Aloha mai kākou, สวัสดีค่ะ, håfa adai, and many other warm greetings to our trans-Pacific community!

You’re receiving this newsletter because you’ve signed up or you’ve come to one of our events. This is our first year developing public programming for the Asian American and Pacific Islander Environmental Humanities and Environmental Justice initiative and we’re excited to see it blossoming - in large part from your enthusiasm and support.

In this newsletter you’ll find our Spring 2025 program, upcoming community activities, funding opportunities, conferences, and resources for activating change through education and exchange. We welcome reader feedback and encourage you to reach out if you have events or opportunities you’d like us to share.

Spring 2025 Speaker Series

We wrapped up a wonderful fall semester featuring insightful talks in both our Ecotone Scholarly Forum and Intertidal Chat Professional Development and Networking series and we’re excited to bring you more brilliant scholars and pathbreaking humanities thinkers and doers.

Our Spring 2025 speaker series kicked off with two Ecotone seminars. Dr. Celia Bardwell-Jones, faculty at the UH Hilo department of Philosophy, shared her work on developing a decolonial conservation ethics.

Dr. Lefaoali'i Dion Enari, based at Auckland University of Technology, presented on his experiences in academia and the importance of ancestral and cultural wisdom in research, highlighting the work of the Moanaroa Pacific Research Network.

Check out our upcoming talks listed below. Flyers for our February talks have links to register. Come hungry, we feed the mind AND the belly!

Community Activities

Workdays

Lots of local ʻāina-based restoration and agricultural organizations have volunteer opportunities where you can nourish your mind and the land. These are a few groups you can join for a community workday. All of the events listed are free to attend but do require registration. For more information on how to get involved, check out the organization’s website (linked below) or social media.

Kākoʻo ʻŌiwi

Paepae o Heʻeia

Kahuku Monthly Clean-Up - James Campbell Wildlife Refuge

Events

Kahoʻolawe: The True Story of an Island and Her People book launch
@ Native Books
Saturday, February 8, 11am-1pm

In the middle of the great Pacific Ocean is a little island. Her name is Kaho’olawe. Discover the story of an island sacred to Native Hawaiians. From Kaho’olawe’s birth in a volcanic eruption and the arrival of Polynesian voyagers to the island’s use for target practice during World War II and the ensuing protests to reclaim it, this picture book covers a vast history. Author Kamalani Hurley and illustrator Harinani Orme will present their remarkable story of the smallest Hawaiian island. The story encompasses loss and erasure, sacrifice and dedication, and, ultimately, restoration and resilience. Link here.

Exhibition Opening Reception: Healing Nature: Contemporary Art of Mongolia
@ East-West Center Gallery
Sunday, February 9, 1pm-2:30pm

The Exhibition Opening Reception of HEALING NATURE: Contemporary Art of Mongolia includes a musical performance and calligraphy demonstration by visiting Mongolian artists, guided tour, and refreshments. The exhibition will be in the EWC Gallery February 9 - May 4, 2025. More information here.

Guest curator: Tsetsegbadam Batbayar
Featured artists: Nomin Bold, Baatarzorig Batjargal, Gerelkhuu Ganbold, Anunaran Jargalsaikhan, Amaraa Dashzeveg, Soyolmaa Davaakhuu, Enkhzaya Erdenebileg, Tsagaantsooj Erdenechimeg, Dulguun Baatarsukh, Enkhnomin Khundmaa, Urjinkhand Onon, and Byambajav Tsend-Ochir

Funding Opportunities

2025 – 2026 Creative Catalyst Fellowship with the AAPI Civic Engagement Fund

This fellowship provides opportunities for independent artists to engage the public in critical issues impacting Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) across the country. A variety of art forms are eligible, such as music, video, visual arts, performing arts, poetry, and more.

Up to eight artists will receive $30,000 contracts to produce work with the potential to break through mainstream media and catalyze conversations around the following three themes: In it Together, Belonging, and Voting Together. More info here.

Conferences of interest

23rd International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Founded in 2003, the New Directions in the Humanities Research Network is brought together by a common interest in established humanities traditions while considering innovative practices and setting a renewed agenda for their future. The network seeks to build an epistemic community that creates linkages across disciplinary, geographic, and cultural boundaries.

The 2025 conference has a special focus - Oceanic Journeys: Multicultural Approaches in the Humanities - explored through five themes:

• Critical Cultural Studies

• Communication and Linguistics Studies

• Literary Humanities

• Civic, Political, and Community Studies

• Past and Present in the Humanistic Education

The conference will take place June 25th - 27th, 2025. There are options to attend online or in person at the University of Hawai’i at Hilo. Registration deadline is May 25, 2025. You can find more information here.

2nd International Congress of Ecological Humanities

This conference, hosted by Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) in Barcelona, features the following six pathways as thematic areas for participation:

• Advancing Just Socioecological Transformations

• Cultivating Transformative Relationships

• Aesthetics and Political Ecology: Artistic Practices, Cultural Imaginaries, and Social Activism in the Face of Ecological Emergency

• Commons, Geopolitics, and Environmental Justice

• Philosophy in Transition

• The Messy WW-EE-BB:  Welcome Weirdos & Wildcards! - Endavant Entremaliat/da/e - Bienvenidx Bichx rarx 

This conference will take place between June 30th & July 1st, 2025. More details can be found here.

Resources

Oceania Currents

Oceania Currents Podcast brings you voices, stories, and conversations with criss-crossing currents between the past, present, and future that flow deep and across Oceania, and beyond. Piloted to you by the Center for Pacific Islands Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, episodes cover topics like poetry and climate activism, oral history, and the International Oceanian Documentary Film Festival (FIFO). Listen here!

Journals

Environmental Humanities - Duke University

Most recent issue - Volume 16, Issue 3, November 2024

Environmental Humanities is a peer-reviewed, international, open-access journal that publishes three issues every year. The journal features interdisciplinary scholarship that draws humanities disciplines into conversation with each other, and with the natural and social sciences, around significant environmental issues. Submission information can be found here.

Environmental Justice

Most Recent Issue - Volume 17, Issue 6, December 2024

Environmental Justice is a bimonthly peer-reviewed journal exploring the equitable treatment of all people, especially people of color, low-income populations, and indigenous peoples. The journal specifically examines the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies, as well as equitable and fair access to healthy housing, safe water, transportation, food resources, natural resources, health care, and economic opportunity. Submission information can be found here.

Hearing from you!

Do you have environmental humanities or environmental justice news you wish to share? Do you think there’s an organization or scholarship we should highlight? Let us know! As we expand our community, we want to hear from you so we can circulate events, share news and opportunities, and provide a platform from which burgeoning voices can be heard!

Email us at [email protected]. We look forward to hearing form you!