Current Research and Writing: Rituals of Decolonization

This curent project brings together my ongoing interest in ritual and the making of history with my field and archival research on decolonizing politics in the Pacific.

Representative publication: "Blood on the Grass and Dogs will Speak: Ritual Politics and the Nation in Post-Colonial Fiji"
                            in Robert Foster, ed. Nation Making in Postcolonial Melanesia. Ann Arbor: University of
                            Michigan Press, 1995.

      2002     Summer field research, Drauniivi village, field and archival research, Suva.

Post-Doctoral research on British colonial culture in India

Research on the early nineteenth century colonial project of Mountstuart Elphinstone in Maharashtra. Focusses on colonial use of questionnaires to consider the relationship between the establishment of colonial control and the creation of knowledge.

Representative publication: "Panopticon in Poona: An Essay on Foucault and Colonialism." Culutral Anthropology 1995,
                              vol 10 (1) 85-98.

      1990     Archival research, Pune, Maharashtra; visits to archives in Delhi and Bombay;
                  language study (Marathi); travel (6 months). Supported by an American Institute
                  of Indian Studies Scholarly Development grant.

Doctoral and Post-Doctoral research in Fiji

Doctoral research on the Fijian Tuka movement, post-doctoral research on ritual, politics, nationalism in post-colonial and post-military coups Fiji.

Representative publication: Neither Cargo Nor Cult (Duke University Press, 1995).

      1991     Field research, Drauniivi village, field and archival research, Suva (2 months).
                  Supported by a grant from the Wenner Gren Foundation for Anthropological
                  Research and a Faculty Research Grant from Vassar College.
      1986     Ethonohistorical study of 19th century Tuka movement ritual sites with archaeologist
                  colleague, Ra Province (6 weeks). Supported by a grant from the Institute for
                  Intercultural Studies.
      1984-85 Fieldwork in Drauniivi village, Ra Province, among descendants of Tuka leaders
                  and participants (8 months).
                Archival research, fieldwork on national culture, participant observation in urban
                  Fijian and Indo-Fijian communities, Suva (10 months).
                Archival research in Australia and New Zealand (2 months).
                  1984-85 research was supported by a Department of Education Fulbright-Hays
                  Dissertation Fellowship and National Science Foundation #BNS-10781.
      1982     Preliminary travel, archival research (6 weeks).