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The The GraduateGraduate
February 2016 February 2016 NewsletterNewsletter
Inside
Current GSO News UpdatesCurrent GSO News Updates
Meet Your Events Chair (p.1)
EventsEvents
Photos: Town Hall Meeting (p.2)
Spring Coffee Hours (p.3)
Grad Student Pau Hana (p.3)
G&A AwardsG&A Awards
January G&A Awardees (p.4)
Featuring G&A Awardees (p.6-9)
Contact Us! (p. 9)Contact Us! (p. 9)
Meet Your Events Chair!
Yvette Lacobie has recently been
appointed as the GSO Events Chair.
Read on for her introduction and her
plans for great GSO events:
“I’m in the Masters of Public
Health program specializing in Epidemi-
ology. I grew up in Houston, Texas! I
wanted to get involved on campus and
be a part of making graduate student life
and engaging for all students. I am plan-
ning some super awesome events for
the spring semester so stay tuned! The
events that the GSO hosts help bring to-
gether the entire graduate student
body. With our busy school and work
schedules, it’s also important to make
time to relax and take our minds off of
the many to-do’s. The GSO Coffee Hours
and other events are a great way for our
student body to get together and have
some fun.”
Fun fact about Yvette: She’s been
an extra on Hawaii 5-0, and East Bound
and Down! She says about those experi-
ences, “Even if you don’t make any
shots...being on set is an awesome ex-
perience.”
Ph
oto
Cre
dit: Y
vette La
cob
ie
2
The The Graduate Graduate -- February 2016February 2016
Photos: Unionization Town Hall Event
Photo Credits: Amy McKee
and Ed Hoogland
3
The The Graduate Graduate -- February 2016February 2016
If you and/or your
constitutes would like to
represent your depart-
ment by hosting a Grad
Student Pau Hana one
week, please follow the
link below and add your
department information
to the Google doc:
Find sign up sheet here
U
E P
V C
E O
N M
T I
S N
G
4
The The Graduate Graduate -- February 2016February 2016
Name: Department:
Alyssa Agustin Oceanography
Lindsey Benjamin Oceanography
Seyed Eshraghi Mechanical Engineering
Md. Azmeary Ferdoush Geography
Janet Graham English
Min Namkoong Second Language Studies
Elita Ouk Public Administration
Kauahi Perez Tropical Plant and Soil Science
Nicole Schlaack Educational Psychology
Barnabas Seyler Botany
Jill Sommer Library and Information Sciences
Jamie Sziklay Zoology
Gerarda Terlouw Oceanography
Samantha Weaver Geology and Geophysics (Includes Geosciences)
Sherilyn Wee Economics
Johanna Wren Oceanography
Wei Zhang Theater
January G&A Awardees
5
The The Graduate Graduate -- February 2016February 2016
Featuring
G&A
Awardees
Seyed Eshraghi
The Power & Energy Society (PES) provides
the world's largest forum for sharing the latest in
technological developments in the electric power in-
dustry, for developing standards that guide the devel-
opment and construction of equipment and systems,
and for educating members of the industry and the
general public. Members of the Power & Energy Soci-
ety are leaders in this field, and they derive substan-
tial benefits from involvement with this unique and
outstanding association. The IEEE PES General Meet-
ing is the largest and most comprehensive of it’s type
in the world. The attendees of IEEE PES General
Meeting 2015 was around 3500 from all over the
world.
By attending this conference I had the
chance to meet lots of expert professionals in my
research field and become familiar with other re-
search in this area. Presenting my work as a poster
and receiving comments from them helped me to
reevaluate my work and gave me lots of ideas to im-
prove it and extend it as future work.
Md. Azmeary Ferdoush
This is Azmeary, and I am a Ph.D. student in Geography. Thanks for the partial support provided by the GSO for my summer 2015 pre-dissertation fieldwork in Bangladesh. I was visiting and observ-ing the enclaves of India situated in Bangladesh dur-ing May and June to document the exchange of these enclaves with India. After 68 years of negotia-tion, Bangladesh and India exchanged all their 198 enclaves on July 31, 2015.
I was interviewing the enclave residents, lo-cal political leaders, government officials and stake-holders to have a better understanding why some of these enclave dwellers chose to move from Bangla-desh to India and some not. I was also exploring the factors that determined their decision, the roles that the governments were playing on both sides, and how the exchange was being done. I visited three enclaves in Panchagar and Nilfamari districts of Bangladesh and carried out my pre-dissertation fieldwork. Based on this visit I am now coauthoring a book chapter, which is supposed to be published in 2017 by Routledge.
Source: Seyed Eshrahi
An enclave of India within Bangladesh.
Photo credit: Md Azmeary Ferdouch
6
The The Graduate Graduate -- February 2016February 2016
Featuring G&A Awardees, cont.
Janet Graham
Thanks to GSO funding, I was able to partici-
pate in a graduate student conference sponsored by
the English department at Ohio State University enti-
tled “Violent Bodies” this past October. I presented a
paper concerning the portrayal of social death, agen-
cy, and violence in Toni Morrison’s A Mercy and at-
tended all of the sessions offered over the two days
the conference was held.
The thematic focus of the conference on ex-
amining how violence is embodied textually, visually,
and politically corresponds to an area of active en-
gagement for me as a scholar. The opportunity to en-
gage in academic discourse with other graduate stu-
dents in my field helped me understand my work in a
wider context. From this experience, I learned how to
defend the relevance of developing counterhegemon-
ic readings of Ethnic American Literature by high-
lighting the theoretical and critical social relevance of
literary discourse.
Elita Ouk
I was given funding by GSO to travel to Cam-
bridge, MA to attend the Harvard Project for Asian
and International Relations. The conference brought
200 delegates from top universities around the
world to discuss issues and challenges in Asia to-
day. The panel that I was in was Human Rights. I got
the opportunity to engage with professors, activists,
and top experts in their fields and look at different
ways to approach issues related to the ongoing Ref-
ugee Crisis, Labor Exploitation, and Women Empow-
erment. I also met other delegates who are passion-
ate about solving issues and made contacts that are
useful for both my professional and academic ca-
reer. All this wouldn't be possible without the sup-
port and funding from GSO.
Photo Credit: Janet Graham
Ph
oto
Cre
dit: E
lita Ou
k
7
The The Graduate Graduate -- February 2016February 2016
Featuring G&A Awardees, cont.
Kauahi Perez
Aloha, my name is Kauahi Perez and I am a
PhD Candidate in the Department of Tropical Plant
and Soil Sciences. This past August I traveled to New
Orleans, Louisiana to attend the 112th American Soci-
ety for Horticultural Science Conference, one of the
largest attended conferences for horticulture re-
searchers, industry, academia, government, and stu-
dents to network and disseminate their horticultural
findings. I received a GSO Travel Award this past Jan-
uary to help recover the costs of airfare and accom-
modations for my very first trip to “Nawlins.”
Aside from enjoying the food and fun that New
Orleans, Louisiana affords any visitor, I also had a
blast at the conference. I presented a research post-
er, competed in an oral competition, presented at a
Teaching Methods Workshop, and even volunteered
as an undergraduate poster competition judge. More
importantly, my oral presentation in the Teaching
Methods Workshop ave me the opportunity to publish
a written manuscript on my oral presentation, which
has been submitted and currently waiting for review.
For me, the highlights of this conference
were being able to represent UH Manoa at this pres-
tigious conference and make valuable connections
with students, researchers, and instructors from
other institutions and industry. In addition, I enjoyed
exchanging tips with other graduate students on
how to improve various aspects of my research and
theirs. I had such a memorable experience at this
past conference that I am now gearing up for the
next ASHS conference. With the reimbursement
from the GSO award, I hope to put that towards this
year’s conference travel. Mahalo nui loa to the UH
Manoa Graduate Student Organization!
Barnabas Seyler
Between June-Dec. 2015, I was in China con-
ducting fieldwork in seven provinces, interviewing
more than 600 people primarily in Sichuan, Yunnan,
and Shanghai. This stage of my research project
required me to be in China to complete the majority
of my dissertation fieldwork (ethnobotany). I was
awarded a GSO grant this semester to purchase
qualitative data analysis software necessary to
code, organize, and analyze the 605 interviews I
completed last year. Photo Credit: Kauahi Perez
Photo Credit: Barnabas Seyler
8
The The Graduate Graduate -- February 2016February 2016
Featuring G&A Awardees, cont.
My dissertation’s main hypothesis is that the
loss of biodiversity results in an associated loss of
cultural knowledge. This hypothesis was tested last
year in relation to the orchid biocultural diversity in
Sichuan with four methodological components, and
the GSO’s generous support will enable me to bring
this project’s data analysis to completion. Sichuan
Province has the 2nd highest orchid diversity in China.
Many species are used in traditional Chinese medi-
cine; pressures resulting from their pharmaceutical
potential, rarity, and beauty, as well as from popula-
tion growth, logging, and dam construction, have put
many species at great risk of extinction.
Due to the large challenge posed by the diver-
sity of China’s orchid species and extinction crisis, I
intend to continue conducting research in China
throughout my career. I hope to follow up on my dis-
sertation by helping to establish a botanical garden in
Sichuan to address the keen conservation issues
there. The generous support of the GSO has aided me
push forward on this journey.
Wei Zhang
I am a PhD student in Comparative Theatre at
the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa. My paper,
“Exploring Intertextuality in Brecht’s The Good Per-
son of Szechwan: Two Appropriations of Chinese
Xiqu Twelve Years Apart" has been awarded for the
Emerging Scholars Award Panel at the Association
of Asian Performance 2015 Conference in Montreal,
Canada.
This paper analyzes the adaptations of Chi-
nese chuanju and yueju in Brecht’s The Good Per-
son of Szechwan from the perspective of xiqu’s in-
novations and social transitions after the 1980s in
China. In comparing the Chinese xiqu productions,
Good Woman/Bad Woman from 2001 and The Good
Person of Jiangnan from 2013, I evaluate how
Brecht’s materialist critique of traditional Western
ethics was transformed into a general critique of
ethics in China, conditioned by its social and eco-
nomic situations. In addition, I seek to unfold the
transformations of regional theatre in dramaturgy
and performance forms, in the face of social ambiv-
alence between modernization and localization.
Photo Credit: Barnabas Seyler
Ph
oto
Cre
dit: W
ei Z
han
g
9
The The Graduate Graduate -- February 2016February 2016
Featuring G&A Awardees, cont.
This year, the Emerging Scholars panel at the
AAP conference had many strong abstracts submit-
ted. It is a great honor for me to be selected for the
Emerging Scholars Award Panel to present my paper
at the AAP 2015 conference, which will not only help
to advance and improve my oral presentation and ac-
ademic writing during my PhD studies at UH-Manoa,
but also promote the development of my career in the
future.
Since many prestigious scholars attend this
event, I regard the AAP conference as a rare and
good opportunity to have professional communication
with my peers, scholars, and faculty, to acquire and
share new information and methodologies in my re-
search major. My paper is forthcoming in Fall 2016.
I deeply appreciate GSO funding award sup-
porting my conference travel in Montreal, Canada,
which has provided me a precious opportunity to pre-
sent my paper at the AAP 2015 Conference. Thank
you very much!
Comments, questions, con-
cerns, or ideas for the
Newsletter?
Please contact the
Newsletter Chair at
jmfast@hawaii.edu
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