Commemorative book on the University of the South Pacific launched
The book A University for the Pacific: 50 Years of USP chronicles the journey of Fiji’s USP and its contribution to the development of its member countries. It was presented to the President of Fiji, Jioji Konrote, and to their Royal Highnesses, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, during their recent visit.
Associate Professor Leckie, who is a social anthropologist, completed the book during her Fellowship at the Stout Research Centre, which she was awarded earlier this year. “USP is an enduring and successful regional institution in which New Zealand continues to play a pivotal role,” she says.
Associate Professor Leckie has a strong interest in the Pacific. Her project at the Stout Research Centre examines the entanglement of indigenous Pacific cultures and New Zealand colonial health practices, policy and discourse. It explores the development of colonial psychiatry in former New Zealand Pacific territories, and biomedical and indigenous treatments of Pacific peoples with mental disorders.
Associate Professor Leckie’s years of interdisciplinary research and publications on the history and anthropology of New Zealand and the Pacific, in particular health, gender, migration and diaspora, ethnicity, colonialism, development, and labour, stood her in good stead while preparing this book. The book also contains reflections by some alumni and staff of USP. A copy of the book has been donated to the Stout Centre library and it will be available in the main library in due course.