Fourteen University of �鶹��ý at Mānoa academic subjects were ranked among the world’s best in the 2026 , released on March 25.

Four subjects placed in the top 22 in the nation and top 100 in the world. Leading the way was geology (No. 19 in the U.S. and No. 51–100 in the world), geophysics (No. 19 in the U.S. and No. 51–100 in the world), Earth and marine sciences (No. 21 in the U.S. and No. 51–100 in the world) and linguistics (No. 22 in the U.S. and No. 61 in the world).

Ten additional subjects placed in the world’s top 2% (within top 500 in the world out of ):

• English language and literature: No. 28 U.S., No. 101–150 world
• Agriculture and forestry: No. 30 U.S., No. 151–200 world
• Anthropology: No. 31 U.S., No. 101–200 world
• Modern languages: No. 41 U.S., No. 251–300 world
• Environmental sciences: No. 66 U.S., No. 351–400 world
• Communication and media studies: No. 68 U.S., No. 251–275 world
• Physics and astronomy: No. 70 U.S., No. 401–450 world
• Education: No. 78 U.S., No. 351–400 world
• Medicine: No. 99 U.S., No. 451–500 world
• Biological sciences: No. 100 U.S., No. 451–500 world

“These rankings highlight the exceptional work and commitment of our faculty, students and staff,” UH Mānoa Interim Provost Vassilis L. Syrmos said. “They showcase the university’s global standing and reinforce that UH Mānoa offers outstanding educational opportunities and experiences for both our local community and those joining us from around the world.”

UH Mānoa was ranked in three broad subject areas and 14 narrow subject areas. The QS World University Rankings by Subject are calculated using five criteria: academic reputation (measures the reputation of institutions and their programs by asking academic experts to nominate universities based on their subject area of expertise), employer reputation (measures the reputation of institutions and their programs among employers), research citations per paper (measures the impact and quality of the scientific work done by institutions, on average per publication), H-index (measures both the productivity and impact of the published work of a scientist or scholar) and international research network (measure of an institution’s success in creating and sustaining research partnerships with institutions in other locations).

The 2026 edition of the rankings by global higher education analyst Quacquarelli Symonds analyzed the performance of more than 18,300 university programs, taken by students at more than 1,700 universities in 100 locations around the world.

Other rankings

UH Mānoa also received these notable rankings:

• 2025 U.S. News and World Report best online programs, January 27, 2026
• 2026 Times Higher Education World University Rankings by Subject, January 21, 2026
• 2025 Global Ranking of Academic Subjects, January 4, 2026

This article by Assistant Specialist in the College of Education at the University of �鶹��ý at ����ԴDz� Kahea Faria was first published in .

The growth of the Hawaiian Language Immersion Program from its inception to now is a sign that more of our people in �鶹��ý are turning to the language, culture, and history of our land and the education that is meant to embody it and facilitate the transmission of this knowledge to our children. For most families, this is the primary means of accessing this knowledge, and as such, it represents a public necessity, not a discretionary option.

While this growth has been encouraging, it has also revealed gaps in the structural foundation of the program. Most Hawaiian language immersion programs remain housed within predominantly English-medium schools, with a few stand-alone K–12 programs statewide and even fewer P–12 programs.

These environments are essential, as they create at least one sustained domain in which Hawaiian can function as the sole language of instruction. This model is not intended to produce monolingual speakers, but rather to strengthen pathways toward genuine bilingualism. Consequently, parents within Hawaiian Language Immersion Programs are increasingly advocating for the establishment of P–12 programs in each school district.

Recent efforts to expand access to advanced Hawaiian language instruction—such as online coursework offered through UH Maui College – along with financial support for teacher candidates from sources such as Kamehameha Schools’ Hookawowo Scholarship, the �鶹��ý Community Foundation, and the State of �鶹��ý’s Grow Our Own (GOO) Teachers, have helped to address these challenges.

Despite these efforts, the sustained growth of the program depends on continued investment in teacher preparation. For those who are interested, as well as those who are seeking a meaningful way to support our community through Hawaiian language, history, and culture, please contact either of the Hawaiian Language Immersion teacher preparation programs at the University of �鶹��ý at Hilo or at the University of �鶹��ý at Manoa.

Finally, the rapid growth of the Hawaiian language immersion program should be addressed in the same manner as those of any thriving public school setting—by being adequately resourced and supported in its expansion, rather than constrained by regulatory frameworks that inhibit development.

The state should take a proactive role in planning for a future that includes P–12 Hawaiian Language Immersion Program schools in every district statewide. Anything less constitutes a disservice to the community and stands in opposition to the program’s purpose and intent to revitalize Hawaiian language, culture and history in �鶹��ý.

Ke ao ia nei ka naauao, auhea mai nei la hoi ke kahua o ka pono?

For Cooperative Extension agents at the University of �鶹��ý at Mānoa (CTAHR), language access is vital to being a good neighbor to farmers and communities.

“In �鶹��ý we have this beautifully diverse community, and we want to make sure the services we’re providing are accessible even if someone may not feel comfortable accessing information in English,” said Emilie Kirk, an associate extension agent on Kauaʻi and a member of the UH Language Access Committee.

The LIFE Program: A legacy of caring

The (LIFE) program was initiated more than 20 years ago when former Associate Extension Specialist Sabina Swift recognized that pesticide safety information was not reaching non–English speaking farmers, leading to health risks.

Today, the LIFE program and extension agents continue this legacy of grassroots support with long–term relationships and the trust of their communities. The LIFE program is supported by USDA funding through the 2501 grant program through September 2026.

During the past three years, the program team has worked with partners to:

• Lead or support more than 60 workshops and outreach events across six islands.
• Deliver one–on–one consultations in many languages.
• Create on drip irrigation basics and pesticide safety.

Tools for connection

CTAHR provides 24/7 access to a telephone interpreter service capable of identifying and translating dozens of languages, including ʻŌlelo �鶹��ý, Ilocano, Thai, Lao and Mandarin, within seconds. All state and county agencies should also be able to provide this service, as required by state and federal law.

The LIFE program also facilitates on–farm interpretation through multilingual agents or contracted local professionals for field–based support; CTAHR’s initiative hosts hands–on workshops directly in languages other than English, moving from translation to provide accessible programming.

“It’s not just about providing written translations of material that can be quite technical.” Kirk said. “It’s providing one–on–one or small group hands–on activities in their preferred language to really bring a subject to life.”

CTAHR works with its extension colleagues at , and (formerly the Oʻahu Agriculture and Conservation Association), , , and others on language access.

The University of �鶹��ý at ����ԴDz� hosted the 2025 Southeast Asian Language Council (SEALC) Symposium on September 26 and 27, welcoming more than 100 educators and researchers from across the globe, both in person and online. The two-day gathering showcased innovative research and teaching practices in Southeast Asian language education.

“Our university’s longstanding commitment to Southeast Asian language instruction and the expertise of our faculty and staff made our university an excellent venue for this workshop,” Miriam Stark, director of UH ����ԴDz�’s (CSEAS). “We were honored to host our SEALC colleagues at the event, and look forward to extending the collaborations that it launched.”

Shared expertise

More than 30 paper and panel presentations explored a wide range of topics, from proficiency-based reading and listening assessments to project-based learning and curriculum innovations. Participants represented leading institutions such as UCLA, Harvard, and universities from across Southeast Asia.

Since its founding, SEALC has been instrumental in strengthening Southeast Asian language teaching in the U.S. and abroad through professional development workshops, materials design, and assessment innovation.

This year’s symposium was supported by funds from a Henry Luce Foundation grant awarded to CSEAS. The event was organized by Jayson Parba and Precious Arao (UH ����ԴDz� ), in collaboration with Erlin Barnard of the SEALC Steering Committee and UW–Madison. Additional support was provided by Peter Arnade, dean of the , the SEALC Steering Committee and a dedicated team of volunteers.

—Jayson Parba and Precious Arao

The University of �鶹��ý at ����ԴDz� welcomed language educators from around the world for the , held June 25–28.

More than 220 participants from 14 countries, ranging from K–12 teachers to university faculty, came together to explore how technology, especially generative AI, is shaping language teaching and learning.

Naiyi Xie Fincham, associate director of UH‘s (NFLRC), spoke about the transformative potential of generative AI in language instruction.

“With purposeful task design and a clear curriculum integration plan, regular conversational practice with a generative AI–powered agent offers a low-stakes, low-stress space for independent language learning—delivering personalized, level-appropriate feedback, fostering self-regulated learning skills, and providing teachers with concrete evidence of each learner’s proficiency development to enable tailored instruction.”

Engaging with AI

Many presentations focused on the use of AI tools in curriculum design, assessment and student engagement. These are areas where both NFLRC and (CLT) at UH ����ԴDz� already support educators with free resources and professional development.

“Our centers at UH ����ԴDz� are helping shape the future of language education by supporting educators in navigating the rapidly evolving AI landscape,” said Julio C. Rodriguez, director of CLT, NFLRC and the at UH ����ԴDz�. “Whether it’s designing new tools, creating professional learning opportunities, or fostering collaboration, we’re committed to making AI a resource that enhances teaching and learning and helps realize human potential.”

Featured speaker Michele Anciaux Aoki, respected advocate for international education and world languages, called attention to the . However, Aoki also cautioned that AI should support but not replace human connection, underscoring the need to keep learning rooted in culture and community.

Reimagining language labs

FLEAT 8 audiences also heard from Carol Goss, who leads a language and intercultural learning center at Valparaiso University. She encouraged educators to reimagine language labs as collaborative, intercultural spaces, not just places to practice grammar drills.

Hosted by UH’s NFLRC and CLT, FLEAT 8 was co-organized with the International Association for Language Learning Technology and the Japan Association for Language Education and Technology.

The FLEAT conference happens every five years, alternating between Japan and the U.S., and highlights the growing connection between technology and world language education.

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Create an AI-powered experience that helps people learn a language outside the classroom—that was the challenge posed to students at the 2025 Flagship Hackathon, hosted by the University of �鶹��ý at ����ԴDz�’s (Tech Center).

UH hosted the national competition at Arizona State University that brought together 34 students from 12 institutions including UH ����ԴDz� and five language programs: Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Persian and German. Organized into six multilingual teams, the students had just two days to design a tech-based tool that supported language learning “in the wild”—meaning casual, real-world use such as studying abroad or chatting online.

“By hosting the Flagship Hackathon, UH ����ԴDz� affirms its national leadership in language technology innovation—bringing together students from across the country to tackle real—world challenges with AI, while exploring how technology can support lifelong, personalized language learning beyond the classroom,” said Julio Rodriguez, director of the UH Tech Center.

The winning project, Sl@ngQuest, is a chatbot that teaches users internet slang in the target language by pulling examples from authentic media. The team also created a how-to chapter for a digital Field Guide, complete with AI integration and multimedia elements.

An honorable mention went to Cultivating Friendships Abroad, a tool to help learners form meaningful connections while overseas.

The Tech Center’s annual Hackathon is known for its fast pace and creative energy. Faculty from UH such as Richard Medina and Molly Godwin-Jones lead the design of this year’s event together with former Tech Center interns, who helped mentor students to tackle language learning challenges through innovation. Each team included at least one computer science student to handle technical development.

The UH Tech Center is housed in the .

The will once again host , a conference that unites Indigenous language specialists from around the world to witness efforts in revitalizing ʻōlelo �鶹��ý (Hawaiian language) through education. After being held online during the COVID-19 pandemic, the biennial conference returns in person March 10–11, providing a unique opportunity to observe Hawaiian as a medium of instruction from preschool to the PhD level.

This year’s theme, “No ʻAneʻi Ko Kākou Ola” (Our Identity Is From This Place—Connecting Back to the Homeland), highlights the link between ʻōlelo �鶹��ý revitalization and similar efforts among Native American and Indigenous communities globally.

“It is exciting to join so many others in discussing the future of Indigenous and endangered languages around the world,” said William H. “Pila” Wilson, a Hawaiian studies professor and linguist at UH �ᾱ����’s .“By working together, we can create a brighter future for all.”

The conference is held following UH ����ԴDz�’s held March 6–9.

ʻŌlelo lives

Known as the “Hilo Field Study,” participants will explore UH �ᾱ����’s Hawaiian language college, home to the nation’s only BA to PhD ʻōlelo �鶹��ý medium program. The tour will also include a visit to Nāwahīokalaniʻōpuʻu, the largest Indigenous language medium school in the U.S., where students receive a full preschool-through-12th-grade education entirely in ʻōlelo �鶹��ý. Additionally, attendees will visit the UH Hilo , which blends Indigenous knowledge and modern science.

Preserving Indigenous languages

Panel discussions will focus on supporting Hawaiian-speaking communities and connecting with the Native Hawaiian diaspora. Discussions will also highlight how UH Hilo prepares students to navigate life in communities where Indigenous languages remain minority languages in their own lands, similar to ʻōlelo �鶹��ý. According to UH Hilo linguists, Hawaiian-speaking communities in Hilo share many similarities with diaspora communities in large cities, where families often have mixed racial and linguistic identities in an increasingly globalized world.

Indigenous language revitalization

In 2023, UH Hilo received a $6.6 million grant from the to establish a National Native American Language Resource Center. The award is the first of its kind to lead, advocate for and implement training and resource development for Indigenous language education pathways in the U.S.The post UH �ᾱ����’s He ʻŌlelo Ola to host Indigenous language experts first appeared on University of Hawaiʻi System News.]]> 211920 /news/2024/10/22/grothmann-hawaiian-japanese-dance-styles/ Wed, 23 Oct 2024 01:29:05 +0000 /news/?p=205400 Keliʻi Kalaukoa Masao Grothmann merged his Native Hawaiian and Japanese ancestral traditions into a career that honors dance and language.

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alumnus Keliʻi Kalaukoa Masao Grothmann has created a unique career that bridges his Native Hawaiian and Japanese heritage, merging the two cultures through dance and language. Now a kumu hula based in Japan, Grothmann, who earned a degree in , not only teaches hula but also emphasizes the importance of ʻōlelo �鶹��ý (Hawaiian language), ensuring that his Japanese students understand the meaning behind the dances they perform.

Grothmann’s passion for blending cultures began during his time at UH Hilo. For his senior project in a Japanese theatre and performance class conducted by Professor Yoshiko Fukushima, he performed a fusion of hula and Noh, a classical Japanese dance theater style.

“The more I studied about it, the more I saw the connections through hula,” Grothmann said.

Hula lineage

His deep connection to the performing arts began long before his academic career. Both of his great-grandmothers were trained in sacred, kapu hula by masters who had witnessed the conquests of Kamehameha I. Grothmann also learned his family descends from the bushi, or warrior class, who were once patrons of classical Japanese arts, like Noh theater. The feudal rule of the Tokugawas was already at an end when his great-grandfather became a military officer, but his grandmother remembers her father being filled with a particular nostalgia for that bygone era.

Noh actor debut

In Japan, Grothmann has also taken up performing in Noh productions, training under master Noboru Sano. Additionally, he recently debuted a new production called Kulāiwi, Land of the Ancestors, which blends his two passions, hula and Noh.

Grothmann hopes to bring the show to “many other shores” and is already working on preparing to bring the performance back home to �鶹��ý.

For more go to .

—Sophia Kim-O’Sullivan

The post UH Hilo alum creates with Hawaiian, Japanese dance styles first appeared on University of Hawaiʻi System News.]]>

In a story of both serendipity and shared passion, two University of �鶹��ý at Mānoa alumni, Shoichi Iwasaki and Rumiko Shinzato, reunited after more than thirty years to co-author , the first textbook of its kind for English speakers.

The scholars bemoaned the lack of an Okinawan-language textbook in English and decided to write one themselves to preserve and teach the endangered Okinawan language. The resulting text was published by UH Press in May.

“I am passionate about letting people know the fate of the 3,000–5,000 languages that may vanish from the face of the earth in the next 100 years. Okinawan is just one of such languages,” said Iwasaki.

For Shinzato, the motivation was personal: “I wanted to give back something meaningful to my homeland, the people and our ancestors, as they have given me so much.”

While working on his master’s in at UH Mānoa, Iwasaki briefly met Shinzato, who was working on her PhD in . Years later, the professors reunited and co-wrote the recently published book.

Iwasaki credits Shinzato with the idea to structure the textbook around the story of an American exchange student living with a host family in Okinawa. Shinzato also recorded native speakers’ voices to supplement the book’s written dialogues.

Critically endangered language

According to the authors, the Okinawan language, part of the Ryukyuan language family, faces a dire future. Once the primary tongue of the Ryukyu Kingdom, Okinawan was systematically suppressed after Japan annexed the region in 1879.

In 2009, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) officially declared the language “endangered.” Fifteen years later, many now consider the language “critically endangered,” as it is predominantly spoken by older generations and rarely passed on to children.

Cultural and educational impact

In �鶹��ý, the Okinawan diaspora remains an integral part of �Ჹ�ɲ���ʻ��’s rich cultural fabric, with nearly 50,000 people of Okinawan descent living in the islands.

The textbook has been met with high praise from experts in the field. “I wish it had been available when I took my first steps in the language. With the learning of Okinawan made such a pleasant experience, this will become the standard English-language work, hard to beat in the years to come,” said Leon Serafim, a retired professor of Japanese and former director of the UH Center for Okinawan Studies.

The multidisciplinary center, based on the Mānoa campus, offers courses, sponsors cultural events, and supports exchange programs. UH Mānoa’s Hamilton Library houses the Sakamaki-Hawley Collection, one of the world’s most significant Okinawa-related archives.

The University of �鶹��ý at Mānoa will host a Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence (SIR) from Spain to teach courses in Hispanic cinema and culture in the (LLEA) during the 2024–25 academic year. Ruth Gutiérrez Delgado, an expert in Spanish film, will offer classes on film, culture and literature.

“LLEA is delighted to have Dr. Ruth Gutiérrez Delgado teaching in the ,” said Lucía Aranda, a Spanish professor and LLEA chair at UH Mānoa. “Her expertise in film studies and her reputation as a film scholar in the Hispanic world provides an extraordinary opportunity for undergraduate and graduate students to explore new perspectives and engage in a broader transnational dialog.”

Gutiérrez Delgado is a senior lecturer at the School of Communication at the University of Navarre, Spain. Her primary research interests lie in the study of poetics, myth, and heroism in audiovisual texts, along with exploring the cognitive nature of fiction from a philosophical perspective. Her work spans analyses of the cinema of John Ford, Spanish and German film, family representation in TV fiction, and the myth of Quixote in Eastern Europe.

More on the Fulbright SIR program

The Fulbright SIR program brings visiting scholars from abroad to U.S. colleges and universities, helping the institutions internationalize their curricula, campuses and surrounding communities and diversify the educational experiences of their students, faculty and staff.

Gutiérrez Delgado is one of forty-three Fulbright Scholars-in-Residence, and among 1,000 outstanding foreign faculty and professionals who will teach and pursue research in the U.S. for the 2024–25 academic year through the worldwide Fulbright Visiting Scholar Program.