Pacific Studies Research Cluster
About the ResearchThe Pacific Studies Research Cluster is a forum for facilitating research in the Pacific, providing expertise across departmental boundaries and hosting a body of Pacific expertise to comment on and provide considered advice on policy and advocacy based on quality research. This can include collaborative work that involves archaeologists, historians and ethnomusicologists, or research on current issues such as resource management or poverty which might involve joint projects between anthropologists, surveyors, historians, geographers and economists, for example, when examining issues such as changing land tenure and conflict. The Pacific Studies Research Cluster is a network of leading Pacific scholars who both teach and research on the Pacific providing links both within Otago and with other institutions, particularly those in the Pacific. CoordinatorsAssociate Professor Jacqueline Leckie Professor Judith A Bennett
Researchers
Researcher ProfilesProfessor Tony Binns (Geography) Tony Binns recent work has focused on community-based development initiatives in South Africa, post-war community reconstruction in Sierra Leone and urban agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa and Vietnam. Recent research is ‘Alienation and Inequality: Exploring the role of the church and kinship in the emergence of landless Samoans’ (with Dr. A. Thornton). Professor Judy Bennett (History and Art History) Professor Bennett’s research interests are in Pacific History, Environmental History and Australia's and New Zealand's relations with the Pacific Islands. Her latest book, "Natives and Exotics" was published in 2009. Her current work focuses on the Marsden funded project, entitled "Mothers' darlings: Children of indigenous women and World War Two American servicemen in New Zealand and South Pacific societies" with Dr Angela Wanhalla. If you are looking for further information on the Mothers' Darling research project, please follow this link: http://www.otago.ac.nz/usfathers/ Associate Professor Jenny Bryant-Tokalau, (Pacific Studies, Te Tumu) Associate Professor Bryant-Tokalau’s current research is on poverty and environmental governance in the Pacific; Urban housing and poverty and Urban environmental degradation in the Pacific. Currently working on film project on Making Poverty History; global poverty strategies and their appropriateness to the Pacific. Most recent research is on the role of the Fijian Qoliqoli legislation and the urban poor. Current funded research includes leading a partnership with a local Dunedin welfare provider investigating the experiences of newly arrived Pacific children and their families to southern New Zealand schools. [see http://pacific-routes-and-roots.blogspot.com/].Another funded research project involves an exploration of preservice and beginning teachers anxieties and desires for teaching as a career choice. [see http://sylvia-teaching-reflections.blogspot.com/]. Other interests include postcolonial theory and schooling in the Pacific region, critical discourse analysis and cultural/ identity politics. Dr Charlotte Chambers (Geography) Charlie’s research interest lies in the general area of society-environment
relations with specific emphasis on the politics of environmental and resource
management. Previous research examined visualizing technologies, human-animal
relations and politics of biodiversity conservation in Scotland and New
Zealand. I have training in both the biological and social sciences and
my research ethos is shaped by a genuine commitment to inter-disciplinary
and multi-method research. The overarching goal of my research agenda is
to challenge the divide between the social and natural sciences in order
to theorize new understandings of human-environment interactions and development.
Charlie’s PhD research was on Relational Knowledge and Marine Conservation:
The Case of the Pasua Rahui, Tongareva, Cook Islands”. Dr Stephen Knowles (Economics) Stephen's research interests are primarily in the area of empirical
modelling of economic growth, including the effects of gender inequalities
in education and health on economic growth, the relationship between
social capital and economic performance, the effects of government
intervention on economic performance and the relationship between income
inequality and economic growth. His teaching interests include the economics
of developing countries and introductory microeconomics. A current research
project is on Measuring Trust in the South Pacific (with Prof. David Fielding
of Economics and Dr Filipo Tokalau of Economics, USP). Associate Professor Jacqui Leckie (Social Anthropology) Jacqui’s research interests include anthropology and history of South
Pacific cultures - especially modernities and gender, ethnicity,
power. Focus on Fiji but also other Pacific regions. Currently her research
focuses on anthropology and history in Fiji and New Zealand with three active
research projects: The history of madness and madness management in Fiji;
Fiji Islanders (of all ethnicities) in New Zealand, and Migration and a
history of Indian settlers in New Zealand. Dr Greg Rawlings (Social Anthropologist – Anthropology) Greg’s earlier work considered the complex relationships between urbanisation, land tenure change, wage labour and offshore finance in Vanuatu. Particularly interesting was the way property is imagined and represented as a series of cultural acts encompassed in law and custom. These divergent imaginaries have a direct impact on the ability of land to be commodified, bought and sold in an increasingly globalised market for international real-estate. This in turn complicates unilinear accounts of nationality whereby non-citizen foreign investors’ end up acquiring many of the advantages of citizenship through conversion of property. Greg’s various research interests are unified by an overall interest in the production of globalisation and transnationalism in ways that both reinscribe and transform culturally mediated notions of power, law, society and economy. Professor Michael Reilly (Te Tumu) Michael's primary research interests follow several inter-related themes: Ms Michelle Schaaf (Pacific Studies, Te Tumu) Michelle’s research interests include Pacific Islands women and education, and the representation of Polynesian female body image with particular reference to sport in New Zealand. Professor Glenn R Summerhayes (Archaeologist - Anthropology) Glenn’s research interests are in Pacific archaeology, in particular
Melanesia; the archaeology of trade and exchange; the development of social
complexity; the archaeology of East Asia; archaeometry; cultural heritage
management; archaeology and the school curriculum in Papua New Guinea. Dr Tim Thomas (Archaeologist - Anthropology) Tim’s research interests include Archaeology and historical anthropology
of Oceania, with a focus on island Melanesia and Polynesia; Material
culture of the Pacific region; Socio-cultural landscapes, Exchange
and personhood, Cross-cultural contact in Oceania, The archaeology of colonization,
Social networks and technology, and Human diversity Associate Professor Richard Walter (Archaeologist - Anthropology) Richard’s research interests are the Prehistory and archaeology of Oceania with a special interest in Melanesia and Polynesia; material culture analysis; history of archaeological method and theory; ethnoarchaeology; and faunal analysis. EventsForthcoming EventsMilitarisation during War and Peace in Oceania3–4 November, 2011 Venue: Te Tumu (from 10.45 am, 3 November) Conveners: Jacqui Leckie & Judy Bennett Contact: jacqui.leckie@otago.ac.nz All are welcome but please RSVP to Bronwyn Craig ASAPEmail: bronwyn.craig@otago.ac.nz
Past EventsEthics on/of Pacific Research: Cross-disciplinary PerspectivesFriday 8 October, 2010 ....................................................An Oceanic Imagination: A Tribute to the Life and Mind of ‘Epeli Hau’ofaWednesday October 21st, 2009 Go to the online Tribute to 'Epeli Hau'ofa page.
‘Pacific Challenges: Talanoa Pasifika’ Tuesday August 26th 2008
Download readings by three presenters:
.......................................The Pacific Research Cluster held its first seminar in May 2008 when Dr Tim Bayliss-Smith, Reader in Pacific Geography and Fellow of St John’s College, University of Cambridge, spoke on “Sustainable Livelihoods from Wildlife in Papua New Guinea: The Butterfly Model versus the Crocodile Model”. The seminar was held in Te Tumu and had a very good turnout and lively
interchange.
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