The 35th Annual School of Pacific and Asian Studies Graduate Conference, held on April 4-5, 2024, welcomed participants from nine other universities to present their research. It featured a total of 32 graduate student speakers across eight themed panels, as well as a keynote speech by Professor Ricardo Trimillos, a renowned ethnomusicologist and former Chair of both the Asian Studies and Music Departments at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
Presenters showcased research in areas such as the intersection of performance and identity; the queering of Buddhist deities in Taiwan and Nepal; memorializing Philippine and Japanese-Buraku historical movements; digital gender discourses in Korea and China; the production of colonial knowledge through Malaysia’s marine environment; political uprisings and land disputes in Sri Lanka; Chinese artist communities; the gendered experience of Myanmar’s military coup; and how the lived realities of Asia interact with art, governance, colonial legacies, and politics; and more. Besides the diversity of research areas, there was academic rigor throughout the two-day conference.
Faculty from across six UHM humanities departments moderated the eight themed panels, and many other respected faculty members attended as part of the audience. The conference contributed significantly to the promotion of graduate studies on the Asian region and the building of lasting academic relationships. The CALL Uehiro Program was able to provide support to this signature graduate conference on Asian studies.