The University of �鶹��ý at Mānoa ballroom dance team won its third consecutive national title at the (NCDC), in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, March 27–29.

Competing against 37 colleges, UH Mānoa once again took first place for “highest point average,” as well as a close second place for the overall team championship, asserting its place among the nation’s top ballroom dance college teams. Winning top honors in the highest point average requires most team members to perform exceptionally well in all events.

The dancers of the Ballroom Dance Club @UHM—a registered independent organization at UH Mānoa—are trained and coached by Ravi Narayan and Synthia Sumukti. Narayan and Sumukti also represented �鶹��ý in the senior age division placing 1st in several events.

“We are no longer the underdogs, so all the other colleges are looking at us as the team to beat,” said Narayan, who is also an adjunct faculty member in the UH Mānoa . “The bar is getting raised higher and higher each year, but we prevailed once again. We are incredibly proud of the dedication of our dancers who put in many hours to prepare for this competition. We are grateful for the incredible support we have received from the entire ballroom community in the state of �鶹��ý.”

The Ballroom Dance Club @UHM was formed in September 2022, and the team took first place for “highest team average” in 2024 and 2025.

“Nationals was an amazing and eye-opening experience for me,” said Caleb Zerbe, who competed in the nationals for the first time. “Getting to see so many people dance and enjoy themselves on the floor made me realize how fun dancing can be, even at the highest stages. It was a moment that helped me build a lot of confidence, and one that I will never forget.”

Christopher Ramirez, who competed on all three victorious UH Mānoa teams, added, “Given the opportunity to compete at my third nationals, there is always something new to learn. Winning for the third year in a row has reminded me just how incredible it is to be a part of this team.”

Tough competition

NCDC is a grueling competition with events starting at 7 a.m. every morning. It consisted of multiple events based on proficiency (bronze, silver, gold, etc.). Each student danced in up to 32 different events at the bronze and silver skill levels. They competed in all four styles of ballroom dance including International Standard (waltz, tango, viennese waltz, foxtrot and quickstep), American Smooth (waltz, tango, foxtrot and viennese waltz), American Rhythm (chacha, rumba, swing, bolero and mambo) and International Latin (samba, chacha, rumba, paso doble and jive).

Several students took individual first place awards in their respective divisions defeating up to 70 other competitors in some events. This trip was designed to give the team exposure to a collegiate competition, as �鶹��ý has no statewide collegiate ballroom competitions.

More about the Ballroom Dance Club

The Ballroom Dance Club offers beginner classes to all UH Mānoa students, faculty and staff in studio 2 in the athletics department from 6—7:30 p.m. on Tuesdays. No dance experience is required. For more information, or visit their Instagram page @bdcuhm.

The team would like to thank the Department of Information and Computer Sciences, UH Mānoa Department of Athletics, Student Activity and Program Fee Board, Associated Students of the University of �鶹��ý, USA Dance Honolulu and the Honolulu Department of Parks and Recreation for facility and financial support.

UH Mānoa 2026 nationals collegiate and adult team roster:

• Ravi Narayan, faculty (computer science), coach and alumnus
• Synthia Sumukti, coach and alumna
• ʻAulani Wagner, library science and American studies
• Alexander Picken, Earth science
• Amanda Kanthack, psychology and Japanese
• Caleb Zerbe, computer science
• Christopher Ramirez, linguistics
• Christopher Wright, electrical engineering
• Courtney Hisamoto, computer science
• D’Elle Martin, architecture
• Elijah Saloma, computer science
• Gregory Snyder, mechanical engineering
• Hannah Madiam, kinesiology
• Iris Calauan, pre-nursing
• Jonathan Bona, civil engineering
• Julietta Lopez, architecture
• Kanaru Ebi, psychology
• Karl Merritt, mechanical engineering
• Luis Hernandez, electrical and computer engineering
• Lyndsey Moku, political science
• Maya Ito, psychology
• Michaella Villanueva, computer science
• Noah Asano, computer science
• Samantha Reed, computer science
• Shaelyn Loo, computer science
• Tessa Heidkamp, journalism and political science
• Andrew Lin, computer science alumnus
• Sydney Kim, computer science alumna
• Jason Aguda, computer engineering alumnus
• Matthew Rummel, political science and business alumnus
• Ariel Ramos, cinematic arts animation alumna
• Yong-Sung Masuda, computer science alumnus
• Wilson Tran, computer science alumnus
• Florence Liu, faculty, mathematics

Luis Hernandez and Maya Ito dancing the American Cha-cha in the Collegiate Team Match where UH Mānoa placed 3rd. (Video courtesy: Calvin Ota)

Elijah Saloma and Michaella Villanueva dancing the International Quickstep in the Collegiate Team Match where UH Mānoa placed 3rd. (Video courtesy: Calvin Ota)

Coaches Ravi Narayan and Synthia Sumukti dancing the Mambo in the Senior IV American Rhythm Championship final. (Video courtesy: Ravi Sundaram)

Students cheering for their coaches Ravi Narayan and Synthia Sumukti (Video courtesy: Ravi Sundaram)

Internationally acclaimed poet and Marshall Islands climate envoy Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner, who is serving as the Spring 2026 Dan and Maggie Inouye Distinguished Chair in Democratic Ideals at the University of �鶹��ý at ����ԴDz�, will deliver a keynote lecture and poetry performance on April 1 at Orvis Auditorium. The free, public event invites the campus and broader community to hear directly from one of the Pacific’s leading voices on climate and justice.

As this year’s Inouye Chair, Jetñil-Kijiner is engaging the community on urgent issues shaping democratic life. Her lecture explores how the climate crisis in the Marshall Islands is inseparable from histories of colonialism, nuclear testing and displacement, offering a powerful, Pacific-centered perspective that connects lived experience to global climate conversations.

“As a writer, performer and diplomat, she moves across disciplines while creating art that brings people together,” said Peter Arnade, dean of the . “She offers a vital Pacific voice against the violence of the past and present. She reminds us what poetry can do, and why the humanities matter in a dehumanizing age.”

Jetñil-Kijiner currently serves as a climate envoy for the Marshall Islands, where she works on international climate diplomacy and national adaptation policy.

“Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner is a force in culture and climate diplomacy,” said Joyce Mariano, chair of the . “She has ignited audiences with poetry and performance from Majuro to Suva, Brisbane to Bonn. Her work will resonate deeply in �鶹��ý, and we are thrilled to have her in residence.”

Jetñil-Kijiner is co-teaching a class at UH Mānoa and holding regular workshops with students. She will also headline a community arts event at Native Books �鶹��ý on April 17 at 6 p.m.

Inouye chair

The Dan and Maggie Inouye Distinguished Chair in Democratic Ideals, established by the late Senator Daniel Inouye and his wife, is jointly administered by UH ����ԴDz�’s and the .

This event is produced in collaboration with �鶹��ý Contemporary and in partnership with the UH Better Tomorrow Speaker Series, a joint venture of UH ����ԴDz�, �鶹��ý Community Foundation, Kamehameha Schools and UH Foundation. For more information or contact btss@hawaii.edu.

The University of �鶹��ý at Mānoa is giving readers and researchers a window into �鶹��ý’s Nisei experience by acquiring the archives of Milton Murayama (1923–2016). Murayama, a Maui-born Nisei author, playwright and MIS veteran, captured the struggles and triumphs of Japanese American families through his novels and plays.

, available in the library and online, includes drafts of novels, short stories and plays, unpublished works, correspondence, photos and other materials.

Murayama is best known for his novel tetralogy All I Asking for Is My Body (1975), Five Years on a Rock (1994), Plantation Boy (1998) and Dying in a Strange Land (2008), which fictionalize his family’s emigration from Japan and life on a Maui sugar plantation.

“We were honored to partner with Dawn Murayama [the author’s wife] in preserving Milton Murayama’s tremendous legacy, which will enrich the social, intellectual and cultural fabric of our community for generations to come,” said Leilani Dawson, manuscript collections archivist.

Dawn Murayama donated his papers along with a gift to support the archive’s work.

“My late aunt dedicated her life to her husband’s work. She wanted to be sure it was preserved and made accessible to future writers and researchers,” said grand-nephew David Wakukawa. “It’s important because it brings to life the Japanese American immigration experience of coming to �鶹��ý.”

Project archivist Tiffany Zarriello spent months processing, digitizing and organizing the collection. “Throughout this project, it has been an absolute joy and privilege to get to know Milton Murayama through the documents he’s left behind,” she said. (.)

The collection is now available online, with some materials requiring library access. Contact archives@hawaii.edu for details.

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As tariffs on Chinese imports soar as high as 145% under the Trump administration, the U.S.-China trade conflict has intensified—driving up costs, straining supply chains and raising concerns about lasting economic fallout. UH Mānoa Professor Eric Harwit, an expert in Chinese technology and trade, explains how these tariff hikes could hurt consumers and warns of broader consequences if semiconductors—vital to products from cars to kitchen appliances—are targeted next.

What is a tariff?

Well, a tariff basically is a tax on imports coming from a foreign country. The revenue goes to the American government but actually the payers of the tariffs are the importers, which are Americans. The important thing here is that tariffs add to the price of a product that an American pays which essentially translates into higher prices or inflation for American consumers.

What challenges do U.S. companies face when tariffs are raised, lowered or suspended with little warning?

The main problem is for American manufacturers, especially those who depend on imported components. They plan ahead for their production, many years ahead and so if they don’t know what the price of the importer product is going to be it makes it very difficult for them to continue their manufacturing in an efficient way. When tariffs go up and down or are suspended a few months here and there, it really plays havoc with what the manufacturers can do in terms of their planning and development. So it’s really going to harm, I think, many American manufacturers with unpredictability of the tariff rates.

President Trump has hinted at implementing tariffs on semiconductor chips produced in China. How could that impact the everyday consumer?

There are a lot of semiconductors in all kinds of products that people use daily, certainly our cars but even microwave ovens, those all need those kinds of advanced chips. If the producers of those products don’t know how much the chips are going to cost going forward then that affects their whole ability to manufacture efficiently. And again it’s going to increase the price of those products in the United States.

Theoretically in the long run it could help to develop the American semiconductor manufacturing sector, but again that’s in the very long run. In the near term, it’s going to harm American electronics producers. They won’t be able to get the chips that they need. China produces more of the “legacy chips” in other words, the less advanced chips that we use for automobiles for consumer electronics. They produce more than all the other countries in the world combined. If we can’t get those chips from China then anything pretty much that we manufacture using those kind of chips is going to be affected. And that’s going to harm the overall manufacturing especially those high tech sectors in the United States.

If we’re trying to be more competitive with China, say in the automobile industry or competitive with other countries, putting tariffs on imported chips from China is just going to slow down our ability to improve our automobile quality and production numbers and raise the prices of those products and harm the companies that we’re trying to help, mostly the car companies and consumer like products, electronic makers in the United States.

What long-term impacts could high tariffs and trade restrictions have on the U.S.-China economic relationship?

It’s going to devastate our economic ties between the U.S. and China. The Chinese in fact, are going to be looking with suspicion of future economic ties with the United States going forward. What it’s really going to do is drive the Chinese to develop their own technologies independent of American know-how. In some ways we’re sowing the seeds of our own destruction by not importing Chinese semiconductors and not exporting our own technology to the Chinese. They’ll develop their own technologies, cooperate more with Southeast Asia, maybe with Japan, South Korea, Europe definitely would still like to work with China. So we’re really isolating ourselves economically and that’s not going to be good for the American economy or for American consumers.

We should also do what President Biden advocated, which is to invest in our own technologies so at the same time that we keep our economic ties with China, we focus on developing technologies homegrown and compete with China; not defeat China but compete with them. And then it’s a win-win development for both countries.

The University of �鶹��ý at Mānoa has appointed internationally acclaimed artist Kapwani Kiwanga as the Spring 2025 Dan and Maggie Inouye Distinguished Chair in Democratic Ideals.

Kiwanga, who represented Canada at the 2024 Venice Biennale—one of the world’s most prestigious contemporary art exhibitions. Kiwanga is known for her work exploring history, cultural memory, colonialism and the natural environment.

“Her research-driven artistic practice resonates deeply with the chair’s mission to pursue democratic ideals in the contemporary world,” said Peter Arnade, Dean of the College of Arts, Languages & Letters.

Kiwanga’s work has been exhibited in major institutions worldwide, from Munich to Shanghai. In �鶹��ý, she is a featured artist in the �鶹��ý Triennial 2025–a contemporary art exhibition held every three years in the islands. Her large-scale installation, “Vestibule,” is currently on view at Bishop Museum.

“Her work disrupts colonial narratives and encourages us to reexamine our understandings of both history and its contemporary consequences,” said Noelle Kahanu, a faculty member in American studies and co-curator of the �鶹��ý Triennial 2025. “In the context of �鶹��ý, her research practices and artistic expressions resonate in particularly significant ways.”

Free keynote

As part of her month-long residency, Kiwanga will deliver a keynote address on Thursday, February 27, at 7 p.m., at UH ����ԴDz�’s Art building auditorium in room 132. The event is free and open to the public and will explore her latest projects and artistic approach, which challenges dominant narratives and examines power dynamics. The address will be followed by a public conversation moderated by Kahanu.

For more on Kiwanga’s keynote and to RSVP, please visit the or website.

Inouye chair

The Dan and Maggie Inouye Distinguished Chair in Democratic Ideals, established by the late Senator Daniel Inouye and his wife, is jointly administered by UH ����ԴDz�’s and the .

This event is produced in collaboration with �鶹��ý Contemporary and in partnership with the UH Better Tomorrow Speaker Series, a joint venture of UH ����ԴDz�, �鶹��ý Community Foundation, Kamehameha Schools and UH Foundation.

International human rights lawyer and University of �鶹��ý at Mānoa alumni Julian Aguon has been selected as the Dan and Maggie Inouye Distinguished Chair in Democratic Ideals at UH Mānoa for fall 2024. Aguon will begin his residence on September 4, with a reading from his forthcoming book. UH Mānoa Dean Camille Nelson will also moderate a conversation with Aguon.

The opening event, “On Earning Hope for the Future,” will be held on September 4, at 6:30 p.m., at Orvis Auditorium at UH Mānoa. .

Aguon is the visionary behind Blue Ocean Law, a progressive firm that works across Oceania at the intersection of Indigenous rights and environmental justice. For the past five years, Julian and his team have served as legal counsel to the Republic of Vanuatu, which has spearheaded the historic pursuit of an advisory opinion on climate change from the International Court of Justice.

Aguon is an award-winning author of several books and articles, including To Hell with Drowning, which in 2022 earned him Pulitzer Prize recognition. He is also the author of the highly praised No Country for Eight-Spot Butterflies.

“Julian Aguon is a powerful global voice in the courts, on the written page, and on the ground in communities across Oceania,” said Nelson. “Through razor-sharp legal analysis, searing political commentary, and moving storytelling, he urges radical listening to those most vulnerable. We are honored to have Julian join us for a semester-long residency at this critical moment in the climate crisis to uplift the rights and justice struggles of Pacific Island communities.”

During Aguon’s residency, he will co-teach (with Professor Susan Serrano) Pacific Island Legal Systems at the UH law school, while participating in class visits and community forums. The chair is hosted by the UH law school, together with the in the .

Dan and Maggie Inouye Distinguished Chair in Democratic Ideals

Established in 2005 by the UH Board of Regents, the Dan and Maggie Inouye Distinguished Chair in Democratic Ideals brings significant public figures to �鶹��ý to foster public discourse regarding democratic ideals and civic engagement. The program honors U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye and his wife, Maggie, for their lifetime of public service.

Former Inouye chairs include acclaimed political activist and author Angela Davis, ACLU National Legal Director David Cole, Pulitzer-prize winning novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen, and more.

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Acclaimed novelist Gina Apostol will be in residency at the University of �鶹��ý at Mānoa this spring semester as the .

Novels birth characters and impart ideas; however Apostol, an award-winning author, argues that they also build nations, as well as resistance within them. Using the Philippines and U.S. as case studies, she argues that novels have shaped national cultures while seeking to broaden the meanings of democracy and to hold the nations to their revolutionary promises.

“Having Gina Apostol here as our spring 2024 Dan and Maggie Inouye Distinguished Chair in Democratic Ideals provides us with an opportunity to honor the legacy of Dan and Maggie Inouye and to showcase how the creative arts both respond to and shape the civil and civic spheres,” said Peter Arnade, dean of the UH Mānoa .

During her residency at UH Mānoa, Apostol will teach a semester-long American studies graduate research seminar on “Narration and Nation.” Apostol will also meet with students, faculty and the broader community in a series of free public events.

• Brown Bag colloquium “Writing A Novel About My Mother: What the Hell Was I Thinking?” February 8, 12–1:15 p.m., Kuykendall Hall 410.
• Keynote Address “No Democracy Left Behind: On Novels, Nation, and Resistance,” February 22, 6:30 p.m., UH Mānoa Art Auditorium. .
• Colloquium sponsored by American Studies, Ethnic Studies, and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies: “Women in War: Bodies and Minds as Sites of Resistance in Novels,” March 8, 12–1:15 p.m., Kuykendall Hall 306.
• Panelist at Project 1898 initiative, April 13–14 (time and location to be determined)

Apostol has written five novels, among them Insurrecto and La Tercera. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Review of Books and Washington Post. She has been awarded the Rome Prize, the PEN/Open Book Award, and two Philippine National Book Awards.

Inouye chair

The Dan and Maggie Inouye Distinguished Chair in Democratic Ideals program brings prominent scholars, artists and public intellectuals to �鶹��ý to share their life experiences and foster public discourse regarding democratic ideals and civic engagement. Established in 2005 by the UH Board of Regents, the Inouye chair is administered jointly by the in the College of Arts, Languages and Letters and the .

For further information, contact Elizabeth Colwill of UH Mānoa Department of American Studies at colwill@hawaii.edu.

An American studies professor in the (CALL) at the University of �鶹��ý at Mānoa has won multiple awards in Japan for her book, Dearest Lenny: Letters from Japan and the Making of the World Maestro. The Japanese version of Professor Mari Yoshihara’s critically acclaimed work based on personal letters penned by and to world-renowned musician Leonard Bernstein launched in October 2022.

The original book was published by Oxford University Press in 2019. Yoshihara, who authored the Japanese version herself, landed three distinguished honors; Kawai Hayao Prize for Stories, Japan Essayist Club award and Music Pen Club Japan award (publications in classical music category). Yoshihara joins �鶹��ý-born artist Bruno Mars, who also received a Music Pen Club Japan award in 2022. The coveted distinction recognizes works that contribute to enhancing musical culture.

“Mari Yoshihara is an internationally acclaimed scholar whose vibrant scholarship and academic profile greatly enhances CALL as a college and UH Mānoa as a university,” said CALL Dean Peter Arnade. “I am thrilled her recent book has garnered such acclaim and netted such prestigious awards in Japan. We are lucky to have a scholar of Dr. Yoshihara’s prominence on our faculty.”

Dearest Lenny interweaves the story of an intimate relationship between Bernstein, indisputably one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century, and two unknown Japanese individuals. The book features deeply expressive letters that touch upon political, economic, social and cultural history of U.S-Japan relations during the Cold War, dynamics of the arts and the state, and politics of gender and sexuality.

“Dr. Yoshihara is not only a top-notch scholar but also stands out as an English-Japanese bilingual author. I read her work in both languages and found it very inspiring,” said CALL Associate Dean Kimi Kondo-Brown.

Yoshihara joined the UH Mānoa faculty in 1997 after earning a BA from the University of Tokyo and MA and PhD from Brown University. She specializes in U.S. cultural history, U.S.-Asia relations, women’s, gender and sexuality studies, and literary and cultural studies. She is a prolific author of many publications such as Embracing the East: White Women and American Orientalism (Oxford, 2003), Musicians from a Different Shore: Asians and Asian Americans in Classical Music (Temple, 2007), and a number of books and articles in Japanese.

In 2020, she received the UH Board of Regents’ Medal for Excellence in Research award. Yoshihara’s teaching excellence earned her a UH Mānoa Peter V. Garrod Distinguished Graduate Mentoring Award in 2007.

She is scheduled to release a bilingual memoir in Japan this fall.

In a first for the Smithsonian’s (NMAI), Halena Kapuni-Reynolds, a PhD candidate in the Department of American Studies at the , has been appointed associate curator for Native Hawaiian history and culture.

Although the museum’s physical location is in Washington, D.C., Kapuni-Reynolds will continue to reside and work from �鶹��ý Island. His supervisor Michelle Delaney, assistant director for history and culture, wrote the grant proposal for the nascent Native Hawaiian associate curator position to be community focused and 100% remote.

“We are thrilled to have Halena join the NMAI team and welcome the increased emphasis on Native Hawaiian cultural research and programming which will be developed over time,” Delaney said.

Kanaka ʻŌiwi scholar

Kapuni-Reynolds is a Kanaka ʻŌiwi (Native Hawaiian) composer and scholar, born on �鶹��ý Island and raised in Keaukaha. He holds a BA in anthropology and Hawaiian studies from (2013) and an MA in anthropology with a focus on museum and heritage studies from the University of Denver (2015). His master’s thesis, analyzed the ways in which aliʻi (Hawaiian chiefly) collections are cared for and exhibited at the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum and the Lyman House Memorial Museum.

Prior to joining NMAI, Kapuni-Reynolds served as a graduate assistant for the at UH Mānoa, where he worked collaboratively with faculty members to organize conversations and events around museum decolonization and Indigenization. In 2022, he assisted in the development and implementation of Weaving a Net(work) of Care: A Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Museum Institute, a museological training program for individuals in �鶹��ý and across the Pacific, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

“When I was an undergraduate at the University of �鶹��ý at Hilo, I majored in anthropology and Hawaiian studies, took an array of courses focused on Hawaiian language, community-based archaeology and ethnohistorical research, and participated in numerous internships across East �鶹��ý. These experiences continue to inform my education at UH-Mānoa as an American Studies graduate student, where I have taken courses in museum studies, Indigenous studies, diasporic literatures, and U.S. history, culture, and politics,” Kapuni-Reynolds said. “I am grateful to the UH faculty and staff members who continue to support my intellectual and personal growth over the past 15 years.”

Community outreach and programming

Kapuni-Reynold’s new duties include performing professional curatorial work associated with research, exhibits planning and development, collections review, collections development and information, community outreach, public programming, education and public service functions.

This includes research for the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in 2024, specifically how to include participants from �鶹��ý to perform and share on the National Mall. He will also be developing new programming for the NMAI across the state. A traveling banner show on Hawaiian sovereignty may also be in his future.

In addition to these responsibilities, Kapuni-Reynolds is finishing his dissertation, which tells a decolonial story of the ʻāina aloha (beloved lands) of Keaukaha. Delaney said she hopes he will publish it with the NMAI.