Home2027 Proposed Sessions

PROPOSED SESSIONS FOR THE 2027 MEETING

Symposium Sessions

Breakdown in Hela and Enga Province, Papua New Guinea
Convenors: Alex Golub (golub@hawaii.edu) and Michael Main (mmain1@unimelb.edu.au)

Abstract: In 2025, we had a very stimulating session examining and trying to understand the many serious social problems that have recently occurred in Hela and Enga Province, Papua New Guinea. Some session members provided on-the-ground reports, while others brought comparative perspective to tribal fighting, law and order issues, sorcery accusation related violence, gender based violence, and many other challenges.

In 2026 we continued as a working session, and participants developed papers on specific topics relating to the challenges faced in these two provinces. We hope that quality scholarship will help at least a little in understanding this breakdown, and thus contributing in some small way to finding solutions to the problems which currently plague Hela and Enga.

To this end, we invite anthropologists and scholars from other disciplines to join us in thinking through these important topics. We also invite anyone with in-depth knowledge of current events in Hela and Enga to share their description and analysis of the situation. If you are interested in this topic, please join us!

Maps and Mapping in the Pacific

Convenors: Josh Bell (BellJA@si.edu) and David Lipset (lipse001@umn.edu)

Abstract: This symposium level session will follow up and conclude the online working session that took place in 2026. The organizers will outline plans for an introductory essay on the relationship of maps to state sovereignty, their semiotic relationship to space and to the history of maps in the Pacific. Revised papers will be pre-circulated and then discussed in detail in person with the goal of integrating the papers around the following themes: 1) Local constructions of space in song lyrics, stories, fruit and vegetables. 2) The history of colonial maps. 3) Countermapping projects v. other cartographic goals. 4) Benefits of and problems arising from western mapping projects at the local-level. 5) Use of new digital technologies by indigenous peoples in contemporary mapping projects.

New papers: Anyone interested in joining us at this point in the process should contact either Bell or Lipset by 15 October.

Politics of Inscription, Repair, and Relationship: Peoples, places, and signs on the move in the Pacific
Convenors: Kathleen C Riley (kriley1125@gmail.com) and Miki Makihara (miki.makihara@gmail.com)

Abstract: In 2026, we discussed our intersecting papers in progress, focusing on the emergent communicative processes and labor that individuals and collectives use to construct boundaries, control representation and circulation, and shape social relations, subjectivities, and imaginaries. Our discussion centered on two main topics: (1) Literacy, Cartography, and Language Reclamation as Key Sites of Struggle. Religion, politics, law, and the market emerged as arenas where language secures, repairs, and strategically orients social reality. (2) The Polyvalent Nature of “Fixing”. We debated the term ‘’fixing,” unpacking its many, sometimes contradictory, English meanings: inscription, attachment, regimentation, rigging, strategic performance, and imagined hierarchies. We contrasted the European ideological association of "fixing" as permanent territorial rootedness against Oceanic frameworks of planting, fishing, anchoring, etc. In the Pacific, fixing words into the land may be less about permanent possession than allowing new meanings to emerge before passing them on to future generations who set sail and plant their roots elsewhere. Ultimately, we underline the continuous, unfinished nature of these social interactions. Rather than implying a completed state, ‘fixing’ reflects the dynamic power struggles of communities striving to make the world legible on their own terms and stake out a sovereign future. Crucially, participants also emphasized the term’s violent resonance with eugenicist agendas to medically “fix” Indigenous and other peoples of color. Thorough deconstruction requires that this “fixing” of bodies be incorporated into our decolonizing dialogue about languages, places, and signs. Following this fascinating discussion, we propose dropping “fixing” from our 2027 Samoa symposium title to focus on our evolved thematic: “Politics of Inscription, Repair, and Relationship: Peoples, places, and signs on the move in the Pacific.” This will keep our primary focus central while allowing some contributors to carry on disentangling “fixing” and its connotations.

Working Sessions

Grief, Love, and Legacy: Death and Inheritance in Pacific Societies Across Islands and Diaspora
Convenors: Sarah McLean‑Orsborn (s.mclean-orsborn@auckland.ac.nz), Fepuleai Micah Van der Ryn, and

Suzanna Tiapula.

Abstract: The 2026 session drew 17 attendees who joined us to reflect on, discuss, and offer feedback on the papers we are developing ahead of an in‑person working session planned for Samoa in 2027. Grief and death are universal life experiences, and many participants shared during introductions that they had recently lost someone close to them and were interested in how our work might speak to their own journeys. Our attendees included students from mainland USA (Sarah Cho), Australia (Susannah Ostojic), and Aotearoa (Taeaolelei Filo Masoe), as well as artists (Julie Mota‑Kondi), academics (John Cox, Allison Jablonko, Alan Howard), and community professionals such as María Ulloa, who also presented on work undertaken by her organisation.

Following each presentation, we created space for talanoa, allowing attendees to ask questions, offer reflections, and share resonances with their own experiences. A recurring theme across the discussion was the tension between the sacredness (tapu) of death in many Pacific cultures and the restrictive framing of grief within institutional structures such as corporate “bereavement leave”.

Several participants expressed interest in contributing papers in addition to the three convenors preparing papers, so we all agreed to move to a working session for the 2027 ASAO Meeting in Samoa. As a first‑time ASAO participant and session convenor, I (Sarah) want to express my deep gratitude to Micah and Suzanna for their guidance and support. What began as an individual call for papers has grown into a meaningful space of learning, growth, and relationship‑building—made possible through the generosity of my tuākana and the shared commitment to nurturing this kaupapa.

Mud
Convenors: Barbara Andersen (B.Andersen1@massey.ac.nz) and Jamon Halvaksz

(jamon.halvaksz@georgetown.edu)

Abstract: Mud is many things. It can be a substance (or many different substances), a stage in a cycle of liquefaction, and a medium for communication and creation. Its physical qualities allow it to carry traces of human and more-than-human movement through space and time. Mud can be simultaneously destructive and fertile. In Oceania’s terrestrial and marine environments, people have long known how to navigate, understand, and respect mud’s potencies. But as local ecologies are damaged and local lifeways are reorganised, mud is taking on new forms: from the apocalyptic landslides that have destroyed villages in the PNG highlands, to the muddy mineral sedimentation that overwhelms riverine environments polluted by mining, to the sterile mud created as rising sea levels choke formerly fertile coastal estuaries and mangroves.

In these papers in this session, mud is simultaneously an ordinary aspect of everyday life in watery environments, an ‘infrastructural’ feature that channels and controls mobility and settlement patterns, and a symbolically rich medium for human cultural practice. We pay particular attention to how indigenous Pacific relationships to mud—as both an ecological feature of the lived world and a dense symbolic medium—are transformed by ecological and social change. Paper drafts will be shared and circulated in early January and discussed during the session.

This session remains open to interested participants. If you would like to join our second working

session, please contact Jamon and Barbara by November 1

Pacific Equity or Western Equality? Electoral Rules and Other Examples of Affirmative Action

Convenors: Serge Tcherkezoff (serge.tcherkezoff@gmail.com); Sandrine Sana-Chaillé de Néré

(sandrine.sana@upf.pf); Marc Tabani

Abstract: The session will ask what is in common between some events and debates that appeared recently—and not so recently—in the Pacific countries.

The French government's proposal (May 2024) to abolish the “freezing of the electorate” in New Caledonia, thereby removing restrictions on the right to vote in local parliamentary elections (which had been reserved for “historic” inhabitants and their descendants, i.e. those registered as residents in 1988).
The request (November 2024) by the ultra-conservative camp (with the country's Associate Minister of Justice) presented to the New Zealand parliament to reconsider part of the interpretation of the Treaty of Waitangi, the founding text of the Constitution, in order to stop recognizing special rights for the Maori, and to base this reconsideration on Article 3, which states that “Everyone is equal before the law”?
The recent criticism by members of parliament from various countries against the demand for parliamentary seats reserved for women? One of the opposition members of parliament in Fiji said (April 2025): “Creating special allocation of seats for women in Parliament may appear progressive on the surface, but in reality, it risks being tokenistic—elevating a few selected individuals rather than addressing the root barriers that prevent wider participation.”
US President (Donald Trump) ‘s decision (January 2025) to ban any discussion of gender diversity which directly affects support for associations rooted in Pacific cultures (such as UTOPIA, which defends MVPFAFF+ communities).
More in the past: the proposal, tabled (and passed) by the new “Human Rights” party HRPP in the Samoan Parliament in 1991, which succeeded in repealing the clause that, since independence (1962), had limited to “clan chiefs” (matai) the right to vote for designating candidates to national elections.

Is all this a generous step forward in the goal of abolishing discrimination and privileges? Or is it a means, disguised under the mask of the principle of equality, of enshrining in law and shielding from criticism the de facto inequalities and discrimination that prevail in society? Equity or equality? The question arises in both public and private law: public: electoral systems, values in nation-building at the heart of what should be a spirit of “consensus” and “Talanoa” ; private: the so-called “customary” versus “national” individual status in territories where this dual status exists, which leads to access, or not, to specific electoral rights.

Vā Hina: Moana Nui Embodied Relationality
Convenor: Nālani Wilson-Hokowhitu (nalani.wilson-hokowhitu@vuw.ac.nz)

Abstract: The Vā Hina: Moana Nui Embodied Relationality, ASAO 2026, Informal Session, began with a showing of the animated film Vā Hina written and directed by Dr Nālani Wilson-Hokowhitu. The session hosted a special guest, visiting scholar to Va’aomanū Pasifika at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington, Dr Ojeya Cruz Banks, who is a Dance Scholar from Denison University. The meeting comprised of forty-five people in attendance with twenty-two who have watched the session. The primary speakers were Dr Nālani Wilson-Hokowhitu and Dr Ojeya Cruz Banks who were together at the Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington pod. Participant speakers included Associate Professor Albert Refiti, Professor Tēvita O. Ka’ili, Suzanna Tiapula, Emeritus Director Marianne “Mimi” George, and Professor Simon Penny. The conversations were generative and focused around the production of an anthology for publication. Experienced scholars offered guidance and suggestions for the publication venue. The sharing was nurturing and compassionate. The focus continues to highlight genealogies to the ancestor Hina and stories of Pacific women voyagers and navigators.

Waves of Samoan exploration, settlement and return: Collective memories of Multigenerational Triumph and Tribulation

Convenors: Robert Franco (bfranco@hawaii.edu), Discussant: Saʻiliemanu Lilomaiava-Doktor

(sailiema@hawaii.edu)

Abstract: This session welcomes multiple generations of scholars to gather in collecting stories of Samoan exploration, settlement and return over the last 75-100 years. This period can be loosely framed into four eras and generations: pre-World War II to 1950; post World War II to nation-building and Constitution-making to 1975; diverse movement patterns (migration, circulation, diaspora) and adaptations to urban New Zealand and the United States to 2000; and continuity in movement patterns with new urban adaptations including Australia 2000 to present). Focal questions of Samoan cultural identity reconsideration, restructuring and rebuilding will likely come to the fore (Liu, 2015 ). Cultural identity provides us as ‘one people’ with stable and continuous frames of reference and meaning, beneath the shifting divisions and vicissitudes of our actual history (Hall, 1990:223, in Mockaitis and Zander, 2023:1). The concept of diaspora will be examined. Can Samoan movement patterns over this period be seen as “more or less diasporic” (Clifford 1994), with both negative and positive aspects of diaspora explored. This first working session will focus on the types of resources and sources we (TBD) can collect and organize for a second working session online in 2028. Project Muse-Diaspora will be approached as a publication opportunity.

References:

Clifford, J. (1994) Diasporas. Cultural Anthropology, 9(3), 302-338.
Hall, S. (1990) Cultural identity and diaspora. In J. Rutherford (Ed.) Identity, Community, culture, difference. Lawrence and Wishart.
Liu, S. (2015) Identity, hybridity, and cultural home: Chinese migrants and diaspora in multicultural societies. Rowman and Littlefield.
Mockaitis, A.I. and Zander, L. (2023) Dissecting Generations of Migrant Identities Within a Diaspora. The Palgrave Handbook of Global Migrations in International Business. Palgrave Macmillan, p.119-141.

Informal Sessions

2022-2032 International Decade of Indigenous Languages: Pacific Languages
Convenors: Tevita Ka'ili (tevita.kaili@byuh.edu), #IndigPacificLanguages (2018pefikingi@gmail.com)

Abstract: Our IDIL-Pacific group are doing our part for the Protections of Indigenous Pacific Languages, and we will be meeting F2F in Samoa, and you are invited to join us! Warm Pacific Greetings. According to UNESCO, “half of the 6,000 plus spoken languages today will disappear by the end of the century” if the world fails to take action to preserve endangered languages. The situation in the Pacific region is of particular concern, where more than one hundred native languages are vulnerable and endangered. Indigenous Pacific communities have complex systems of knowledge and communication that require support to protect, preserve, retain and maintain their languages, including customs and values which have endured to date.

‘Indigenous languages add to the rich tapestry of global cultural and linguistic diversity. Other than waving the flags for our languages, we shall be contributing to the objectives outlined in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development’ (UNESCO, 2019).

Pacific languages are pivotal in human rights protection, good governance, peace building, reconciliation, sustainable development and all other areas of our livelihoods. We support the International Decade of Indigenous Languages and endorse the promotion of Pacific languages in the following key areas: [1] Increasing understanding, reconciliation and international cooperation; [2] creation of favourable conditions for knowledge-sharing and dissemination of good practices with regards to indigenous languages; [3] Integration of indigenous languages into standard setting; [4] empowerment through capacity building; and [5] growth and development through elaboration of new knowledge.

Ma’alo/Thank you to our Activists/Leaders of Pacific Languages who offered abstracts and drafts for the IDIL-Pacific Foci in 2019, and every year thereafter, when we paid due respect to the International Year of Indigenous Languages. And, most especially going forward as the United Nations declared an International Decade of Indigenous Languages, which began in 2022. This acknowledges the need for further work to protect Indigenous languages worldwide.’ UNESCO (28.02.2020)

Artificial Intelligence and Indigenous Pacific Knowledge Systems Protections: Indigenous Data Sovereignty & Rights – Pacific Futures Yesterday

Convenors: Line-Noue Memea Kruse (line.kruse@gmail.com) and Tēvita O. Kaʻili (tevita.kaili@byuh.edu)

Abstract: This is the second informal session of Artificial Intelligence and Indigenous Knowledge Systems Protections: Indigenous Data Sovereignty & Rights – Pacific Futures Yesterday. 26 participants met in the 2026 February online conference that was engaged, critical, and responding to artificial intelligence from various sectors including but not limited to higher education, non-profit organizations, non-governmental organizations, government, and international frameworks overseeing ecological stewardship of Pacific knowledges.

Collectively the session participants are committed to meet mid-conference in August 2026. The participants are interested in publication to direct attention, focus, and targeted issues that weave together the mat of storytelling to the risks of artificial intelligence pirating, misarticulating, mistranslating, and abusing Indigenous Pacific Knowledge Systems.

Artificial Intelligence and the pirating of Indigenous Pacific Knowledge Systems present new harms and manufactured global cyberspace injuries. Historically, the extraction of Indigenous and Native Pacific theories, epistemologies, and oral traditions were exploited and stolen by foreign actors in face-to-face modality from voyagers, sea crewpersons, beachcombers, missionaries, military, government emissaries, capitalistic voyeurs, and academics. Now, First Nations are calling out against this digital colonialism of their ancestral records of genealogy without their consent. The rise of the First Nations sovereignty movements has given inspiration to share how the Artificial Intelligence infrastructures and data centers are impacting Indigenous Pacific Knowledges.

Alongside this, the question of what ethical and relational practice of Oceania are when voluntarily and involuntarily responding or interacting with Artificial Intelligence technologies and infrastructures. This session asks what scholars who are actively conducting research, publishing, undertaking projects that work with communities, working with Pacific or Oceania students/communities today consider how to protect Indigenous Knowledge Systems from AI; while possibly using AI or forced to use AI in institutions. This session also recognizes our many spaces we live or work in that may also conflict with each other and this raises flags to how we see boundaries and nuances to space and relationality within laws and structures.

Please contact Line Kruse if you wish to participate in the session (line.kruse@gmail.com).

References:

Boyanton, Megan U. “Faces of the Diaspora: Building Artificial Intelligence Through a Native Lens” Ka Wai Ola August 1, 2025. [Link]
Jones, Peter L., Suzanne Duncan, Gianna Leoni, Keoni Mahelona, Lee Steven. “Fit for our purpose, not yours: Benchmark for a low-resource, Indigenous language” 38th Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS 2024) Track on Datasets and Benchmarks. 2024, ppgs. 1-19.
Kasosi, Lucas. “Indigenous Peoples and AI: Defending Rights, Shaping the Future of Technology.” Cultural Survival, August 8, 2025.
Perera, Maneesha, Rajith Vidanaarachchi, Saman Halgamue, “Indigenous peoples and artificial intelligence: A systematic review and future directions” Sage Journals, June 18, 2025.
Tekobbe, Cindy. (2024) Indigenous Voices in Digital Spaces. Salt Lake City, Utah State University Press.
“We Are Not Your Dusky Maidens!” [Link]

Articulations of the Polynesian Term ‘ata’
Convenors: Albert L Refiti (albert.refiti@aut.ac.nz); Rosanna Raymond (ro@sistarspacific.com)

Abstract: This informal session explores the Polynesian notion of ‘ata (Māori, Samoan, Tongan), aka (Hawai’i), which is translated as image, form, shadow or reflection - entities that underpin an understanding of what art, creativity and design are in the Pacific world. We believe that it may not be directly related to the idea of representation but is more closely aligned with the notion of presence, to make something appear from the past or from a condition of preexistence. This is crucial research for our understanding of why elements in Pacific material culture tend to repeat themselves and especially for our understanding of art from a Pacific perspective. We welcome participants who are scholars of PNG and Melanesia in general who are interested in doing a comparative analysis of Melanesian and Polynesian articulations of the concept of ata.

Participants:
Albert L Refiti, Rosanna Raymond, Emily Parr, Luka Amber Brunnin, Ata Siuula, Julian Hooper, Terje Koloamatangi, Raymond Sagapolutele, Lemoa Fesuluai

ASAO’s Collaboration and Reciprocity (CORE) Program
Convenor: Tēvita O. Kaʻili (tevita.kaili@byuh.edu)

Abstract: This informal session is organized by the ASAO’s CORE committee. The main goal is to inspire and encourage ASAO members to prepare and deliver research materials that benefit Oceanic communities, whether in their villages, urban centers, or the diaspora. This effort is significant for junior scholars since tenure and promotion reviews rarely recognize publications or activities outside the formal realm of academia. ASAO anticipates that this collaborative approach to anthropological work with Oceanic peoples will further decolonize the unbalanced relationships too often embedded in Oceania-based research. ASAO’s CORE program began as an initiative called GRIKPIC in February 2006. In 2025, ASAO renamed and revamped the program to CORE, highlighting collaboration and reciprocity as key principles for anthropological engagement with Pacific communities. This new name avoids the assumption inherent in GRIKPIC that Indigenous knowledge is something to be “returned” and recognizes the increasing presence of Indigenous Pacific Island anthropologists within ASAO. In addition, CORE acknowledges that Pacific cultures exist beyond their home islands, including significant urban populations and diasporas.

The session is designed to generate interest and momentum for the CORE program. It provides ASAO members a valuable chance to connect, exchange resources, and discuss potential collaborations. This sets the foundation for future sessions and initiatives that meet community needs within ASAO. Those considering or already working on specific projects of collaboration and reciprocity will be able to discuss their projects and seek feedback from session participants.

Creating Radical Community through Collaboration and Creative Expression
Convenors: D. Burnett (dburn@sas.upenn.edu); Kirsten McGavin (kirsten.mcgavin@flinders.edu.au); Imelda

Miller (imeldam015@gmail.com)

Abstract: This is an informal session focusing on the idea of how a collective of storytellers could develop a collaborative, communal, creative space (outside or adjacent to the academy). We will discuss the logistics of constructing such a space, which could sustain communities of artists, artworkers, creatives, researchers and academics, working together at the intersection of dynamic identities from across the Pacific Ocean. Throughout the panel, we will examine the history of the development of such spaces and their expressions (which come into conversation as writings, artworks, or community conversations) and the urgent need for this particular type of space in this moment. As storytellers, we are in direct conversation with the dimensions of space and time, using our stories (which travel with us) to pierce and permeate the colonial boundaries that have constrained the erection of such spaces. Similarly, we explore what possibilities exist as a result of developing this collective framework, while holding moving histories together in dialogue with a platform inclusive of mobile communities (or individuals) for future generations.

Emerging Scholars Talanoa
Convenor: Alexis Tucker-Sade (atuckersade@miracosta.edu)

Abstract: This informal session is an ongoing session in collaboration with the Mana Program at MiraCosta College. Our goal is to provide emerging scholars (undergraduate and early graduate students) with the opportunity to actively participate in ASAO. Participants are welcomed to engage in any format including poetry, visual art, music, dance, spoken word, storytelling, and so forth. We welcome all to participate and attend our session.

Plurality in Pacific Human–Biosphere Futures

Convenor: Amanda Kearney (ajkearney@sdsu.edu)

Abstract: This informal session seeks to explore plurality in the Pacific, focused on the entanglement of environment, sustainability, health, legality, Indigenous authority, and human–biosphere futures. This informal session is inspired by questions that ask how plural modes of knowledge can reshape research, governance, and environmental decision-making in a region where climate change, sea-level rise, biodiversity loss, extraction, food insecurity, cultural heritage damage, and public-health challenges are increasingly interconnected.

The session hopes to progress a discussion that moves beyond ‘inclusion’ as a procedural ideal and instead examine plurality as a methodological, ethical, legal, and political condition. How can Indigenous knowledges, community observation, earth-system science, marine ecology, law, planetary health, spatial data, creative practice, and public communication be brought into rigorous and non-reductive relation? What forms of shared analytical authority are needed to address cascading environmental and social risks?

In the spirit of informality and uncertainty we can work with papers, provocations, case studies, collaborative presentations that engage plural science, Indigenous sovereignty, more-than-human relations, environmental justice, governance reform, intergenerational knowledge, risk assessment, and sustainable Pacific futures. The point is to challenge centre–periphery assumptions in knowledge production.

Navigating Empires, Migration, Gender, Reproduction and Sexual Health

Convenors: Sarah A. Smith (smithsa@oldwestbury.edu); Jenny Munro (jenny.munro@uq.edu.au); Ha'åni Lucia

Falo San Nicolas (haanisn@gmail.com); Nedine Songeni (nfsongeni@gmail.com)

Abstract: This informal session invites people who study or work on issues around reproductive and sexual health in Pacific Island communities and contexts to discuss research and/or advocacy approaches, key local issues, methods, cultural and theoretical concepts, or findings and experiences from their research. We are interested in the ways in which Pacific Island communities experience, negotiate, and access services for birthing, family-making, fertility, abortion, family planning, and sexually transmitted infections in the context of cultural meanings and expectations; gender; ethnic and/or class inequities; partner and family dynamics; stigma, shame, and bodily autonomy; and often-struggling public health systems created by outside actors. We seek to reflect on the ways in which these experiences are shaped by imperial and or colonial influences, policies and funding, Pacific Islander mobility, indigenous notions of health and well-being, and the cultural significance of reproduction.

In this informal session, we are seeking participants who want to share their work at varying stages, so that we may find common threads in the analyses of reproduction and sexual health in the region. If interested, please share a short bio including research interests (100 words or less), a brief description of the work you wish to share, and a working paper title for those who are a bit further along in their writing or analysis process. Please send to the organizers by October 15.

Teaching Te Moananui-ā-Kiwa/Kea

Convenors: Lisa Uperesa (uperesa@asianam.ucla.edu) and Alexander Mawyer (mawyer@hawaii.edu)

Abstract: In the wake of powerful currents around equity, justice, and futurity in Indigenous and Oceanian contexts, how are we now teaching Pacific worlds? How do we engage them from different disciplinary and epistemological locations within and beyond the university? What elements are now shaping how and what we teach? How does our approach to knowledges in and about the Oceania and the Pacific reflect, for example: disciplinary boundaries, frameworks, and marginalizations; connection to people and place; location within the university or beyond; and/or student populations and priorities? What kinds of teaching innovations are we engaged in? How are we connecting the leading edges and transformations in our teaching to ongoing work to advance decolonizing, Indigenizing and culturally and community sensitive and responsive moves in research? The 2024 informal session raised the issues of ethics of care, recognizing the diversity of Oceanian voices, bringing Pacific Studies into secondary and primary education, engaging embodied Pacific Studies, community-specific focus in contrast and complement to region-wide lenses and approaches, transformative curricula and pedagogical moves, and the everyday politics of institutions, among other threads. The 2025 working session welcomed a wide group of people and expertise, from many institutional, disciplinary, and geographic locations committed to and thinking critically about practice, while the 2026 session focused on a subset of papers speaking to Pacific Studies as a discipline that will move forward to publication.

For this 2027 informal session we invite people to continue to think with us about any and all of these topics or to bring others. For 2027 we are particularly interested in a wider cross-disciplinary conversation as we consider: What does it mean to be teaching Te Moananui-ā-Kiwa/Kea, however you are positioned, in this moment? What challenges and opportunities are we facing now and on the horizon? How are we approaching teaching Oceania from various institutional locations and disciplines, from across and beyond the Pacific?

Please feel free to reach out to either organizer in advance of the meeting.

Under, Over, and On Top of the Volcano: The Lure, Lore, and Science of Volcanoes in the Pacific

Convenor: Nancy Lutkehaus (lutkehau@usc.edu)

Abstract: Throughout history, volcanoes across the world have long been sites of fascination, terror, spirituality and creativity for people. Pacific volcanoes are no exception. From the fiery origins of the Hawai’ian islands—especially Kilauea—that inspired Epeli Hau’ofa’s canonical concept of Oceania as a “sea of islands” and the recent eruptions in the Tongan archipelago, to Werner Herzog’s film Into the Inferno (2016) and Sara Dosa’s Fire of Love (2022), Pacific Islanders and westerners alike have been enthralled by Pacific volcanoes. Given the prevalence and powerfulness of volcanoes and volcanic activity in Oceania, Pacific Islanders have mythologized, anthropomorphized, and sacralized Pacific volcanoes; while settler colonists have sought to tame them through scientific study, technology, and commodification, transforming their danger and pyrotechnics into tourist attractions. The material detritus of volcanoes, including lava, stone, and obsidian, have long been used by people to shape their environments. This informal session invites a range of interdisciplinary scholars, including anthropologists, archeologists, art historians, historians, cultural geographers, and environmental scientists, as well as artists and filmmakers interested in the comparative study of volcanoes to discuss the role of Pacific volcanoes in the social imaginary, environmental impact, and risk management on Pacific Island societies past and present. The session also welcomes vulcanologists and other natural scientists interested in the relationship between the scientific study of Pacific volcanoes and the social dynamics of people living near them. The goal of the session is to seek themes and topics of common interest in the comparative study of the role of Pacific volcanoes in human-non-human relationships, climate change, disaster, and the social imaginary past and present in the Pacific. Interested participants please contact Nancy at lutkehau@usc.edu.

Bibliography

Frierson, Pamela. 1991. The Burning Island: Myth and History in Volcano Country, Hawai’i. San Antonio, TX: Trinity University Press.
Johnson, Wally R, ed. 2013. Fire Mountains of the Islands: A History of Volcanic Eruptions and Disaster Management in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. ANU e Press.
Martin, Kier, 2013, The Death of the Big Men and the Rise of the Big Shots: Custom and Conflict in East New Britain.
Oppenheimer, Clive. 2023. Mountains of Fire: The Menace, Meaning, and Magic of Volcanoes. University of Chicago Press.
Torgerson, Eilin Holtan. 2022. Lavaland: Vernacular Seismology in Volatile Volcanic Environments in Puna, Hawai’i. PhD. University of Bergen.
Winchester, Simon. 2003. Krakatoa: the day the world exploded, August 27, 1883. NY: HarperCollins.

Weaving Connections: Mapping Histories and Futures of Pacific Research Methodologies
Convenors: Marcia Leenen-Young (m.leenen@auckland.ac.nz), Lana Lopesi, Marama Muru-Lanning, Lisa

Uperesa (uperesa@asianam.ucla.edu)

Abstract: Pacific Research Methodologies (PRM) have gone global, with Pacific ways of doing and being mobilised to tackle critical issues of international importance. By PRM, we are referring to the collection of complex and evolving research approaches developed and enacted by Pacific scholars and communities in the service of Pacific research needs and aspirations. PRM are now a recognised sub-field of scholarship, and while they may share principles, values, or practices, they are distinct strands of research methodologies whose framing and practice respond to the unique cultural contexts of different Pacific peoples. Grounded in Pacific knowledge systems, pushing back on colonial and extractive research practices, and responding to the call for culturally appropriate research approaches, PRM are shifting the contours of the research landscape in Aotearoa and abroad.

Connected to an existing project that aims to trace how PRM has become a distinct area of study; how particular locations, collaborations, and connections helped to shape the field; and to consider potential future directions (Weaving Connections: Mapping Histories and Futures of Pacific Research Methodologies funded by the Royal Society Marsden Fund), this double session facilitates a critical collective analysis, guided by linked but distinct questions.

Part I: Critical Reflections on Pacific Research Methodologies

How have intergenerational, disciplinary, and place-based relationships shaped the emergence of PRMs and how we use them?
What are the key interventions or contributions of PRM? How might we imagine future possibilities for them?
How has the understanding of ‘Pacific research’ and ‘Pacific researchers’ shifted over time?
Is “Pacific Research Methodologies” appropriate as an umbrella term? Is alternative language useful or necessary?

Part II: ASAO Genealogies

How might we trace the genealogies of thinking around Pacific research methodologies in and through ASAO panels and meetings? From watershed keynotes to slow collective thought development, how has the structure of meetings facilitated this work? What kinds of connections can we draw over time and space?
How has anthropology provided a fertile yet complicated ground for the development of innovative Pacific research practice and theoretical work?

Interested participants please contact Marcia Leenen-Young (m.leenen@auckland.ac.nz)