Fall 2021 - Colloquium Series and Occasional Seminar

The Department of Anthropology will be offering the following events this semester.

Colloquium Series

Each colloquium will be held Thursdays at 3:00 pm remotely via Zoom unless otherwise noted. For inquiries (including Zoom, Slack, and previous recording information), contact Anthropology at anthprog@hawaii.edu.

Huli Kanaka: Radically Reformulating Race, Place, and Anthropology

In January 2021, our department issued a “Position Statement on Race and Racism” that called for “an honest and open rethinking about the ways that race and racism continue to shape our institutions of public life, including the university.” In doing so, we committed to developing a Fall semester colloquium series dedicated to addressing “Race and Racism at Home.” Following from our stated “kuleana to confront abiding structures of racism and other systems of oppression,” we now aim to explore what the concept of “huli kanaka” (the Hawaiian translation of anthropology as “study of people”) may offer us as a form of anti-racist and anti-oppressive anthropology. The term huli has alternative meanings beyond “study” that include turn, change, search, explore, and the top of the kalo used for replanting. With these thoughts and more in mind, we feature three roundtables of faculty, students, and friends from both within and outside of our department who will help us in our work to overturn racist and colonial forms in our field as we plant more generative ideas and practices for a decolonial anthropology here at Mānoa.

Overturning Anthropological Racism in Hawai’i: Lessons from the Bishop Museum’s (Re)generations special exhibit

  • Date: September 9
  • Participants: Keolu Fox, Christopher Bae, and Noelle Kahanu

Searching for Kuleana: Responsibility and Transformation within the University

  • Date: October 7
  • Participants: Chris Yano (Professor, Anthropology, UHM), ‘Ulise Funaki (PhD candidate, Anthropology, UHM), L. Ayu Saraswati (Associate Professor, Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, UHM), Kelley Lehuakeaopuna Uyeoka (Executive Director, Huliauapa’a), and Tarisi Vunidilo (Assistant Professor, UH Hilo).

Replanting Knowledge: The Politics and Praxis of Teaching and Studying Anthropology at Mānoa

  • Date: November 4
  • Panelists: Seth Quintus (Associate Professor, Anthropology, UHM), Ashley Atkins (PhD candidate, Anthropology, UHM), Valéry Atkinson (PhD candidate, Anthropology, UHM), Aashish Hemrajani (Homeless Outreach Program Coordinator, Hawai’i Health and Harm Reduction Center), and Noenoe Silva (Professor, Political Science, UHM).

Occasional Seminar

This event will be held remotely via Zoom. For inquiries (including Zoom details), contact Anthropology at anthprog@hawaii.edu.

Women, War, & Revolutions in Myanmar: Himalaya, Naga Hills to Thai-Burma Borderlands

  • Speaker: Dr. Khin Mar Mar Kyi, University of Oxford
  • Date: Friday, November 12
  • Time: 2 pm - 3:15 pm
  • Co-sponsored by the Departments of Geography and Environment and Sociology and the Center for Southeast Asian Studies.

Since the military coup on 1 Feb 2021, the world has witnessed Myanmar women in the frontline of the spring revolution against the brutal military junta in order to restore democracy in Myanmar. Sixty percent of the participants in the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) are women, and many are leading the nation-wide protests against the vicious junta. Many female Members of the Parliament, university lecturers, academics, teachers, medical doctors, actresses, models, and singers became revolutionary soldiers - some joining the fight in the jungle. For ten months, while international communities have been largely silent, these women are determined to bring peace, democracy and equality in Myanmar on their own. However, Myanmar women’s participation in this revolution is not new. Dr. Mar will share her observations and insights – the women’s strength, commitment, and success in the face of structural discrimination and violence -- based on her research and interviews with women who are currently leading the revolution and also those who had participated in the revolutions of the past.

Dr. Khin Mar Mar Kyi “Dr. Mar” is the Interim Director and Convener of the International Studies at the University of Oxford. She is also one of the founding directors of the Oxford Thanakha International Gender Studies Centre in collaboration with Chiang Mai University in Thailand. This Centre has partnered with various international academic institutions and so far, conducted 22 international webinars on Myanmar’ coup related issues particularly gender issues in Myanmar. In her role as the Senior Research Fellow & Research Associate at Oxford University, she co-led the grant research funded program for “Religion, Gender, Identity, and Conflict in a Political Transition.” Dr. Mar holds a PhD in Gender and Anthropology from the Australian National University.