Opportunity for Postgraduate Study in Conjunction with Major Marsden Project

Prospective students at MA and PhD level may wish to consider being involved in some related aspect of a major Marsden project in the department beginning in 2010 for three years, entitled “Mothers’ darlings: Mothers' darlings: Children of indigenous women and World War Two American servicemen in New Zealand and South Pacific societies.”

The Principle Investigators are Associate Professor Judy Bennett and Dr Angela Wanhalla. Another Otago researcher involved is Associate Professor Jacqui Leckie in the Anthropology Department.

Outline of the project

Like a human tsunami, World War II brought two million American servicemen to the South Pacific where they left a human legacy of some thousands of children, most born out of wedlock. Histories of these indigenous, colonized mothers and their children are missing from standard accounts of New Zealand and other Pacific Islands. Our research project aims to recover this neglected human element of the massive demographic transformations that the war induced. It will interrogate the nature of wartime intimate encounters, colonial, institutional and racist barriers to stable relationships and marriage, the fate of children and grandchildren, and long term effects of mixed parentage. This research will deepen our understanding of New Zealand society and the origins of postwar Pacific immigrants as well as the constraints and opportunities that a world war presented to young people interacting across cultures in the South Pacific. More broadly, it will also contribute to global understandings of the demographic, familial and social consequences of World War II.

Potential topic areas for research include, but are not limited to:

• Interracial sexual violence during wartime
• The relationship between race and prostitution in WWII
• Marriage and citizenship

Interested students are encouraged to contact Judy Bennett and Angela Wanhalla for further information.

To apply for Otago scholarships, see http://www.otago.ac.nz/study/scholarships/