The University of Hawai'i Faculty of African Descent will hold its Third Biennial Winter Institute for Black Studies on Jan. 15 and 16.

The gathering at the East-West Center is themed "The 'Alternative' African Diaspora: Interdisciplinary Roundtables on Emergent, Oppositional and New Discourses in the Field."

The roundtable discussions are free and open to the public. There is an optional $35 package of breakfast and lunch with the speakers.

The conference's opening reception and dinner will be held Jan. 15 in the Hibiscus Ballroom at the Ala Moana Hotel. The keynote address, "Why Diaspora?: Rethinking African Peoples and Power in the Twenty-First Century," will be presented by Kim D. Butler, an associate professor of history and Africana studies at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J. The cost for the opening reception and dinner is $55. Register at www.uhwibs.com/documents/WIBSRegistrationForm.pdf.