Contact Profile Address

Dr Debra McDougall

Australian Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Anthropology and Sociology

Research Interests

• Religion, anthropology of
• Christianity
• Globalisation
• Gender
• Linguistic anthropology
• Pacific Islands (especially Melanesia and Solomon Islands)

Qualifications:

BA <em>Penn</em>. MA PhD <em>Chic</em>.

Teaching:

At UWA, I am teaching Anthropology of Religion. The unit exams religion in small-scale societies as well as the globalization of world religions like Christianity and Islam. It also aims to use past and present theoretical approaches to evaluate religious phenomena closer to home.
Prior to coming to UWA, I taught several different courses in anthropology and social theory at the University of Notre Dame (USA) and the University of Chicago.

Key Research and Expertise:

My interests include the globalization of Christianity, religion, and political economy, with a geographic focus on the Pacific Islands.


Current Projects:

Christianity, conflict, and culture:
An anthropological investigation of the political role of churches in Solomon Islands
This ARC-funded Discovery project begins with the premise that an analysis of contemporary Christianity is critical for understanding political struggles and military conflicts in the Solomon Islands and other Pacific Islands nations. Religion in this predominantly Christian region informs not only beliefs about the nature of the world and rules for proper behaviour, but realms of life usually considered secular such as land tenure, conflict management, and economic aspirations. During the period of crisis that wracked the Solomon Islands from 1998 until the regional intervention of 2003, churches brought citizens together to call for peace; in rural areas, churches continued to be the focus of community life and helped to maintain social order in the absence of a state presence. In coming years, I will be doing fieldwork in rural and urban areas of the Solomon Islands in order to examine how different Christian denominations mediate relations between local communities and national or global actors. I will also be investigating the role of churches in emergent urban civil society movements.

A fuller description of the project is available here: http://www.anthropology.arts.uwa.edu.au/__data/page/135814/ARC_ProjDescription.pdf


Future Research:

In addition to new postdoctoral research on churches in the Solomons, I am working on a book manuscript that focuses on how some residents of this troubled and highly diverse nation engage with those they consider foreign.



Previous Positions:

Visiting Assistant Professor, University of Notre Dame (Indiana, USA), 2004-2006

Preceptor, Program in International Studies, University of Chicago, 2003-2004

Lecturer, Department of Anthropology and Social Science Collegiate Division, University of Chicago 2004.


Memberships:

Australian Anthropological Society
American Anthropological Association
American Ethnological Society
Society for the Anthropology of Religion


Publications:

2008 (forthcoming). “Christian dilemmas beyond locality,” Current Anthropology 49 (5).

2008. “Religious institutions as alternative structures in post-conflict Solomon Islands: Cases from the Western Province,” State, Society, and Governance in Melanesia Project Discussion Paper Series, 2008/5, Canberra: Australian National University.

2007 (with S. Albert, J. Udy, G. Baines). “Dramatic tectonic uplift of fringing reefs on Ranongga Is., Solomon Islands,” Coral Reefs (“Online First” edition). (http://www.springerlink.com/content/22v15n7k4225h182/fulltext.html)

2006. "New Interventions, Old Asymmetries: Australia & the Solomon Islands," The New Critic, Issue 3, 2006, online (http://www.ias.uwa.edu.au/the_new_critic).

2005. "The Unintended Consequences of Clarification: Development, Disputing, and the Dynamics of Community in Ranongga, Solomon Islands," Ethnohistory 52 (1): 81-109.
(http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=15579582&site=ehost-live)

2003. "Fellowship and Citizenship as Models of National Community: United Church Women's Fellowship in Ranongga, Solomon Islands," Oceania 74 (1-2): 61-80.
(http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=rlh&AN=14084698&site=ehost-live)

2000. "Paths of Pinauzu: Captivity and Social Reproduction in Ranongga," Journal of the Polynesian Society 109 (1): 99-113.

New and Noteworthy:

In April 2007, the Western Province of the Solomons was devastated by an earthquake and tsunami. In October, Inia Barry and Silas Pio of the Kastom Garden Association and I visited the island of Ranongga, which was lifted several meteres out of the sea by the earthquake. Our draft report on the state of affairs six months after the earthquake is here: http://www.anthropology.arts.uwa.edu.au/__data/page/135814/Ranongga_DisasterRecovery_Oct07print.pdf

Languages:

Kubokota and Luqa (two Austronesian languages of the Solomons), Solomon Islands Pijin, German
•