UH Hilo hosts international conference on English language, literature studies
The 5th Annual Hawaiʻi International Conference on English Language and Literature Studies highlighted evolving English research and teaching from around the world; several faculty and students from UH Hilo presented their work.
By Lauren Aoki/UH Hilo Stories.
Editor’s note: The author of this story, an English major at UH Hilo, also presented her work at this conference.
Despite the arrival of an unexpected weather event that caused the closure of schools throughout the state, the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo moved forward with hosting an international literature conference March 13-14 by quickly switching from the expected in-person gathering to an online platform. The event featured speakers and attendees from universities from the continental United States, Europe, and Asia, including Japan, South Korea, and Malaysia. Closer to home, faculty from UH Maui College and UH Mānoa also participated.
The 5th Annual Hawaiʻi International Conference on English Language and Literature Studies (HICELLS) offered a professional opportunity for students, educators, and researchers alike to share their work on English in a collaborative academic community. This was the third year UH Hilo has hosted the annual conference, which was founded in 2020.
“This conference provides an opportunity to share research, exchange ideas, and engage in meaningful academic dialogue in a collaborative and intellectually enriching environment,” says Francis Dumanig, UH Hilo associate professor of English and lead organizer of the event.
This year’s HICELLS theme, “Teaching and Learning English Language and Literature in a Changing World: Global Trends and Transformative Practices,” focused on exploring emerging trends in English across the globe.
Noting that in a rapidly changing world previous pedagogical approaches may need to be replaced, Dumanig emphasizes the importance of having difficult conversations on new perspectives that can help educators stay ahead of the curve.
“As educational landscapes continue to evolve, particularly with the emergence of artificial intelligence and other technological innovations, it is essential that we explore new perspectives, approaches, and transformative practices that shape the future of English language and literature education globally,” he says.
In her welcome remarks for the conference, UH Hilo Chancellor Bonnie D. Irwin — a literature scholar in her own right with master and doctoral degrees in comparative literature — also touched on how fast these shifting environments have changed teaching English language and literature in the past year alone.
“The world is indeed changing quite rapidly, and many of those changes have a direct impact on how we teach and how we communicate,” notes Chancellor Irwin. “We hope you come away from the conference with new ideas, valuable feedback on your own work, and a deeper appreciation for what we do across our profession.”
Conference topics included mobile learning, cross-cultural communication, language and media, theoretical linguistics, contemporary literature, American literature and more:
UH Hilo students and professors present their work
UH Hilo’s own English department students and faculty presented their research at the conference.
Two UH Hilo seniors majoring in English presented their work.
Xailea Anderson-Iopa presented her research on “Agency and Tragedy in Selkie Myths,” and Lauren Aoki (student writer for the Office of the Chancellor and author of this story on the conference) presented her research on “George Orwell’s 1984 Through a Marxist Theoretical Lens.”
Professor of English Kirsten Møllegaard, who also presented at the conference, worked closely with her students Anderson-Iopa and Aoki to prepare their presentations. Møllegaard emphasizes the importance of the conference and the professional opportunities it presents to participants, not just to experienced educators but to undergraduate students as well.
Møllegaardʻs research focuses on the intersectionality of places, people and stories past and present, including the effects of climate change, war and trauma on the human experience. Some of her conference presentations and research articles are co-written with English majors at UH Hilo.
- UH Hilo English professor Kirsten Møllegaard awarded Board of Regents Medal for Excellence in Teaching (June 30, 2020, UH Hilo Stories)
In her presentation at this year’s HICELLS conference, “The Real Me: Autobiography, Memoir, and Autofiction in Contemporary Graphic Narratives,” Møllegaard discussed the representation of art and self-identity in life writing.
“For some writers, life writing focuses on overcoming personal trauma and healing from political or social injustices, while for others it provides a venue for self-understanding and self-acceptance,” she explains.
Because of this, it also offers a unique and deeply personal perspective of how the author views the social contexts of their life, which can then be studied through a critical cultural studies lens.
“Life writing constitutes a personal perspective on the border historical, sociological, and psychological contexts that have influenced the writer’s life, thus offering a subtext to the meta-level of social experience at a certain time and place,” says Møllegaard, who reviewed her analytical research on the graphic novels Hyperbole and Half by Allie Brosh, Feeding Ghosts by Tessa Hulls, and Impossible People: A Completely Average Recovery by Julia Wertz.
Associate Professor of English Patsy Iwasaki presented her research, “Framing Culturally Sustaining Education: The Graphic Novel as Resilient Pedagogy in the Post-Pandemic Era,” which addresses how the arts could be used to acknowledge historical trauma and ongoing challenges in a given community.
“My presentation focuses on multimodality and culturally responsive teaching to foster resiliency,” she says. “This approach aligns with the (conference) theme of transforming English literature instruction through innovative pedagogical strategies in the post-pandemic era.”
First discussing how the Hāmākua Coast on Hawaiʻi Island was negatively impacted by three major socioeconomic influences — the closure of the last sugar plantations, highway infrastructure, and the COVID-19 pandemic — Iwasaki discussed her own graphic novel, Hāmākua Hero: A True Plantation Story, based on the life and death of Japanese immigrant Katsu Goto, and how the book is used as a community-engaged literary tool for the contemporary classroom. Part of the funding for the project from the National Endowment for the Humanities was used to distribute copies of the book to Hawaiʻi Island educators to foster community engagement and cultural connection; Iwasaki then investigated the effectiveness of the book as a teaching tool.
- Patsy Iwasaki’s graphic novel sheds light on immigrant experience (May 10, 2021, UH Hilo Stories)
“Ultimately, this study reframes literature as a dynamic pedagogical vehicle for cultural sustainability, community resilience, and the preservation of regional heritage for emerging learners,” she says.
She hopes the graphic novel, which was created in collaboration with UH Hilo alumni and freelance graphic illustrator Berido, will encourage educators to teach in non-traditional methods.
UH Hilo Associate Professor of English Leanne Day, a plenary speaker at the conference, presented her work examining the representation of settler colonialism in the literature of Hawaiʻi.
In Day’s presentation, “Representations of Hawaiʻi: the ʻLocalʻ Subject, Indigeneity, Language, and Classroom,” she discussed the social and historical context behind the term “local,” from the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi to statehood to current day.
“This talk explores how the nomenclature around subjectivity and belonging in Hawaiʻi indexes the history and present of settler colonialism, Asian racialization, and Kānaka Maoli dispossession,” she explains.
Her presentation included her study of two books in particular, Lois-Ann Yamanaka’s Blu’s Hanging and R. Zamora Linkmark’s Rolling the R’s. Through them, Day studies and teaches the absence of Native Hawaiians in Hawaiʻi literature to address ongoing racial and social dynamics.
She also reviewed student responses to Yamanaka’s infamous novel as required reading and the importance of teaching controversial novels through a critical lens to better understand modern representations of race and ethnicity.
- Leanne Day, UH Hilo scholar in Indigenous and postcolonial literatures of the Pacific, receives UH System award for teaching (May 31, 2023, UH Hilo Stories)
Successful conference
Despite the unexpected weather event and quick switch to an online platform, the conference was ultimately a success that brought together students and educators across the globe, strengthening collective work in English language and literature in an evolving learning environment.
“The annual HICELLS conference provides a unique forum for scholars, including students, to get feedback on their research projects and to learn from hearing what other people are working on,” says Møllegaard, praising her colleague Dumanig on his dedication and contribution in organizing the conference.
Dumanig credits the collaboration of international and domestic participants, including UH Hilo faculty, for the success of the event.
“The success of HICELLS would not be possible without the invaluable support of the English department at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo, the continued commitment of the university administration, our partner universities, and most especially, the scholars and participants from various parts of the world whose contributions sustain the vitality and relevance of this conference,” he says.
Story by Lauren Aoki, an English major with a minor in anthropology at UH Hilo. She is literary editor at the university’s student publications Kanilehua and Hohonu.
