Session reports for 2008 Meeting

Special Session: Research in West New Britain: Then and Now

Organizer: Naomi McPherson (University of British Columbia, Okanagan)

Organizers:  Ty P. Kawika Tengan (University of Hawai`i at Manoa), Tevita O. Ka`ili ( Brigham Young University - Hawai`i), and and Rochelle Tuitagava`a Fonoti (University of Washington)

Symposium: "From the Native's Point of View," Revisited: On the Problem of "Empathy" in the Pacific

Organizers: C. Jason Throop (UCLA) and Douglas W. Hollan (UCLA)

Working Session: Constructing Human Difference in Oceania, 1500-1900

Organizers: Bronwen Douglas (RSPAS, ANU) and Chris Ballard (RSPAS, ANU)

Working Session: Diaspora, Identity and Incorporation

Organizers: Michael Lieber (University of Illinois), Alan Howard (Honolulu) and Jan Rensel (CPIS, University of Hawai'i)

Working Session: En/gendering Violence in Oceania

Organizers: Dorothy Counts (University of Waterloo/Okanagan University College) and Christine Stewart (Australian National University)

Working Session: Imagination and Innovation in Pacific Oceania

Organizer: Roger Ivar Lohmann (Trent University)

Working Session: Indigenous Struggles and Issues in Oceania Today

Organizers: Marie Salaun (Universite de Paris 5 - Sorbonne) and Natacha Gagne (University of Ottawa)

Working Session: Mortuary Rites in the Pacific

Organizers: David Lipset (University of Minnesota) and Eric Silverman (Wheelock College)

Working Session: Schooling the Nation(s): Vernacular Education, Nation Building and Cultural Identity in Oceania

Organizers: John Wagner (University of British Columbia - Okanagan) and Ali Pomponio (St. Lawrence University)

Working Session: Translations and Transformations of Sensual Experiences in Oceania [Postponed to 2009]

Organizer: Bettina Beer (Universitat Heidelberg)

Informal Session: Agency of the Past in Melanesia: Relating the Past to the Present [Postponed to 2009]

Organizers: Lissant Bolton (The British Museum) and Liz Bonshek (The British Museum)

Informal Session: Kava in Australasia

Organizers: Grant McCall (University of New South Wales) and Shane G. Aporosa (Massey University)

Informal Session: Christian Politics

Organizer: Matt Tomlinson (Monash University)

Informal Session: Community Development as Fantasy

Organizer: Penelope Schoeffel (UNESCO)

Informal Session: Dumont in the Pacific

Organizers: Serge Tcherkezoff (CREDO) and Joel Robbins (University of California, San Diego)

Informal Session: History and Movement in the Southern Lowlands of New Guinea

Organizers: Mark Busse (University of Auckland) and Joshua A. Bell (University of East Anglia)

Informal Session: Identity Issues and Ethno-racial Categorization in the Pacific

Organizer: Pauline McKenzie Aucoin (Carleton University)

Informal Session: Obesity and Oceania

Organizer: Margaret Mackenzie (California College of the Arts)

Informal Session: Pacific Pasts: Agency, Archive, and Artifact

Organizers: Kathy Creely (University of California, San Diego) and Deborah Waite (University of Hawai'i - Manoa)

Informal Session: Remembering Donald Tuzin

Organizers: Kathy Creely (University of California, San Diego) and Mark Busse (University of Auckland)

Proposed Informal Session: Research on Austronesian Taiwan: Retrospect and Prospect

Organizer: Kun-hui Ku (National Tsing-Hua University)