IAFOR > The IAFOR International Conference on Arts & Humanities in Hawaii (IICAH) > IICAH2025

IICAH2025

January 03-07, 2025 | The Hawai'i Convention Center, Honolulu, Hawaii, United States

This was a special year as we celebrated the concurrent 10th annual IAFOR International Conference on Education in Hawaii (IICE2025), and the 5th annual IAFOR International Conference on Arts & Humanities in Hawaii (IICAH2025), with an exceptional joint plenary that is at the centre of what promises to be a great conference. We were very excited to welcome more than 460 people from 44 countries to gather and exchange the latest in terms of research and ideas, across the boundaries of nation, culture, and discipline.

Hawaii is both a state and a nation, and has a long and storied history that has brought peoples from different parts of the world together. As it sits in the middle of the Pacific Ocean in a rich ecology and environment, Hawaii is of great strategic importance to the Asia-Pacific, sitting between the great continents of Asia and America.

We would like to thank our International Academic Board as well as our local conference committee for their roles in shaping the thematics and programme together; our global partners, and our local partner for this event, the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa.

Click to download as a PDF
Conference Report (available early 2025)
Conference Proceedings (available early 2025)
Virtual Presentations (available early 2025)

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Plenary Speakers

  • Jun Arima
    Jun Arima
    University of Tokyo, Japan
  • Grant Black
    Grant Black
    Chuo University, Japan
  • Joseph Haldane
    Joseph Haldane
    The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan
  • Michael Menchaca
    Michael Menchaca
    University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, United States
  • Melina Neophytou
    Melina Neophytou
    IAFOR, Japan
  • Daron Williams
    Daron Williams
    Virginia Tech, United States
  • Dan Yaffe
    Dan Yaffe
    Virginia Tech, United States
  • Mary Hattori
    Mary Hattori
    East West Center, United States

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Programme

  • Global Citizenship and Education for Peace: Threats & Opportunities from a Pacific Islands Perspective
    Global Citizenship and Education for Peace: Threats & Opportunities from a Pacific Islands Perspective
    Keynote Presentation: Mary Hattori
  • Global Warming and International Institutions: Addressing Challenges Through Education and Action
    Global Warming and International Institutions: Addressing Challenges Through Education and Action
    Keynote Presentation: Jun Arima
  • Quality Courses Quickly: Using GenAI as a Course Design Assistant
    Quality Courses Quickly: Using GenAI as a Course Design Assistant
    Featured Workshop: Larry Cox II, Daron Williams, Dan Yaffe
  • Global Citizenship and the Environment: Engagement and Action
    Global Citizenship and the Environment: Engagement and Action
    Forum Discussion: Michael Menchaca, Melina Neophytou

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Conference Committees

International Advisory Board

Dr Joseph Haldane, Chairman and CEO, IAFOR
His Excellency Professor Toshiya Hoshino, Osaka University, Japan
Professor Barbara Lockee, Virginia Tech., United States
Professor Donald E. Hall, Binghamton University, United States
Dr James W. McNally, University of Michigan, United States & NACDA Program on Aging
Dr Grant Black, Chuo University, Japan
Professor Dexter Da Silva, Keisen University, Japan
Professor Gary Swanson, University of Northern Colorado, United States
Professor Baden Offord, Curtin University, Australia
Professor Frank Ravitch, Michigan State University, United States
Professor William Baber, Kyoto University, Japan

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Conference Programme Committee

Professor Grant Black, Chuo University, Japan
Dr Joseph Haldane, The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan
Professor Donald E. Hall, University of Rochester, United States
Dr Daniel Hoffman, University of Hawai’i at Manoa, United States
Professor James W. McNally, University of Michigan, United States & NACDA Program on Aging
Professor Deane Neubauer, University of Hawai’i at Manoa, United States
Tialei Scanlan, Brigham Young University – Hawaii, United States
Professor Gary E. Swanson, University of Northern Colorado, United States (fmr.)
Robin Watson, University of Hawai’i at Manoa, United States

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IICAH2025 Review Committee

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 Rebecca Lind, University of Illinois at Chicago, United States
Dr Mónica María Martinez Sariego, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain
Dr Reena Mittal, MJPRU, Bareilly, India
Dr Rasha Osman Abdel Haliem, The Higher Technological Institute & AMIDEAST, Egypt
Dr Can Sakar, Gendarmerie and Coast Guard Academy, Turkey
Dr Zainor Izat Zainal, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia

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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).

Keynote Presentation (2025) | TBA
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).

Panel Presentation (2025) | TBA
Joseph Haldane
The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan

Biography

Joseph Haldane is the founder, chairman, and CEO of IAFOR. He is responsible for devising strategy, setting policies, forging institutional partnerships, implementing projects, and overseeing the organisation’s global business and academic operations.

Dr Haldane has a PhD from the University of London in nineteenth-century French studies (ULIP/RHUL), and has research interests in world history and politics; international education; and governance and decision making. Since 2015, he has been a Guest Professor at Osaka University’s School of International Public Policy (OSIPP), and Co-Director of the OSIPP-IAFOR Research Centre since 2017.

In 2020, Dr Haldane was elected Honorary Professor of University College London (UCL) through the Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction, and full Professor in the United Nations Peace University's European Center for Peace and Development in 2022. A member of the World Economic Forum’s Expert Network for global governance, he holds visiting professorships at Belgrade and Doshisha Universities where he teaches ethics and governance. He is a member of the International Advisory Council of the Department of Educational Foundations at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.

Professor Haldane has had full-time faculty positions at the Université Paris-Est Créteil, Sciences Po Paris, and Nagoya University of Commerce and Business, as well as visiting positions at the French Press Institute (Université Paris-Panthéon-Assas), and the Schools of Journalism of Sciences Po Paris and Moscow State University.

Dr Haldane has been invited to speak at universities and conferences globally, including the UN HQ in New York, and advised universities, NGOs and governments on issues relating to international education policy, public-private partnerships, and multi-stakeholder forums. He was the project lead on the 2019 Kansai Resilience Forum, held by the Japanese Government through the Prime Minister’s Office and oversaw the 2021 Ministry of Foreign Affairs commissioned study on Infectious Diseases on Cruise Ships.

Panel Presentation (2025) | TBA

Previous Presentations

Featured Interview (2024) | Questions of Education, Curation and Artificial Intelligence
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.

Featured Panel Presentation (2025) | Global Citizenship and the Environment: Engagement and Action

Previous Presentations

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 (2025) | Global Citizenship and the Environment: Engagement and Action
Daron Williams
Virginia Tech, United States

Biography

Mr Daron Williams is the Director of Instructional Design & Development for Technology-enhanced Learning & Online Strategies (TLOS) at Virginia Tech, United States. In this role, he works with faculty and administration to plan, design, and build engaging technology-enhanced courses and programmes for the university. He and his team also consult with faculty about effective teaching with technology in the classroom, and facilitate faculty professional development around topics in the same realm.

Mr Williams originally comes from a professional background in broadcasting and journalism. He earned a master's degree in Communication from Virginia Tech, where he is currently a PhD candidate in Curriculum and Instruction in the School of Education. He earned a bachelor’s degree fromRoanoke College, United States.

Featured Workshop (2025) | Quality Courses Quickly: Using GenAI as a Course Design Assistant
Dan Yaffe
Virginia Tech, United States

Biography

Mr Daniel Yaffe is Director of Learning Technologies in Technology-enhanced Learning and Online Strategies (TLOS) at Virginia Tech, United States. Mr Yaffe has been working in Instructional Technologies (IT) and Professional Development (PD) fields for the past 10 years. Before transitioning to roles in IT and PD, he worked in the insurance and banking industry as well as corporate training. In his current role as Director, he supports the use of teaching and learning technologies and pedagogy across the university. He earned a Master of Education in Adult Education and Communications Technology from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 2011 and is currently a Doctoral Candidate in Instructional Design and Technology at Virginia Tech.

Featured Workshop (2025) | Quality Courses Quickly: Using GenAI as a Course Design Assistant
Mary Hattori
East West Center, United States

Biography

Dr Mary Therese Perez Hattori is a daughter of Guåhan (Guam), of the clan Familian Titang, born to Paul Mitsuo Hattori† of Kalihi, O’ahu, Hawaii and Fermina Leon Guerrero Perez† of the village of Chalan Pago, Guam. She currently serves as Director of the Pacific Islands Development Program (PIDP) with the East-West Center and previously enjoyed a long career in various technology and education-related positions. PIDP is a regional organisation, a founding member of the Council of Regional Organisations of the Pacific and secretariat of the Pacific Islands Council of Leaders.

Dr Hattori is also affiliate graduate faculty in Pacific Studies, Learning Design and Technology, and several Educational Doctorate programs, a community organiser, advocate for Pacific Islanders in the United States, public speaker, author, and poet. She is co-founder and co-organizer of cultural events such as the Cultural Animation Film Festival and the Celebrate Micronesia Festival, both held annually in Honolulu. She serves the state of Hawaii as a member of the Board of Education and Associate Member of the Consular Corps of Honolulu.

Keynote Presentation (2025) | TBA

Previous Presentations

Panel Presentation (2021) | Cultural Resilience
Global Citizenship and Education for Peace: Threats & Opportunities from a Pacific Islands Perspective
Keynote Presentation: Mary Hattori

In this talk, Dr Hattori will highlight some continuing and emerging threats to peace and prosperity in Oceania and the opportunities they present. She will share examples from her work with the Pacific Islands Development Program and the Hawai'i State Board of Education that leverage ancient indigenous wisdom and leadership to resolve contemporary problems and foster global citizenship and education for peace through local/localised initiatives.

Read presenter's biography
Global Warming and International Institutions: Addressing Challenges Through Education and Action
Keynote Presentation: Jun Arima

The problem of global warming is a global issue and a common threat facing humanity. The fact that small economies and vulnerable countries, which contribute little to greenhouse gas emissions, are disproportionately affected by global warming is an unfair situation, and this is why global efforts at the United Nations are necessary. However, it is not easy to internalise the problem of global warming, which is an external negative economic effect at the global level. This is because the benefits of each country's measures to prevent global warming are shared globally, while the economic costs of mitigation are borne by each country. This creates a prisoner's dilemma.

In order to solve the problem of global warming, technological innovation and a change in people's awareness are essential. In the past, energy conversion was brought about by the development of innovative technology and the reduction in the cost of that technology. However, if we are to rapidly raise our ambitions for the prevention of global warming, the final consumer must be prepared to bear the increased cost of preventing global warming. Education will play a major role in this. At the same time, it is also important to drastically increase financial assistance to developing countries, which will account for the majority of future energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions. COP29 in November 2024 revealed a deep rift between developed and developing countries over the New Collective Quantified Goal. As the international political and economic situation becomes more chaotic, the outcome of international efforts to prevent global warming will be closely watched.

Read presenter's biography
Quality Courses Quickly: Using GenAI as a Course Design Assistant
Featured Workshop: Larry Cox II, Daron Williams, Dan Yaffe

We are now sharing the world with Generative AI (GenAI), for better and for worse. All of the challenges – and all of the opportunities – that GenAI presents are here to stay. In the classroom, educators have an obligation to engage with GenAI and understand its implications on our lives and on how we teach. GenAI’s rapid development may present a daunting task for educators to harness it, but burying our collective heads in the sand is not a strategy for long-term success for ourselves nor, just as importantly, for our students.

In this hands-on session geared toward instructional designers and teachers at any level, presenters will show participants how to leverage the strengths of GenAI to make their course design and teaching practice more efficient and effective. Presenters will demystify GenAI for our less-experienced participants by introducing important considerations for GenAI use. The session will culminate in a demonstration, with participant input, exploring a few specific ways that a common GenAI tool such as ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot can augment a teacher's or instructional designer's practice as they design and build a course.

Read presenters' biographies
Global Citizenship and the Environment: Engagement and Action
Forum Discussion: Michael Menchaca, Melina Neophytou

A significant segment of society perceives climate change as a ‘hoax’, a term aligning with the ‘comfortable lie’ many want to believe in. Former United States Vice President Al Gore previously referred to this phenomenon as an ‘inconvenient truth’: the psychological and behavioural resistance to acknowledging realities that necessitate lifestyle changes. This view enables individuals to continue living without addressing threatening issues caused by climate change.

Climate change is, in itself, a controversial subject. Inconvenient and unaffordable climate solutions, especially for the lower strata of society and developing countries, may deter climate action. Emotional reasoning and personal experience taking precedence over scientific evidence, misinformation from the media and political leadership, and vested interests in the energy sector also contribute to this hindrance. Even among individuals who accept the reality of climate change, the perception of its inevitability may compel them to inaction. In a period of great upheaval and uncertainty around political administration, a critical question arises: how can we get people to care about environmental sustainability?

With the backdrop of Hawaii as an example of considerable environmental harm meeting sustainability efforts, both led by the military-industrial complex and its allied institutions, IAFOR invites delegates to this Forum discussion on ‘Global Citizenship and the Environment: Engagement and Action’ to discuss issues related to how we can sensitise and compel people to climate action.

Read presenters' biographies