Three UH Hilo English majors present their analytical research at literary conference in San Francisco
Students Melehoalalani Dela Cruz, Jun Reyes, and Cheylan Zimmermann presented their papers and conducted a panel at the 16th Annual Humanities Education and Research Association Conference held at San Francisco State University.
By Susan Enright.
Three English majors from the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo presented their analytical research papers at a literature conference held March 6-9, 2024, at San Francisco State University, Calif.
The 16th Annual Humanities Education and Research Association Conference was organized by the Humanities Education Research Association (HERA) with the theme, “The Humanities Project 2024: [Re] Telling Our Stories.”
Students Melehoalalani Dela Cruz, Jun Reyes, and Cheylan Zimmermann conducted a panel presentation and presented their papers, each an independent analysis of an award-winning novel written by local writer Kawai Strong Washburn, who was born and raised in Honokaʻa on the Hāmākua Coast of Hawaiʻi Island.
The research projects began last fall in a writing intensive introductory course on literary studies (ENG 300) taught by English professor Kirsten Møllegaard. Students in the class read Washburn’s Sharks in the Time of Saviors (2020), which is partially set in Honokaʻa and Waipiʻo Valley.
“Studying place-based literature through various critical lenses is an effective way to immerse students into the deeper histories and cultural contexts of Hawaiʻi Island,” says Møllegaard. “Washburn’s novel is set in the post-plantation era and follows a working-class family going through economic hardship and struggling to maintain their sense of belonging and their roots in Hawaiian culture.”
For the students to learn about the author’s perspective and vision for the novel, Møllegaard organized a Zoom lecture with Washburn, who grew up in Honokaʻa and still has family in the area.
To learn about the plantation era in Honokaʻa, the class also read Assistant Professor of English Patsy Iwasaki and illustrator Avery Berido‘s graphic novel, Hāmākua Hero: A True Plantation Story, which offers a compelling description of labor leader Katsu Goto and the harsh working conditions on the sugar plantations in the 1880s.
“After reading these two novels, the class then went on a huakaʻi (field trip) to Honokaʻa and the Waipiʻo Valley lookout to experience some of the places described in Washburn’s novel and Iwasaki and Berido’s graphic narrative,” says Møllegaard.
Planning for the conference
This semester, Møllegaard then worked with the three students from that fall class — Dela Cruz, Reyes and Zimmermann — to propose a panel presentation, based on their research, to be delivered at the HERA conference at San Francisco State University.
“The students revised their ENG 300 papers by expanding on their literary research and reworking their analyses,” says Møllegaard. “They also rewrote their abstracts before submitting them to the conference.”
Dela Cruz reworked her paper, “The Representation of ʻAumakua in Sharks in the Time of Saviors: A Critical Assessment.” Reyes did the same on his paper, entitled, “As Worlds Collide: An Analysis of Family Roles and Culture in Shaping Stress Responses in Sharks in the Time of Saviors.” And Zimmermann expanded her analysis of the novel in her work, titled, “A New Perspective on Traditional Stories: A Deconstructionist Analysis.”
Their proposal was accepted.
“Once our panel proposal got accepted, the students and I reviewed the papers again and put together a joint panel presentation that examined Washburn’s novel from various critical perspectives,” explains Møllegaard. “This was a unique opportunity for the three English majors to practice the process of literary research so that they could present their papers at a professional conference and gain experience in public speaking and academic debate.”
The panel discussion was titled, “Critical Lenses on Kawai Strong Washburn’s Sharks in the Time of Saviors,” where the three English majors discussed their various critical approaches to reading Washburn’s novel. Professor Møllegaard served as moderator on the panel and presented her own work, “Introduction: Teaching Literary Theory with Sharks in the Time of Saviors.”
Here is the summary of the panel topic:
This prize-winning novel is set in contemporary Hawaiʻi and follows the Flores family as they navigate the post-plantation era, poverty, relocation, and their own identities as Filipino Americans. A central event in the novel is when the middle child Nainoa is miraculously saved from drowning by sharks. This event could be read as magical realism, but as the panel will discuss, it could also be seen as evoking Hawaiian moʻolelo (storytelling) about ʻaumākua (spiritual ancestors) and the mana (sacred power) of ocean genealogies. Each member of the panel offers a reading of the novel, its events, and characters from a specific critical literary theory, thus opening up perspectives on how to immerse Washburn’s novel into broader cultural, historical, and literary contexts.
Building a skillset
The conference experience for the students was a grand success, enriching their skillset while they shared their manaʻo and scholarship with attendees at the conference.
“The students’ conference participation was not only an enriching educational experience for themselves, it was also a valuable way to profile what we do in the UH Hilo English department and to engage with scholars from other institutions and learn what they do in their programs,” says Møllegaard.
Story by Susan Enright, a public information specialist for the Office of the Chancellor and editor of UH Hilo Stories. She received her bachelor of arts in English and certificate in women’s studies from UH Hilo.
