Gender and Person in Oceania, October 1-2, 2011, The Australian National University

This workshop is a collaboration between the ARC Laureate project Engendering Persons, Transforming Things led by Professor Margaret Jolly and the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales-ANU Pacific Dialogues project led by Professor Serge Tcherkézoff. It brings together a range of early and mid-career researchers from across Australia working in Oceania with Professor Irène Théry from EHESS in France and researchers from New Caledonia. Presentations will address the following themes:
–         Contending notions of gender as an attribute of the person or a mode of sociality
–         The co-presence and dialectical tensions between models of the person as ‘dividuals’/relational persons versus individuals
–         How best to understand the situation of transgendered persons in Oceania
–         The influence of Christianities and commodity economics on gender and personhood
–         Changing patterns of intimacy, domesticity and marriage
–         Women’s role in conflicts, peace and Christianities in the region
–         The significance of mobility and new technologies of modernity
Papers presented will traverse many countries: the Cook Islands, Fiji, French Polynesia, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu. The program is listed over. The emphasis will be on dialogue and debate: short papers of c. 15 minutes are paired in panels and discussion time will be long. This workshop is free and open to all but registration is required for catering purposes, by Friday September 23, by email to nicholas.mortimer@anu.edu.au