IICAH2026

January 03-07, 2026 | The Hawai'i Convention Center & the Ala Moana Hotel, Honolulu, Hawaii, United States

There are few better places to start the year than in beautiful Hawaii, and few better ways than an IAFOR conference! Oahu means ‘the meeting place’ in the Hawaiian language, and this event brought together people from around the world to exchange ideas across the barriers of nation, culture, and discipline that make an IAFOR conference special.

We were very excited to welcome more than 360 people from 45 countries to gather and exchange the latest in terms of research and ideas, across the boundaries of nation, culture, and discipline.

We would like to thank our excellent International Academic Board which oversees our global programmes, as well as our wonderful local partners at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, and in particular Professor Michael Menchaca who has worked with us over the years, not only on all aspects of this conference but more widely with IAFOR, including as an editor of our Journal of Education.

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Conference Report
Conference Proceedings
Virtual Presentations

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Plenary Speakers

  • Jun Arima
    Jun Arima
    University of Tokyo, Japan
  • Grant Black
    Grant Black
    Chuo University, Japan
  • Mary Therese Perez Hattori
    Mary Therese Perez Hattori
    University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, United States
  • Halena Kapuni-Reynolds
    Halena Kapuni-Reynolds
    National Museum of the American Indian & Hawai'i Council for the Humanities, United States
  • Peter J Mataira
    Peter J Mataira
    Hawaiʻi Pacific University, United States
  • Michael Menchaca
    Michael Menchaca
    University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, United States
  • Melina Neophytou
    Melina Neophytou
    IAFOR, Japan
  • Unaisi Nabobo-Baba
    Unaisi Nabobo-Baba
    Fiji National University, Fiji
  • LJ Rayphand
    LJ Rayphand
    Caroline College and Pastoral Institute, Federated States of Micronesia
  • Rosie Rowe
    Rosie Rowe
    Leadership in Disabilities & Achievement of Hawai`i (LDAH), United States

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Programme

  • Perspectives on Education in the Pacific Islands
    Perspectives on Education in the Pacific Islands
    Keynote Presentation: Unaisi Nabobo-Baba
  • Defunding Education: Challenges and Implications
    Defunding Education: Challenges and Implications
    Panel Presentation: Halena Kapuni-Reynolds, Rosie Row, Mary Hattori (Moderator)
  • Education, Culture, and the Environment in an AI-Driven Era
    Education, Culture, and the Environment in an AI-Driven Era
    Panel Presentation: Jun Arima, Peter J Mataira, LJ Rayphand, Michael Menchaca (Moderator)
  • AI in Academia: Ethics, Challenges, and Solutions
    AI in Academia: Ethics, Challenges, and Solutions
    Forum Discussion: Michael Menchaca, Grant Black, Melina Neophytou, Apipol Sae-Tung

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Conference Committees

International Advisory Board

Professor Anne Boddington, IAFOR, Japan (IAB Chair)
Dr Joseph Haldane, IAFOR & The University of Osaka, Japan, & University College London, United Kingdom
Professor Jun Arima, IAFOR & The University of Tokyo, Japan
Professor Virgil Hawkins, IAFOR Research Centre & The University of Osaka, Japan
Mr Lowell Sheppard, IAFOR & Never Too Late Academy, Japan

Professor Umberto Ansaldo, VinUniversity, Vietnam
Dr Susana Barreto, University of Porto, Portugal
Professor Grant Black, Chuo University, Japan
Dr Evangelia Chrysikou, Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction, University College London, United Kingdom
Professor Donald E. Hall, Binghamton University, United States
Professor Brendan Howe, Ewha Womans University, South Korea & The Asian Political and International Studies Association (APISA)
Dr James W. McNally, University of Michigan, United States & NACDA Program on Aging

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Conference Programme Committee

Professor Grant Black, Chuo University, Japan
Kālewa Correa, Smithsonian Institute, United States
Dr Joseph Haldane, IAFOR and The University of Osaka, Japan, & University College London, United Kingdom
Dr Mary Therese Perez Hattori, University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, United States
Dr Daniel Hoffman, University of Hawaii at Manoa, United States
Professor Line-Noue Kruse, University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo, United States
Professor Kenneth Gofigan Kuper, University of Guam, United States
Ms Fan Li, Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR), Japan
Dr James W. McNally, University of Michigan, United States & NACDA Program on Aging
Professor Elizabeth Park, Chaminade University of Honolulu, United States
Dr Paul Tauiliili, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, United States

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IICAH2026 Review Committee

Dr D. Christina Sagaya Dhiraviam, Loyola College, Chennai, India
Professor Xiaofan Gong, Beijing Institute of Graphic Communication, China
Professor Yi-ting Kuo, Jen-Teh Junior College of Medicine, Nursing and Management, Taiwan
Dr Yuk Yee Lee, University of Wollongong Hong Kong (UOWCHK), Hong Kong
Dr Maria Lupas, Sophia University Junior College Division, Japan
Dr Mónica María Martinez Sariego, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain
Dr Rasha Osman Abdel Haliem, The Higher Technological Institute & AMIDEAST, Egypt
Professor Michael Owen, Brock University, Canada
Dr Gloria Sauti, University of South Africa, South Africa
Dr Zainor Izat Zainal, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia
Dr Xixi Zhang, Osaka University, Japan

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Jun Arima
University of Tokyo, Japan

Biography

Professor Jun Arima is the President of IAFOR, and the senior academic officer of the organisation. In this role, Professor Arima is the Honorary Chair of the International Academic Advisory Board, as well as both the Academic Governing Board and its Executive Committee. He also sits on the IAFOR Board of Directors.

Jun Arima was formerly Director General of the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), UK from 2011 to 2015 and Special Advisor on Global Environmental Affairs for the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), Japan, from 2011 to 2015. He has previously held various international energy/environment-related positions, including: Head of Division, Country Studies, International Energy Agency (IEA); Director, International Affairs Division, Agency of Natural Resources and Energy, METI; and Deputy Director General for Environmental Affairs at METI’s Industrial Science and Technology Policy and Environment Bureau. In the COP (UN Convention on Climate Change) 14, 15 and 16, he was Japanese Chief Negotiator for AWG-KP.

Since 2015 Jun Arima has been a Professor at the University of Tokyo, Japan, where he teaches Energy Security, International Energy Governance, and Environmental Policies in the Graduate School of Public Policy. (GraSPP). He is also currently a Consulting Fellow at the Japanese Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI). He is also Executive Senior Fellow at the 21st Century Public Policy Institute, Principal Researcher at the International Environmental and Economic Institute (IEEI), Distinguished Senior Policy Fellow, at the Asia Pacific Institute of Research (APIR), Senior Policy Fellow on Energy and Environment, Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA), and was the Lead Author, the 6th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC).

Panel Presentation (2026) | TBA

Previous Presentations

Keynote Presentation (2025) | Global Warming and International Institutions: Addressing Challenges Through Education and Action
Grant Black
Chuo University, Japan

Biography

Professor Grant Black is a professor in the Faculty of Commerce at Chuo University, Tokyo, Japan, where he has taught Global Skills and Global Issues since 2013. Grant is engaged in diverse roles as a global manager, systems builder, executive leader and university professor. His research and teaching areas include global management skills, intercultural intelligence (CQ) and organisational management. He also has taught Japanese Management Theory at J. F. Oberlin University (Japan), and a continuing education course in the Foundations of Japanese Zen Buddhism at Temple University Japan. Previously, he was Chair of the English Section at the Center for Education of Global Communication at the University of Tsukuba where he served in a six-year post in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. He holds a BA Highest Honors in Religious Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara; an MA in Japanese Buddhist Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles; and a Doctor of Social Science (DSocSci) from the Department of Management in the School of Business at the University of Leicester. Dr Black is a Chartered Manager (CMgr), the highest status that can be achieved in the management profession in the UK. In 2018, he was elected a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute (FCMI) and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA). Grant is President of Black Inc. Consulting (Japan), a Tokyo-based firm specialising in international and intercultural project management, communication projects, and executive leadership and training. He is the director of the Nippon Academic Management Institute (NAMI) and the author of Education Reform Policy at a Japanese Super Global University: Policy Translation, Migration and Mutation (Routledge, 2022). He serves as a Vice-President for the International Academic Forum (IAFOR).

Previous Presentations

Orientation Session (2025) | IAFOR Information Session
Mary Therese Perez Hattori
University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, United States

Biography

A Chamorro of the island of Guahan (Guam), Dr. Hattori is one of nine children born to Fermina Leon Guerrero Perez and Paul Mitsuo Hattori, of the clan Familian Titang. She is former director of the Pacific Islands Development Program, affiliate graduate faculty with the University of Hawai'i-Manoa and Chaminade University of Honolulu in the fields of educational leadership, educational technologies, indigenous leadership, indigenous research, and Pacific Islands studies. A resident in Hawai'i since 1983, she is an author, community organizer, poet, public speaker, and a consultant with a passion for empowering Pacific Islander communities through the arts, education, and technology.

Panel Presentation (2026) | Defunding Education: Challenges and Implications

Previous Presentations

Keynote Presentation (2025) | Global Citizenship and Education for Peace: Threats & Opportunities from a Pacific Islands Perspective
Panel Presentation (2021) | Cultural Resilience
Halena Kapuni-Reynolds
National Museum of the American Indian & Hawai'i Council for the Humanities, United States

Biography

Dr Halena Kapuni-Reynolds was born on the island of Hawai'i and raised in the Hawaiian Home Lands community of Keaukaha and the rainforest of ʻŌlaʻa. As the Associate Curator of Native Hawaiian History and Culture at the National Museum of the American Indian, a unit of the Smithsonian Institution, he works on an array of projects centered around exhibitions, public programs, and public service. Dr Kapuni-Reynolds also serves as the Vice Chair of the Board of Directors for the Hawaiʻi Council for the Humanities, where he has contributed to the establishment of the Pacific Islands Humanities Network (PIHN) and provided leadership for the organization during a time of crisis and change. In addition to these roles, Dr Kapuni-Reynolds has served as a board member for the International Institute for Indigenous Resource Management, the Hawaiʻi Museums Association, the Council for Museum Anthropology, and the Piʻilani Hawaiian Civic Club of Colorado.

Panel Presentation (2026) | Defunding Education: Challenges and Implications

Peter J Mataira
Hawaiʻi Pacific University, United States

Biography

Dr Peter Mataira (Māori, Aotearoa New Zealand) is a Professor of Social Work at Hawaiʻi Pacific University (HPU), United States, where he teaches courses in research, community and organisational practice, clinical assessments, and ethics. A passionate advocate for Indigenous health equity and social justice, Professor Mataira recently co-led two National Institutes of Health (NIH) projects exploring how artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) can help reduce health disparities among vulnerable populations in Hawai’i and the Pacific through predictive modeling. His work bridges Indigenous knowledge systems, data sovereignty, and community-based participatory research (CBPR) with cutting-edge technologies that support culturally grounded solutions. Professor Mataira and his colleague from HPU’s College of Computer Sciences recently submitted a R21 NIH grant to test their assistive clinical model. He currently supervises two practicum students on projects that examine how AI tools support community-defined goals for food security and on youth suicide education and prevention.

Panel Presentation (2026) | Education, Culture, and the Environment in an AI-Driven Era

Michael Menchaca
University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, United States

Biography

Michael Menchaca is Chair of the Department of Learning Design and Technology at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. He specialises in distance education, and has designed, implemented, and coordinated online and hybrid programs for over 20 years. He serves as editor for the IAFOR Journal of Education: Technology in Education Edition. He was an IT specialist for many years in the public and private sector. He teaches and conducts research in the areas of online learning, technology integration, and social justice with technology.

Previous Presentations

Featured Panel Presentation (2025) | Global Citizenship and the Environment: Engagement and Action
Featured Panel Presentation (2024) | Practical Approaches to AI in Academia
Panel Presentation (2022) | Reimagining General Education Across Hawaii’s 10-Campus System: Process, Product, and Lessons Learned
Melina Neophytou
IAFOR, Japan

Biography

Dr Melina Neophytou is the Academic Operations Manager at IAFOR, where she works closely with academics, keynote speakers, and IAFOR partners to shape academic discussions within The Forum, bring conference programmes together, refine scholarship programmes, and build an interdisciplinary and international community. She is leading various projects within IAFOR, notably The Forum discussions and the authoring of Conference Reports and Intelligence Briefings, and she oversees the Global Fellows Programme.

Born in Germany and raised in Cyprus, Dr Neophytou received her PhD in International Development from Nagoya University, Japan, in 2023, specialising in political sociology, the welfare state, and contentious politics. She received an MA in International Development from Nagoya University, with a focus on Governance & Law, and a BA in European Studies from the University of Cyprus, Cyprus.

Her research interests currently focus on the Japanese welfare state, family values within Japanese society, and their relationship to family policies. She is particularly interested in state-society relations by uncovering how informal social ideas influence formal social policy.

Forum Discussion (2026) | TBA

Previous Presentations

Forum Discussion (2025) | Global Citizenship and the Environment: Engagement and Action
Unaisi Nabobo-Baba
Fiji National University, Fiji

Biography

Professor Unaisi Nabobo-Baba is the Vice-Chancellor of Fiji National University (FNU). She was the first Indigenous Fijian woman to be appointed a professor at a university. She is married to Fijian politician Dr Tupeni Baba and has previously served as the Acting Dean of the College of Humanities and Education at FNU. Growing up in Vugalei, Fiji and witnessing traditional ways of life gave her a quiet understanding of things at home. She attended Ballantine Memorial Secondary School in Suva, in a time when Pacific education was being questioned, and many Pacific island nations were trying to exert their independence. She has taught at secondary schools and universities, lived through the Fiji coup of 2000, and has undergone many other life-shaping experiences. The contributions she has made to the Pacific are largely focused around education and Fijian-based methodologies. Professor Nabobo-Baba’s work as a Pacific researcher reflects her stories as a woman of colour, of the third world, of post-colonial Fiji, and the daughter of two Fijian tribes. Her life is evidence of how experience influences a person’s understanding, way of life, and how Indigenous knowledge morphs into a hybrid understanding, bridging traditional and non-traditional ways of knowing.

Keynote Presentation (2026) | TBA

LJ Rayphand
Caroline College and Pastoral Institute, Federated States of Micronesia

Biography

LJ Rayphand is an educational leader and researcher from Chuuk State, Federated States of Micronesia. He earned a PhD from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, United States, and has significantly contributed to education by preserving and promoting Chuukese culture through storytelling and technology.

Dr Rayphand is currently the Dean of Outreach Education at Caroline College and Pastoral Institute (CCPI) in Chuuk, an official partner of Chaminade University of Honolulu. Dr Rayphand also teaches at the Chaminade University of Honolulu, the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoaa, and the College of Micronesia-FSM, Chuuk Campus. His work focuses on integrating indigenous knowledge with modern educational practices to enhance learning outcomes for Pacific Islander students.

Dr Rayphand also serves in various capacities in Micronesia and Hawaii. He is currently a Professor in Residence with Chaminade University of Honolulu and a Faculty in Residence with the NSF INCLUDES Alliance. He is also a member of the REL Pacific Governing Board, Chuuk State Board of Education, Chuuk Vicariate Parish Council, and the Diocese of the Caroline Islands Board of Catholic Education.

Panel Presentation (2026) | Education, Culture, and the Environment in an AI-Driven Era

Rosie Rowe
Leadership in Disabilities & Achievement of Hawai`i (LDAH), United States

Biography

Rosie Rowe is the Executive Director of Leadership in Disabilities & Achievement of Hawai`i (LDAH), a 501(c)3 organisation improving the lives of parents and their children with, or at risk of disabilities to receive an equitable education in the public-school system. Before this role, Ms Rowe served as the Education & Training Coordinator, where she managed the organisation’s two major programs, wrote, and designed training curriculum for parents and professionals and managed ten programme staff. She holds a master’s degree in business administration/ministry leadership and a certificate in developmental disabilities. As a sibling of a brother with down syndrome and a mom to three adult daughters, Ms Rowe has over 30 years of expertise in special education as a former Educational Assistant, Teacher, and Administrator of a private non-profit centre for children and adults with developmental disabilities. In her role as administrator, she assisted with the closure of Hawai’i’s State Institution for the Mentally Retarded within Waimano Training School and Hospital in 1999. Today, she manages three federal grants, four local government contracts, and one private grant under LDAH. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her family, walking, and staying active.

Panel Presentation (2026) | Defunding Education: Challenges and Implications

Perspectives on Education in the Pacific Islands
Keynote Presentation: Unaisi Nabobo-Baba

Drawing on her extensive experience as a Pacific scholar and educator, Unaisi Nabobo-Baba will offer broad reflections on education in the region. Reflecting ongoing issues around inclusive education, and considering the indigenous population in the Pacific islands, her keynote is a timely topic addressing culturally relevant education.

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Defunding Education: Challenges and Implications
Panel Presentation: Halena Kapuni-Reynolds, Rosie Row, Mary Hattori (Moderator)

Since January 2025, the Trump administration has enacted a sweeping range of policy shifts through anti-DEI executive orders and the termination of existing funding commitments in many areas, including education, the arts, and the humanities. Members of this panel will share how their organisations have been negatively impacted by these policies, challenges they have faced, and implications for academia.

Read presenters' biographies
Education, Culture, and the Environment in an AI-Driven Era
Panel Presentation: Jun Arima, Peter J Mataira, LJ Rayphand, Michael Menchaca (Moderator)

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been presented to us as a technological tool that helps advance knowledge, delivering innovations and solutions to our many challenges in a much more productive and efficient way than ever before. While AI continues to evolve rapidly and open new doors, this progress also comes with a price. AI helps analyse complex data, yet has immense environmental impacts. It can empower learners, yet it can be culturally biased. AI has already significantly changed how students engage in research, yet what they gather comes from models indexed mostly from specific cultural sources of knowledge rather than a diverse range.

This panel will look at the promise of AI and the pitfalls we should be aware of in areas such as education, culture, and the environment. Panellists will discuss what our growing daily reliance on AI means for the future and how we might harness its benefits while minimising costs and risks to society.

Read presenters' biographies
AI in Academia: Ethics, Challenges, and Solutions
Forum Discussion: Michael Menchaca, Grant Black, Melina Neophytou, Apipol Sae-Tung

With regards to Academic Research, AI provides promise while simultaneously causing concern. AI might be used in research to assist with the writing process, organise literature searches, analyse data, generate graphs and figures, and even consider solutions. Overall, AI’s potential for strengthening research and dissemination is great. However, stories of plagiarism, a lack of critical thinking, and intellectual dishonesty also highlight significant pitfalls in its use in academia. Discussions surrounding ethics and how they might guide AI usage would prove useful in identifying potential solutions.

This forum session will focus on introducing ethics currently identified in specific cases and highlighting select AI usages for academic research. Participants are invited to share their insights on AI ethics, uses, challenges, and solutions. If AI use in academic research is here to stay, how can we positively approach its inevitable integration? What do we value most? How do we promote the ethics we identify in this session? How do we model use at all levels of academic research? In short, how can we begin to control the AI narrative?

Read presenters' biographies