ABOUT
|
What is The Exchange?
THE EXCHANGE is a series of evening events, held weekly, featuring guest presentations, performances, and activities. Sessions explore the pressing issues, histories, challenges, innovations, and vibrant cultures that make the Asia-Pacific region unique. THE EXCHANGE is a chance for students and distinguished guests to share their time and their ideas, with each becoming better informed and better connected as a result. THE EXCHANGE is planned and produced by graduate students at the East-West Center. Location Imin Conference Center East-West Center 1777 East-West Road Honolulu, Hawaii |
Spring 2025 "Tension and Resolutions" Aloha everyone! In Spring 2025, the East-West Center proudly presents its Spring Exchange, an engaging series of eight sessions. This Exchange responds to pressing twenty-first-century tensions by bringing together scholars, public intellectuals, artists, poets, performers, and policymakers to propose approaches that foster community and mutual understanding. Centered on the theme “Tension and Resolutions,” the Spring Exchange explores the growing polarization within societies worldwide. Key historical phenomena, such as the rise of social media, populist politics, and the COVID-19 pandemic, have both created new tensions and amplified existing divides across political, economic, social, and cultural dimensions at every spaces. The 2025 Spring Exchange will be held on Mondays, February 03 through April 07, from 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM at the Imin Conference Center. We look forward to seeing you there! Mahalo, The Spring 2025 Exchange Team |
Meet the Spring 2025 Exchange Team!
Nakota DiFonzo (Planning Intern)
Nakota DiFonzo is a Ph.D. student in the Department of History at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, and an adjunct professor of history at Winston-Salem State University. He researches the history of American education in twentieth-century China. Originally from Los Angeles, Nakota grew up watching films, and continues to enjoy American and foreign cinema in his free time. 
Korynn Grenert (Logistics Intern)
Born and raised on O‘ahu, Korynn is a second-year law student pursuing certificates in Environmental Law and Native Hawaiian Law at the William S. Richardson School of Law. Korynn attained a Bachelor of Science in Natural Resources and Environmental Management and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, and is thrilled to be an East-West Center Fellow. Korynn is so excited to be this semester’s Exchange Logistics Intern, and can’t wait to see all that we experience and accomplish together! 
Saung Yanant Pyae Kyaw (Communication Intern)
Saung Yanant Pyae Kyaw is a first-year Master’s student in Asian International Affairs (MAIA) at the Department of Asian Studies, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. She is currently a East-West Center Graduate Degree Fellow, and serves as an communication intern for this Spring 2025, The Exchange. She is originally from Myanmar/Burma. And her research interests include the study of civilian massacres during the Myanmar military coup of 2021, the escalation of internal conflict in Myanmar's Northern Shan State, and the analysis of geopolitical dynamics involving China, India, and the Mekong region. Currently, she works as a freelance digital verification journalist at Agence France-Presse (AFP factstory), and also a former research associate of the Conflict, Peace and Security Program at the Institute for Strategy and Policy-Myanmar, Think Tank Organization. |
Chandanie Somwaru (Performance Intern)
Chandanie Somwaru is an Indo-Caribbean woman born and raised in Queens, New York. She is the author of Urgent \\ Where the Mind Goes \\ Scattered (Ghostbird Press, 2021). Her writing has been published in Poem-A-Day, Honey Literary, Solstice, SWWIM, The Margins, and other outlets. In 2024, she won a Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship. Somwaru earned an MFA at Queens College, CUNY and is undergoing a creative writing P.h.D program in the Department of English at University of Hawai’i at Mānoa. She is currently a East-West Center fellow and is the Spring 2025 performance intern for The Exchange. 
Stacey Keruwa (Food Intern)
Stacey Keruwa is a first-year MS in Nutritional Sciences student in the Department of Human Nutrition, Food, and Animal Sciences. She hails from the country of Papua New Guinea. She is excited to be the Food Intern this semester and looking forward to learning alongside everyone through The Exchange program. 
Swapnil Jhajharia (Activities Intern)
Swapnil Jhajharia is a first-year master’s student in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and an East-West Center Graduate Degree Fellow. His research focuses on the lives, experiences centered around access to care, and interactions with the medical system of South Asians living in Japan. As an East-West Center Fellow, Swapnil is excited to contribute to the Spring 2025 Exchange as the Activities Intern. |
