Meeting to build Relations across Pacific

Unprecedented meeting of minds to build International Relations across Pacific

The single largest International Relations conference New Zealand has ever hosted is set to begin later this month.

The University of Auckland and Victoria University of Wellington are jointly hosting the fourth Oceanic Conference on International Studies (OCIS) which aims to build the international studies research community across Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific and beyond.

Open to the public, the conference is attracting nearly 350 speakers from across the globe. Specialists from the Pacific, South East Asia, North Asia, the Middle East, North and South America, Europe and Africa will be in Auckland for the three-day conference this June.

Senior lecturer and conference co-convenor, Dr Jacqui True says: “With a programme just shy of 300 presentations, OCIS is the most significant international relations research opportunity this country has staged. It is an unprecedented meeting of the minds for our region with very strong Pacific representation.”

“The multidisciplinary conference stays true to the original OCIS objectives of advancing a pluralistic regional community of international studies scholars by offering discussion on a plenitude of broad themes,” say Dr True.

Conference themes include: Aid and Development; America and the World; Asia-Pacific and East Asian Politics and International Relations; Europe and the World; Gender and Feminism; Global Crises, Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding; Global Governance; Indigenous Politics; International History; International Relations Theory; Justice and Rights; The Future of Multilateralism; Postcolonialism; Regions and Regionalism; Scholarship, Policy-making, and Activism; and Sovereignty and Security Issues.

Key note speakers at the conference include: renowned feminist international relations theorist, Professor Ann Tickner from the School of International Relations at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, presenting on overcoming religious, cultural and civilisational differences in international relations; and Dr Claire Slatter, a Senior Lecturer in Social Sciences at the new Fiji National University and founding member and former General Chairperson of DAWN (Development Alternatives for Women in a New Era) specialising in Pacific regionalisms and feminist development.

This conference builds on the successful legacy of OCIS I-III. The inaugural OCIS conference was held at the Australian National University in 2004 and it has subsequently been hosted by the University of Melbourne (2006) and the University of Queensland (2008).

One day registration will be offered on site at The University of Auckland Business School for each of the three days of the conference. All are well come to register and join the conference. See the conference website www.ocis.org.nz

ENDS

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