Centre for Pacific Studies (CPS)

Description

The Centre for Pacific Studies (CPS), internationally acclaimed for its research, teaching, public engagement, and impact, is a unique institution in the UK. Since 2008, CPS has been instrumental in Oceania-based research, fostering international collaborations across Europe and Pacific research institutions. Despite St Andrews' geographical distance from the Pacific, CPS actively foregrounds Pacific peoples' concerns and ideas. It boasts a growing alumni of doctorate holders, including two individuals from Papua New Guinea, and collaborates on research projects with Pacific region partners, particularly in Fiji, Hawai'i, Papua New Guinea, and Samoa.

CPS has made significant contributions to developing research-policy knowledge exchanges with international and regional development and governance agencies, grounded in Pacific perspectives and social science evidence. The Pacific Connections series, a collection of accessible research-policy and public engagement events, showcases the contemporary realities of Pacific peoples' lives and the potential of academic research.

The CPS's research objectives centre on the peoples and cultures of the Pacific and Melanesia regions, which have significantly influenced social anthropology's history. The first successful implementation of participant observation, a long-term, immersive fieldwork method, occurred here. Early participant observation studies fuelled the development of foundational anthropological concepts such as kinship, gender, knowledge varieties, politics, and gift-based economies. Many pioneering ethnographic studies, including Malinowski's 'Argonauts of the Western Pacific', found their roots in these regions.

The ingenuity of Pacific peoples' interactions with global phenomena like colonialism, Christianity, capitalism, and development continues to shape the discipline. These interactions are now recognised sources of theoretical creativity in global anthropological theory. The region offers unparalleled research opportunities across all areas in contemporary anthropology. The CPS aims to promote studies of the region with a focus on anthropological research. The centre has a broad interest in Pacific phenomena, including historical variation, religions, languages, politics, literature, art, public and domestic rituals, kinship, and household organisation, and law. In essence, it explores every facet of social relations found in the region.

Offers funding

No, this infrastructure does not provide funding.

Founding year

2008

Contact details

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University affiliation(s)

University of St Andrews
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St Andrews
KY16 9AJ