The ANU has a long tradition of intensive engagement with the Pacific region. Since its inception in 1946, the Research School of Pacific Studies, now the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific has been the leading centre for Pacific Studies in Australia.

The Pacific Institute celebrates the many and varied partnerships the ANU has enjoyed with Pacific Islanders over the past 60 years; in recent decades supported by university’s Pacific Islands Liaison Centre, Centre for the Contemporary Pacific, and Pacific Centre. The ANU Pacific Institute builds and expands upon these earlier initiatives, working through and on behalf of the collective strength of its members.

The Institute promotes and sponsors seminars, workshops and conferences related to the Pacific, hosts visitors from the region, and helps to coordinate university’s outreach and engagement with organisations, education and research institutions and governments across the Pacific Islands.

Structure and membership

The Institute consists of its members and a broadly representative Board that elects two Convenors on a biannual basis. The Board is led by its Co-Convenors and guided by the Constitution of the ANU Pacific Institute. The Institute’s members are found in almost all Colleges of the ANU, from the physical and biological sciences to health, law, the social sciences and humanities.

Members of the Pacific Institute must have a clear and current affiliation with the ANU and a stated interest in the Pacific islands. They may be ANU academic or general staff, undergraduate or postgraduate students or visiting fellows. The Institute’s membership currently includes 136 staff, 109 postgraduate students, 52 visiting fellows and seven ANU undergraduate students pursuing a major in Pacific Studies.

If you satisfy the membership criteria and would like to become a member then please email one of the Pacific Institute convenors. If you would like to join the Pacific Institute mailing list (non-members are welcome as well) then please sign up here.