning teacher of Banaban, I-Kiribati, and African American heritage from Fiji. She is Professor of Pacific Studies in the School of Culture, History and Language at the Australian National University’s College of Asia and the Pacific, a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She is Vice President of the Australian Association for Pacific Studies and Editor of The Contemporary Pacific: an interdisciplinary journal.

TIDES Loʻi Day at Kānewai

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7 February 2026 (first Saturday of the month), 8 AM at 2613 Dole Street (Loʻi Area)

Calling all our TIDES colleagues and network for a day of mud, sweat and community at the lo’i with our friends at Kānewai! First Saturday of the month is coming up soon, and we hope to see you all there! Reach out to the TIDES team if you need directions!

Pacific Islands Studies: Continuity & Community **REGISTRATION OPEN**

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Welina mai, Halo olketa, Ni sa bula vinaka, Ran anim, Talofa lava, Iokwe yuk, Malo e lelei, Kia Orana, Mogethin, Taloha ni, Alii, Ko na mauri, Len wo, Hafa adai, Fakaalofa lahi atu, Kasalehlie…warm Pacific Islands greetings!

The Center for Pacific Islands Studies is pleased to invite you to register (https://go.hawaii.edu/k4r) for our upcoming anniversary conference:

Pacific Islands Studies: Continuity & Community
75 Years at Mānoa

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa campus
Honolulu, Hawaiʻi
5–7 November 2025

The conference will feature discussions about the present, past, and future of Pacific Islands Studies, with attention to shifting currents and emerging tides. We particularly encourage community members, students, and alumni to join us in shaping conversations as we navigate forward. 

If you would like to present, please submit your abstract through the same form for consideration. We will review all submitted abstracts and follow-up with a formal notification of acceptance in September.

In the coming months, we will be providing additional information on a nominal registration fee, keynote speakers, and the conference program. Please refer to our conference website (https://go.hawaii.edu/J4r) and check your email for the latest updates.

Please submit this form by 20 August 2025.

If you have any pressing questions or concerns, please email cpis@hawaii.edu with the subject line “Continuity & Community.” 

Warm thanks, and we hope to see you soon!
The Center for Pacific Islands Studies

The Ecotone – Weaving Knowledge(s): Addressing Climate Change through Epistemic Crafting with Manuhuia Barcham, PhD

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1 April 2025, 12 PM at Moore 258
Register here

Please join us for an ecotone session with Dr. Manuhuia Barcham, Associate Professor of the Emily Carr University of Art and Design. The last half century has seen a dramatic shift occur in Western academia and practice around the recognition of Indigenous Knowledge (IK). We see examples of this shift in the adoption of IK in health management programs or the granting of legal personhood to mountains and rivers. However multiple critiques have emerged around this shift seeing it as often still being situated within specific socio-technical power structures which continue to be extractive in practice. Investigating these ideas through examples drawn from my empirical design work I propose different ways in which we might be able to explore bringing different knowledges and knowledge traditions together in a way that provides value for multiple stakeholder groups but maintains the dignity and integrity of these different traditions and knowledges.

AAPI EHEJ is a three-year initiative launching an interdisciplinary thematic cluster on Asian American & Pacific Islander (AAPI) environmental humanities and environmental justice (EHEJ) located in UH Mānoa’s School of Pacific and Asian Studies (SPAS). We are generously supported by the Mellon Foundation.

Indigenising research: Moanaroa a philosophy for practice with Dr. Lefaoali’i Dion Enari

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16 January 2025, 4 pm at the Tokioka Room (Moore Hall 319)
Register here

The Mellon AAPI EHEJ presents: Growing interest in Pacific issues has meant a surge in Pacific research across the globe. Sadly, some research on Pacific people has been done without Pacific knowledge, wisdom and culture. As Pacific researchers, we understand the importance of outputs that interweave our ancestral and cultural wisdom, whilst centering and privileging our people’s narratives. Through the birth of our Moanaroa Pacific Research group, we explore the importance of a research collective which decolonizes and re-indigenizes research as we know it. Pupus and beverages provided!

The Ecotone – What does a decolonial conservation ethics look like? with Celia Bardwell-Jones

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15 January 2025, 12:30-1:45PM at the Tokioka Room (Moore Hall 319)
Registration: https://go.hawaii.edu/bdQ

The Ecotone, a Mellon AAPI EHEJ Scholarly Forum Series presents: What does a decolonial conservation ethics look like? Conservation ethics has been guided by three ethical paradigms: preservationism, resourcism and harmonization. The aim of the talk is to place these ethical paradigms in discussion with ethical paradigms of environmental justice to envision what would a decolonial conservation ethics look like. Sponsored by the Center for Pacific Islands Studies, the Department of Asian Studies, and the Mellon AAPI Environmental Humanities and Environmental Justice initiative. Lunch provided!