This new Pacific Studies course introduces students to the Pacific through practical engagement with the islands. The emphasis is on integrating formal learning with first hand experience. The in-country work will include fieldtrips, practical assignments and formal classes and tutorials given by staff from ANU. The course focuses on understanding the complex relationships between development, tangible and intangible heritage and cultural production.
Students will have the opportunity to experience and contribute to practical issues in the culture and heritage field including the visual and performing arts, the environment, education, development and policy work. Where possible, students will be incorporated into related in-country research projects with the appropriate ethics approval and meeting the required OH&S standards.
The course involves 4-5 weeks of intensive teaching and field experience including preparatory lectures and workshops at ANU before departure for the Pacific. We seek to run it as a topics course with options for offerings in Fiji, Solomon Islands, Samoa, Vanuatu, Tonga, New Caledonia, French Polynesia, Hawai’i, Kiribati and Papua New Guinea.
Spring session, 2013, will be a field school in Samoa in partnership with the new Samoa Arts Council, the University of the South Pacific’s Oceania Center Polynesia Outreach Program and lecturers at the National University of Samoa. More information is available at https://studyat.anu.edu.au/courses/PASI3005;details.html
