UH Mānoa provost competition awards multidisciplinary innovation

Established in 1962, the UH Mānoa Historic Costume Collection is one of the largest collections of apparel, textiles, and related objects in a public university in the U.S. This project will focus on the Hawaiʻi subcollection; it is the only collection of its type in the nation and documents the impact of Indigenous and immigrant groups on the Hawaiian Islands. This sub-collection includes aloha apparel, muumuu, holokū, holomuʻu, locally produced garments, palaka, rice-bag clothing and a recent donation of Aloha Airlines uniforms. This grant will fund a graduate assistant whose job will be to photograph, digitize, organize and input data for each garment into a software database for public access.

The Coastal Health Collective leverages the unique expertise and ongoing work of a team composed primarily of early career researchers and faculty in the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology to address community needs that have remained unmet in the wake of the Lahaina urban wildfire disaster on Maui. The project will create a research, community and educational platform inspired by the UH Mānoa Strategic Plan Goals which includes becoming a Native Hawaiian Place of Learning, Enhancing Student Success and promoting Excellence in Research. The three main goals of the Coastal Health Collective are to: 1) Establish pathways and best practices for research in Lahaina that is reflective of Indigenous Hawaiʻi and grounded in aloha ʻāina, 2) Advance coral reef science within the context of the West Maui wildfire recovery and, 3) Enhance student success by providing meaningful research experiences that promote stewardship and inspire aloha ʻāina (caring for the land) leadership.

ANNO 2.0 – the ʻAhahui Noiʻi Noʻeau ʻŌiwi – Research Institute of Indigenous Performance, in the wake of a successful and fruitful first year, is proposing a significant evolution to our institute, informed by our three foundational threads, Maʻawe Mua (Scholarship and Publication), Maʻawe ʻElua (Curriculum and Archive) and Maʻawe ʻEkolu (Outreach and Recruitment). In Maʻawe Mua, we propose further publications in the field of Hawaiian and Indigenous performance, alternative modalities of knowledge sharing including podcast development, and events, resources, and support for Hawaiian theatre productions. In Maʻawe ʻElua, we seek to develop curriculum surrounding performances, an introductory course in Indigenous performance, and potentially a new certificate program. Maʻawe ʻEkolu endeavors to expand our collaborations with Native Hawaiian and Pasifika organizations, to tour with Puana (the upcoming hana keaka production of the Hawaiian Theatre Program) to neighbor islands and to Aotearoa for the Kia Mau Festival, and to host artists through programming, our Hana Noʻeau Series, and artist residencies. Each maʻawe is also built with the intention of nurturing student success through the funding of multiple graduate assistants. We further aim to diversify and grow our financial positioning during this time to expand our capacity to deliver on our vision. In these coming years, ANNO aims to stimulate the materialization of our shared aspiration for the establishment of UH Mānoa as a Hawaiian Place of Learning and the epicenter of research excellence in Hawaiian and Indigenous performance.

Given the increasing recognition of the importance of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging in medical education and patient care, medical schools in the United States are seeking effective curricula, as well as assessment and evaluation tools that meaningfully evaluate the impact of such curricula. The end goals of these efforts are health equity and improved patient outcomes. The John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM) has responded to a call from students and faculty to center diversity, equity, and inclusion with an institutional commitment to honor Indigenous knowledge and give learners the skills to combat discrimination while nurturing their sense of belonging and community. Faculty and staff have had fewer opportunities to engage in this deep work and learning, while, at the same time, students feel the curriculum needs to be more structured and better coordinated; in response, we propose to pilot a humanism focused health equity curriculum to support faculty and staff who engage with students during their clinical years. By collaborating with the Thompson School of Social Work and Public Health, we will deepen our understanding of the ways social drivers affect health and well-being, while a new partnership with the College of Arts, Languages & Letters will enable us to develop a health humanities component to our curriculum that uses art, literature and other humanities to enrich learner experiences. Together, this will promote a sense of belonging that goes beyond teaching skills and concepts to a more meaningful learning experience that will ultimately impact the way we deliver care to patients. Should this pilot prove successful, the curriculum, assessments and evaluation tools can be widely disseminated throughout all of JABSOM and its partners as well as to other medical schools searching for tools to enhance health equity and belonging in their health education programs.