Charting the Alternative Course: Exploring Creative Ways of Hosting an International Virtual Conference Situated in Hawai‘i

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted our lives in many ways, but it also offers the opportunity to chart alternative courses and connect with others in new ways. In this session, the presenter will share the experience of moving an international graduate student research conference online and ways the participants were engaged and interacted in virtual spaces. The East-West Center International Graduate Student Conference (IGSC) is situated in Hawai‘i and Oceania, involving graduate students and young professionals from around the world who present their works relating to the Asia Pacific region. The presentation will address how we apply key Pacific Islands concepts such as inclusivity, interdisciplinarity, reciprocity, sense of place, and community voices into the conference, and restore balance to the Asia-Pacific framework.

Li Cheng-Cheng
East-West Center and
University of Hawai'i at Mānoa

Cheng-Cheng Li is a researcher, digital storyteller, and community activist from Taiwan. He is currently a Graduate Degree Fellow at the East-West Center and PhD student at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. By pursuing an academic career, he wants to expand his ability to expose issues to others through published research, documentaries as well as bringing together community groups and policymakers across the Asia-Pacific region. His academic interests include Pacific Islands Studies, Pacific regionalism, Taiwan’s foreign policy in Oceania as well as collaborative filmmaking research.

Charting the Alternative Course: Exploring Creative Ways of Hosting an International Virtual Conference Situated in Hawai‘i

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