DR. MARY Lou F. Aurelio, professor VI and assistant secretary/executive council member of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) , has satisfactorily completed a presentation of “Traditional Chants in the Life Cycle of Ilocanos” at the 4^th Annual Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities, held Jan. 11-14 at the Renaissance Ilikai Waikiki Hotel in Honolulu, Hawaii. Her research paper was selected based on a review process.

The conference was sponsored by the East West Council for Education Asia-

Pacific, the Research Institute of Peking University, and the University of Louisville Center for Sustainable Urban Neighborhoods.

This conference offered a rare opportunity for academicians and other professionals from around the world to share their broad array of perspectives.

True to its primary goal, the conference provided those with cross disciplinary interests related to arts and humanities to meet and interact with others inside and outside their own discipline.

The international attendees to this conference brought a variety of viewpoints shaped by different cultures, languages, geography, and politics. This diversity was also captured in the conference’s unique cross-disciplinary approach. The resulting interaction energized research as well as vocation.

The keynote speaker was Arnold Rampersad, Sara Hart Kimball Professor in the

Humanities and a professor of English at Stanford University, where he is also senior associate dean for the humanities. Dr. Aurelio’s participation in the international conference was sponsored by the NCCA and Kannawidan Foundation, Inc. Her paper presentation on Jan. 12 was evaluated by the musicologists as “very nice and interesting”.

After the conference, she had the opportunity to travel to North Carolina, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Atlanta, Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, and Washington D.C.