[ANU Pacific.Institute] FW: PhD TPR Seminar: Opening roads through kastom: vernacular diplomacies in Vanuatu (10 February 2023)

[CAP Partnerships]

Dear ANU Pacific Institute subscribers,

Below event may be of interest to you.

Kind regards,
Yanhong


Yanhong Ouyang

Coordinator, Regional Institutes, Partnerships and Engagement
ANU College of Asia & the Pacific
Room 1.121,  9 Fellows Road, HC Coombs Building
The Australian National University
Canberra ACT 2600

+61 2 6125 1169
yanhong.ouyang at anu.edu.au<mailto:yanhong.ouyang at anu.edu.au>
asiapacific.anu.edu.au<https://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/>

CRICOS Provider 00120C


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[Australian National University]
PhD Thesis Proposal Review
[https://files.outfit.io/media_library_items/472711/Mota%2520Lava%2520Treaty%2520Ceremony%25202016.png]
You are invited to CHL PhD Candidate Anna Naupa's Thesis Proposal Review:


Opening roads through kastom: vernacular diplomacies in Vanuatu


Time: 9:30am–11:00am
Date: Friday, 10 February 2023
Venue: Online via Zoom<https://anu.zoom.us/j/87578867864?pwd=cXBFYm9aaUQxd29MdG5MbXpQMDlRZz09>
Meeting ID: 875 7886 7864
Meeting Password: 487950

The metaphor of ‘kastom roads’ is a common feature in the description of many Melanesian cultural systems. The ways in which ‘roads’ signal allegiances, facilitate connections and broker negotiations between political communities offer insights into vernacular diplomacies that have endured from periods prior to European contact through to contemporary practice. However, the reproduction of vernacular diplomacies in state-led diplomatic settings and spaces for kastom ways of engaging between different groups across boundaries – from local to international arenas – are little understood. This thesis proposes to challenge the state-centric definition of diplomacy in Pacific and Melanesian contexts, using multicultural, pluralistic Vanuatu as a research focus. Through the development of case studies, the thesis aims to understand conceptualisations of kastom at scale, and its practice across boundaries, to identify models of vernacular diplomacies.

Amongst the questions to be addressed in this thesis are the following: How do Vanuatu/Melanesian cultural systems manage inter-community relationships and engage with each other at their boundaries, at a range of scales, from community to island, and more recently from province to state? How have scale and group identity been historically conceptualized, and how does this shape contemporary group relationships? What are the principles and structures that have generated or allowed for peaceful relationships and the resolution of conflict within and between Vanuatu/Melanesian societies? How might these models help to understand vernacular forms of diplomacy, and can these be scaled to provincial and state-based levels to meet the demands of inter-community and trans-boundary negotiations?

Anna suggests that the concept of ‘kastom roads’, employed in many Melanesian cultural systems, provides a useful framework for understanding the way in which inter-group allegiances and connections are brokered across different types of political boundaries. This has implications for a more comprehensive understanding of diplomacy in the Pacific.
For more information, contact
Anna.Naupa at anu.edu.au <mailto:Anna.Naupa at anu.edu.au>
The Australian National University,
Canberra

TEQSA Provider ID: PRV12002
(Australian University)

CRICOS Provider : 00120C
ABN : 52 234 063 906
[Australian National University]


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