The conference will be hosted by the University of Bergen’s Pacific Studies group, Department of Social Anthropology and Bergen University Museum.

In 2012 we shall be celebrating the first twenty years of ESfO conferences. We do this by commemorating the enduring significance of Oceania in global trajectories of history, ideas, politics, economy and ecology. We invite participants and panels to reflect on the unique position of the region with regard to its cultural and linguistic diversity, its ecological and geographical distinctness, and its particular position as a region full of experiments and experiences with social formations.

We encourage participants to consider the shifting values and imaginations in and of the social worlds of Oceanic peoples. Importantly, we ask participants to consider the political, economic and moral alternatives that Oceania continues to represent in relation to the contemporary world.

The conference aspires to expand understandings of the ways in which Oceania continues to deliver materials, in the widest sense, to the wider world:
•        resource materials of economic and ecological significance
•        political materials that convey alternatives and challenges to current models of social
         organization and of nation, statehood and democracy
•        artistic and visual materials that evoke the cultural vibrancy of the Pacific
•        religious materials that engage Christian images in localized
•        concerns

In short: materials for thought in the wider world.

From a pluralist agenda we wish to bring to the forefront indigenous knowledge and aesthetics, and we encourage interdisciplinary dialogues between anthropology, linguistics, art history, media studies, archaeology, history, political science, biology and other fields.

We also anticipate studies that take the pulse of unfolding contemporary phenomena such as: 
-         religious and moral innovations
-         the structure of post- or neo-colonial relations
-         institutional processes of recognition or intervention
-         indigenous movements of  political, economic or religious character
-         differently scaled ideas of nationalisms
-         effects of internet and mobile connectedness
-         emerging cosmopolitanism and class
-         performative strategies and tactics in global relations

By addressing the power of the Pacific as well as Pacific powers we hope the responses will be plentiful, wide-ranging and challenging. We trust they will inspire you all to come to Bergen with an open mind and interact with the international community of Oceanists. It will be an opportunity to engage in full with the complexity and creativity of the Pacific region.

The Bergen conference will feature the Sir Raymond Firth Memorial Lecture, plenary speakers and panels, stunning performances of Pacific art, Norwegian seasonal cuisine, warm wood fires, as well as post-conference skiing and excursions.

We are looking forward to welcoming you to Bergen in December 2012.