Pacific History Association
Early Career Researchers’ Month Webinar Series
The Pacific History Association’s HDR Webinar series will take place every Thursday of April 2025, ahead of the association’s conference in December 2025. Sessions will be held over Zoom from 9am to 10am NZST.
Session 1 — Empires, (de)colonisation and settlements
Thursday 3 April 2025
Sarah Maria NOSKE (Justus Liebig University Giessen & Université Clermont Auvergne)
— “Navigating Imperial Webs in Southern New Zealand: Ruapuke Island between the 1820s and 1844”
Sonya SCHOENBERGER (Stanford University)
— “Oceanic Sovereignties: Decolonization, Law of the Sea Negotiations, and the Rise of Large Ocean States”
Session 2 — Sovereignties and power in the French Pacific
Thursday 10 April 2025
Clara FILIPPI (Université de la Polynésie Française & Université de Louvain)
—“New Caledonia: what interpretations of the past should be encouraged when so many pieces of the puzzle are missing?”
Claudia LEDDERUCCI (Università di Torino)
—“From tracking military traces to re-tracing sovereign pathways in Mā’ohi Nui/ French Polynesia”
Session 3 — The Pacific : a Japanese lake ?
Thursday 17 April 2025
Agnese DIONISIO (Waseda University)
—“Beyond the Imperial Narrative: Remembering Japanese Colonization in Chuuk State (1914-1945)”
SeungHyeon PYO (University of Hawai’i at Mānoa)
—“Epistemological Shift Towards Reductionism in Late Tokugawa Japan: A Study of Kaitai Shinsho and Jūtei Kaitai Shinsho”
Session 4 — Pacific scholars and academia
Thursday 24 April 2025
Franck ENJUANES (Aix-Marseille Université)
—“Trade, mission and guns in Melanesia - A tribute to Dorothy Shineberg’s work”
Anna KENT (Deakin University)
—“What can scholarships tell us about Australia’s relationship with Pacific Island Countries?”
Early Career Researchers’ Month Webinar Series coordinators
Jonathan RITCHIE (Deakin University)
jonathan.ritchie@deakin.edu.au
Yacine BENHALIMA (Université de la Polynésie Française & Victoria University of Wellington)
yacine.benhalima@vuw.ac.nz
Edward PINFIELD (King’s College London)
edward.pinfield@kcl.ac.uk
PHA Researchers Across COVID Seas: Past Webinars coordinated by Helen Gardner and Jacqui Leckie.
Thursday 10 November 2022:
"Rethinking Culture, History and Gender Relations in Solomon Islands". By Anna Kwai, PhD candidate, Australian National University. [No recording available]
Thursday 13 October 2022:
"USP student research roundup: in honour of Brij V. Lal". By Sonia Soakai and Eroki Rakuita, MA Candidates, USP. Chaired by Nicholas Halter (University of the South Pacific). [No recording available]
Wednesday 7 September 2022:
"Indigenous Feminist History: Futurities, Relationalities, and CHamoru Placental Politics". By Associate Professor Tina Taitano DeLisle (University of Minnesota - Twin Cities). Click here for a video recording
Friday 12 August 2022:
"Mining Futurities: Imagined Futures for the Pacific’s Three Great Phosphate Islands". By Dr Nicholas Hoare (Department of Pacific Affairs, Australian National University). Click here for a video recording
Thursday 7 July 2022:
"People’s Histories of Christianities: Towards reStorying Pacific Church History". By
Associate Professor Gladson Jathanna (Pacific Theological College, Suva). Click here for a video recording
12 November 2020:
"Decolonisation Interrupted: West Papuan Campaign for Independence 1961-69". By Emma Kluge (University of Sydney). Click here for a video recording
8 October 2020:
" 'A Time Bomb Lies Buried': The Road to and From Fijian Independence". By Emeritus Professor Brij V. Lal (Australian National University). Click here for a video recording
10 September 2020:
"Popular Culture and the Beginning of Cinema Culture in Western Samoa". By Dr Louise Mataia Milo (National University of Samoa). Click here for a video recording
15 August 2020:
"In search of a solution to the problem of resolving the succession to the Vanua title of the Vunivalu of the Yavusa of Sovatabua – Natewa, Vanua Levu, Fiji Islands." By Tuinawi Rakuita, Eroni Rakuita, Sevanaia Sakai, and Morgan Tuimaleali’ifano (The University of the South Pacific). [No recording available]