ASAO 2026 PRELIMINARY LIST OF SESSIONS

This list will be updated as the annual meeting approaches.

ASAO’s Collaboration and Reciprocity (CORE)

Program Convenors: Tēvita O. Kaʻili (tevita.kaili@byuh.edu) or Micah Van der Ryn (f.m.vanderryn@gmail.com)

Colonial Legacies, Bicultural Navigations, and Oceanian Creativity

Convenors: Jordan Prokosch-Chair (dr.jprokosch@gmail.com); Rolando Espanto-Co Chair (respanto07@gmail.com)

Pacific Diaspora
Convenor: Rolando Espanto (respanto07@gmail.com)

Pacific Equity or Western Equality? Electoral Rules and Other examples of Affirmative Action
Convenors: Serge Tcherkezoff (serge.tcherkezoff@gmail.com); Sandrine Sana-Chaillé de Néré (sandrine.sana@upf.pf)

Tāvāism – Contemporary Philosophy, Theory, Knowledge, and Practice
Convenors: Doug Dalton (daltondm@longwood.edu); Tēvita O. Ka‘ili (tevita.kaili@byuh.edu); Mike Poltorak (M.S.Poltorak@kent.ac.uk); Albert L. Refiti (albert.refiti@aut.ac.nz)

When Brownies Do Brown Things in Brown Spaces
Convenors: Jacs Forde (jacs.forde@vuw.ac.nz) and Kanauhea Wessels

2022-2032 International Decade of Indigenous Languages: Pacific Languages
Convenors: Tēvita Ka'ili (tevita.kaili@byuh.edu), #IndigPacificLanguages (2018pefikingi@gmail.com) 

Breakdown in Hela and Enga Province, Papua New Guinea
Convenors: Alex Golub (golub@hawaii.edu) and Michael Main (mmain1@unimelb.edu.au)

Care and Contested Bodies: Women’s well-being, health, and agency in Oceania
Convenor: Alexis Tucker Sade (atuckersade@miracosta.edu)

“Fixing” Peoples, Places, and Languages across the Pacific
Convenors: Kathleen C Riley (kriley1125@gmail.com) and Miki Makihara (miki.makihara@gmail.com)

Maps and Mapping in Oceania
Convenors: David Lipset (lipse001@umn.edu) and Josh Bell (BellJA@si.edu)

Mud
Convenors: Barbara Andersen (B.Andersen1@massey.ac.nz) and Jamon Halvaksz (jh2807@georgetown.edu)

Teaching Te Moananui-ā-Kiwa/Kea
Convenors: Lisa Uperesa (uperesa@asianam.ucla.edu) and Alexander Mawyer (mawyer@hawaii.edu)

Whispering into the void of grief: Exploring Pacific expressions, connections and outpouring of love for our passed loved ones
Convenor: Sarah McLean-Orsborn (s.mclean-orsborn@auckland.ac.nz)

Conspiracy Thinking in the Pacific
Convenors: Michael French Smith (tauramat@gmail.com) and Roger Lohmann (rogerlohmann@trentu.ca)

Labour Mobility and the Reconfiguration of Pacific Worlds
Convenors: Victoria Stead (victoria.stead@deakin.edu.au), Sa’iliemanu Liliomaiava-Doktor, Makiko Nishitani

Middlemen and Brokers in Oceania Revisited
Convenors: Monica Minnegal, (mmam@unimelb.edu.au); John Cox (john.cox1@unimelb.edu.au)