Risk and Renewal in the Pacific

The Pacific covers one third of the Earth’s surface, consisting of thousands of islands from New Guinea to Rapa Nui (Easter Island). These epicentres of cultural, biological and linguistic diversity have been central to understanding human socio-political life, the organisation of the natural world, and their dynamic interplay. Geopolitically, the Pacific also occupies a pivotal location: from being a central conduit of early human migration and trade, to a major theatre of war in the twentieth century, to the present, where it is strategically located in the global response to the rise of China and concomitant political and economic ‘pivot to Asia’. In the current age of global existential risk, the Pacific is once again at the frontline of worldwide challenges including those posed by climate change, economic inequality, inter-ethnic conflict, disease epidemics including HIV and tuberculosis, cultural heritage destruction, and language extinction.

This interdisciplinary network will bring together researchers from a range of disciplines within humanities, social and natural sciences to explore the topic of risk in the Pacific. This may include, but is not limited to, work on ecological change, gender relations, indigenous knowledges, global health and epidemiology, religious change and value transformation, shifts in human settlement patterns, society – state relations, cultural heritage management, cosmology and ritual life, food security, inter-ethnic relations, extractive industries, linguistic change, colonial histories, new forms of urbanism, development and infrastructure, education, tourism, and museum collection, exhibition and repatriation. Understanding risk and renewal in the Pacific, and the social and environmental transformations they engender, highlights broader global challenges and allows us to formulate new ideas and responses.