Category Archives: East-West Center

01.19.21
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Christina Monroe appointed as Director of Alumni Engagement

We are pleased to start 2021 with new energy and an addition to the alumni office. Christina Monroe has been appointed as Director of Alumni Engagement.

Aloha EWCA ‘ohana,

Happy 2021 to you and your families! May the new year bring health, safety and prosperity to you and your community.

It has been a pleasure to meet and collaborate with so many of you since I joined the East-West Center 16 years ago, first as an Asia Pacific Leadership Program Fellow, then Leadership Education Specialist (including APLP, PILP and YSEALI), and most recently as the Leadership Program Senior Manager. Under my direction, the EWC Leadership Program increasingly involved alumni and alumni chapters as expert resources, especially for programs in the region. It is an honor to now serve as Director of Alumni Engagement. Leaning heavily on Noreen Tanouye’s years of experience and deep relationships and on EWCA President Amanda Ellis’s expertise and commitment, I will lead the current Alumni/Associates Office, now renamed as the Office of Alumni Engagement.

The FY2021 Appropriations bill, recently signed by the U.S. President, includes a $3 million uptick in federal funding for the Center. Excitingly, President Vuylsteke has included alumni engagement in the set of priorities for fund usage. We know that alumni are and will continue to be at the heart of the Center. The energy and expertise of alumni is essential not only as a resource to sustain the Center, but as a source of new innovative programming, which is especially important now.

I will need your help to understand the needs, interests and expertise of our diverse alumni ‘ohana. Starting now and continuing until we hear from everyone who wants to share, we’ll be conducting a listening tour to get your inputs and ideas, specifically in three ways: (1) an all-alumni survey; (2) a series of meetings with the EWCA Board, Chapters and individual alumni; and (3) an “open door” for anyone to contact me directly (MonroeC@eastwestcenter.org / +1.808.944.7645)

We know many of you are eager to hear about and contribute to the 2021 virtual conference and 2022 Hawaii conference. These gatherings are a top priority for us all and we will be sharing information as soon as possible.

I hope to bring the same level of enthusiasm and genuine love for the alumni ‘ohana of great alumni leaders such as Gordon Ring and Karen Knudsen. I will build on the foundation that so many have worked hard to build over 60 years, while bringing fresh ideas and energy needed for the next 60.

Please reach out with initiatives that interest you and/or are your area of expertise. We want to hear from you!

Christina Monroe

Director of Office of Alumni Engagement

10.03.19
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EWC/EWCA 60th Anniversary International Conference in Hawaii – Registration and Call for Abstracts Open

2020 Conference email header2
Date: Tuesday, June 30 – Thursday, July 2, 2020
 
Venue: Hawai’i Convention Center and East-West Center Campus
 
Theme: “Moving Toward a Sustainable Future in the Indo-Asia-Pacific”
 
Join us in celebrating the East-West Center’s 60th Anniversary at the upcoming EWC/EWCA International Conference on June 30-July 2, 2020 in Honolulu, Hawaii. Make plans to join international colleagues renew acquaintances, network, and make new professional contacts. For more information, go to www.eastwestcenter.org/hawaii2020.
 
Registration is now open and abstracts are being accepted.
 
Register and submit your abstract now to guarantee the early registration rate of $325 for EWCA members. Registration fee includes Opening Ceremony, Welcome Reception, Entertainment and Cultural Performances, Aloha Dinner, Lunches, Coffee Breaks, all Program Sessions and Conference Materials. Early registration and call for abstracts end on January 31, 2020.
 
Questions – Email: hawaii2020@eastwestcenter.org Phone: 1-808-944-7506
 
Don’t forget to share your East-West Center Memories with us too at http://form.jotform.com/90857520721154.
 
04.24.19
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East-West Center Memories – Share your fondest EWC memories with us

EWC Memories

EWC is celebrating its 60th anniversary next year. In anticipation, we are asking everyone to share his or her fondest EWC memory with us. Share stories of your experiences at EWC, what you are doing now, and how the Center influenced you.

What do you remember or treasure most about the EWC? Is there a special story or experience you would like to share? Did you meet your spouse at EWC? Did you obtain a degree that helped you establish/further your career? Maybe cooking and sharing meals with participants from around the world at the Hale Manoa kitchen is a memory that comes to mind.

Got a memorable photo to share?  We would love to see it. Share your story with us at EWC Memories and we may feature it online.

#EastWestCenterAlumni

10.27.16
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A Tale of Two Degrees, 22 COPs and Many RINGOs

Or, How Non-state Actors Can Help Accelerate
the Pace of the UN Climate Change Process

By Anukriti Hittle
Visiting Scholar, East-West Center, Honolulu
Instructor, Washington University in St Louis

Rising Above National Interest
Most of the time, nations act in their own self-interest. And much of the time, they cooperate only when they are forced to—such as when facing imminent collective danger (nuclear threat, small pox, dictatorships). But in the face of a slow-boil threat like climate change, they seem to drag their national government-level feet. In such cases, pressure from non-state actors may be the key to achieving collective action.

How can non-state actors complement national actors to ratchet up ambition and speed up action in the area of climate change implementation? By using the well-tried resolutions process of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and applying it to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) process, Research and Independent Non-Governmental Organizations, or RINGOs, or could maximize collective action at the COP (Conference of the Parties) summits where both government representatives and observer organizations gather every year to address climate change issues. Continue reading →

09.19.16
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2016 Summer Travel Grant Series: Archival Research of Photographs Produced by Dean Conant Worcester

KeikoFPic

Summer Travel Grant 2016 Recipient

Keiko Fukunishi

EWC Student Affiliate

First of all, I would like to express my gratitude for the assistance of the East-West Center Summer Travel Grant in supporting my archival research. One aspect of my dissertation research considers photographs produced by Dean Conant Worcester, and American zoologist and colonial officer who used a camera for the first time outside of the studio in order to photograph Filipino people at the turn of the century. Thanks to the award, I was able to examine thousands of photos taken by Worcester, and several hundred glass plate negatives related to his photographic projects at the Museum of Anthropological Archaeology at the University of Michigan and the Bentley Historical Library.

Continue reading →

09.19.16
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2016 Summer Travel Grant Series: Research — Impact of Built Environment on Urban Heat Island Effect in Kathmandu

Summer Travel Grant 2016 Recipient

Ranjeeta Acharya

ADB-JSP Scholar

 

In the third week of May, I traveled to my home country of Nepal for research about the impact of built environment on urban heat island effect in Kathmandu. During my stay in Nepal, I visited the Department of Urban Development and Building Construction (DUDBC) to determine how new planning and reconstruction after the earthquake of April 2015 may contribute towards adapting and mitigating increasing urban temperatures in Kathmandu. I met officials in the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, and also collected and analyzed temperature data to examine the variation in temperature in Kathmandu from 1980 until 2015. After visiting the peri-urban areas of Kathmandu valley, I observed that agricultural land and green fields are being converted into the residential plots, without thought about open spaces for future neighborhoods.

 

ranjeeta

Agricultural land being converted into a residential plot in the periphery of Kathmandu.

 

Last but not least, I am very thankful to the East-West Center Alumni Association for supporting my research with a travel grant.

 

 

 

The East-West Center Association (EWCA) and the EWCA Hawaii Chapter provided Travel Grants ($500 each) to 10 current East West Center students for the summer of 2016.

08.19.16
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2016 Summer Travel Grant Series: Poster Presentation of Research at 9th Joint Natural Products Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark

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Ram P. Neupane  during the poster presentation

 

Summer Travel Grant 2016 Recipient

Ram P. Neupane

EWC Student Affiliate

I traveled to Copenhagen, Denmark at the end of July to attend the 9th Joint Natural Products Conference. At the conference, I presented a poster on my research which describes the isolation, characterization and biological evaluation of anticancer compounds from the Hawaiian sponge Dactylospongia sp. I also had the opportunity to listen to various presentations and engage in discussions with scholars and researchers from the United States and many European countries. I was able to broaden my knowledge on the latest research being carried out in the field of natural product chemistry. This research includes finding drug leads against various targets such as viruses, bacteria, cancer cells and the like.

Continue reading →

05.04.16
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An East-West Center Gathering in South Asia

Header Photo

Dear EWCA Alumni,

The East-West Center will hold its International Media Conference in New Delhi, India on September 8-11, 2016 with the theme “South Asia Looking East.” The Center’s last International Media Conference was held in Yangon, Myanmar in 2014 and drew more than 400 attendees including journalists, policymakers, business professionals and EWC alumni.
Continue reading →

05.04.16
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EWCA QUARTERLY CHAPTER REPORTS FOR APRIL 2016

Submitted by Jessica A. Sheetz-Nguyen

April 2016 - 1

East-West Center Association Executive Board at the EWC/EWCA International Conference, Manila, January 2016

As EWCA Executive Vice President for Chapter Development, I am pleased to present the following reports.  Twenty-one chapter reports were received for this quarter’s report.
Continue reading →