USA - Collaborative Pacific Studies: University of Bergen and University of Hawai'i at Manoa

The present proposal lays the foundations for a long-term collaborative programme of research in the field of Pacific Studies between Norway and the USA. It takes as its starting point the general "Memorandum of Understanding on Student Exchange and Facu lty Cooperative Research" signed in 2003 by the University of Bergen (UoB), Norway and the University of Hawai'i at Manoa (UHM), USA, on mutual academic exchange and cooperation. The main focus of joint work under the MoU has been student mobility, althou gh considerable research contact has continued in Pacific Studies between individual UoB scholars and research groups at UHM. The activities proposed here aim to strengthen research relationships in Pacific Studies between the two universities. There has been surprisingly little sustained collaboration between European and US universities in this field, despite the region's significant geopolitical position between East and West. The UHM is the world's leading university in Pacific Studies, including rese arch on the societies, economies, cultures, histories, linguistics and natural environments of the island groups and nations of the Pacific. At the University of Bergen, Pacific Studies has in recent years seen an expansion from being an internationally o riented single-scholar agenda to becoming a significant research group based in the Department of Social Anthropology, adding to the global ambition of the UoB's strategic emphasis on development studies. The "Bergen Research Group in Pacific Studies" now wishes to institutionalize its long-standing connections to research groups at the UHM by developing a major joint project focussed on research themes of stated mutual interest at both universities, and topics of urgent relevance for present developments in the Pacific Islands region. The planned project, "Cultural Heritage and Political Innovation in the Pacific Islands" will involve scholars in anthropology, archaeology, history, and cultural studies.