CENTRE FOR PACIFIC STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF NIJMEGEN, THE NETHERLANDS The Centre for Pacific Studies (CPS) at the University of Nijmegen, the Netherlands, was established in September 1991. Developed from the former Centre for Australian and Oceanic Studies, the CPS has an interdisciplinary character and covers Oceania and Southeast Asia. As a result of national agreements within the discipline of cultural anthropology in the Netherlands, the CPS carries a special responsibility for the promotion of Oceanic studies within the Netherlands. The Centre defines Oceania as including the Pacific Islands, Papua New Guinea, Irian Jaya, Australia and New Zealand. At the University of Nijmegen and within the context of the research institutes and research schools in which the CPS is embedded (see below), the Centre also coordinates research in Southeast Asia. The Centre aims to advance basic and applied research in the regions mentioned. In addition, it offers regular courses and coordinates teaching programmes within its fields of interest, while it also provides information about these regions. To further these ends, the Centre initiates and promotes research of both senior and junior staff, provides a platform for discussion, exchanges information on ongoing research, and organizes regular workshops, conferences, seminars and exhibitions. By Toon van Meijl The staff consists of anthropologists, legal anthropologists, development sociologists, geographers, historians, and linguists at the University of Nijmegen and at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen. At present 25 senior and 14 junior staff are working at or affiliated to the Centre. RESEARCH The research programmes of the Centre for Pacific Studies include: colonial and post-colonial developments in the South Pacific; anthropology of law in Indonesia; rural and economic development in Southeast Asia; Asian plantation societies; women in post-colonial societies; ethnic minorities in Southeast Asia and the Pacific area; and spatial conceptualization and shape discrimination in Australia and Melanesia. These research programmes have been initiated and carried out by staff from the Departments of anthropology, development studies, international law, and geography, as well as at the Cognitive Anthropology Research Group of the Max Planck Institute. The Centre is affiliated to the Nijmegen Institute for Comparative Studies in Development and Cultural Change (NICCOS) and the Centre for Resources Studies (CERES). In the field of Southeast Asian and Oceanic Studies it cooperates closely with the Centre for Non-Western Studies (CNWS), the Centre for Asian Studies in Amsterdam (CASA), and the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS). Internationally the Centre for Pacific Studies has close contacts with a number of other institutions in Europe, Southeast Asia, Australia, and the South Pacific. Members of the CPS participate in ongoing research projects of the department of anthropology of the Australian National University, in Canberra; the Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines; the University of Tokyo; Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, and the 'Irian Jaya Studies Project' of the University of Leiden, The Netherlands. TEACHING The research topics of the Centre for Pacific Studies have become integrated into the teaching programmes of the various departments affiliated to it, both at graduate and undergraduate levels. The Centre supervises MA and PhD research in Southeast Asia and Oceania and organizes courses related to this research. DOCUMENTATION The Centre has established a Documentation Centre which aims to provide students, staff, and others with information on ongoing research in the Oceanic region. An electronic mail discussion list (CPS-L) has also been established for members of the Centre for Pacific Studies and others. NEWSLETTER The Centre publishes a Newsletter of Pacific Studies, entitled Oceania Newsletter, which appears twice a year. This Newsletter includes progress reports on research projects of members and affiliated members of the CPS as well as short articles on topical issues concerning the Pacific. It also contains announcements of workshops, seminars, conferences, and exhibitions on the Pacific, and a list of recent publications on Oceania (including Australia). An electronic version of the Oceania Newsletter can be accessed through CPS-L. PUBLICATIONS The Centre has a publication series which include monographs and proceedings of conferences. Recent publications are: 1989: Paul Haenen and Jan Pouwer (eds.), Peoples on the Move: current themes of anthropological research in New Guinea 1991: Kenneth Maddock (ed.), Identity, Land and Liberty: Studies in the Fourth World 1991: Ton Otto, The Politics of Tradition in Baluan: social change and the construction of the past in a Manus society 1991: Toon van Meijl, Political Paradoxes and Timeless Traditions: ideology and development among the Tainui Maori, New Zealand 1993: Eric Venbrux, Under the Mango Tree: a case of homicide in an Australian Aboriginal society BOARD At present the board of the Centre consists of Ad Borsboom (chairman), Toon van Meijl (academic secretary), Ton Otto (research coordinator), Paul van der Grijp, Gerrit Huizer, Frans Hsken, Ton van Naerssen, Gunter Senft, and Herman Slaats. The editor of the Oceania Newsletter is Eric Venbrux. The coordinator of the Documentation Centre is Ren van der Haar. More information on the Centre's activities and its research and teaching programmes can be obtained through: Centre for Pacific Studies (attention of Academic Secretary) University of Nijmegen P.O. Box 9108 6500 HK Nijmegen The Netherlands Phone: +31-80-615579/612361 (secr.) Fax: +31-80-611945 E-mail: u211312@vm.uci.kun.nl