Brown Bag Biography with Heather Diamond

November 18, 12:00pm - 1:15pm
Mānoa Campus, Zoom

The Center for Biographical Research presents: “Becoming Foreign: Love and Writing Across the Cultural Divide” Heather Diamond, PhD in American Studies from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa Cosponsored by Hamilton Library, the Spark M. Matsunaga Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, and the Departments of Asian Studies and American Studies Thursday, November 18 at 12PM to 1:15PM (HST) on Zoom Zoom Meeting ID: 984 1734 7287 Password: 769161 Meeting link: https://hawaii.zoom.us/j/98417347287 Marrying across cultural boundaries in Hawai‘i benefitted the author, but becoming a foreigner in Hong Kong tested her relationship, her tolerance, and her adaptability. Her background in cultural anthropology became her survival tool as she struggled with not knowing Cantonese, resisting family communalism, and feeling like an outsider. Writing a memoir, however, required her to shed academic objectivity and speak honestly about her culture shock and personal limitations while trying to represent her adopted family as people instead of foreign caricatures. Heather Diamond earned a Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Hawai‘i, was a graduate fellow at the East-West Center, and has worked as a university lecturer and curator at Iolani Palace before moving to Hong Kong. She is the author of American Aloha: Cultural Tourism and the Negotiation of Tradition and Rabbit in the Moon: A Memoir. Her creative non-fiction essays have appeared in Memoir Magazine, Sky Island Journal, (Her)oics: Women’s Lived Experiences of the Pandemic, Rappahannock Review, Waterwheel Review, Hong Kong Review, Undomesticated, and Pacifica Review.


Event Sponsor
Center for Biographical Research, Mānoa Campus

More Information
Paige Rasmussen, (808) 956-3774, biograph@hawaii.edu, https://blog.hawaii.edu/cbrhawaii/

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