This research-intensive course explores the encounters between Oceanic and Western models, values, and embodied experiences of gender and sexuality. The course examines the debates about universalism and relativism, nature and culture, and personhood and identity, in understanding the differences between women, men, and transgendered persons. The course takes a historical and anthropological approach to examine the transformations of patterns of gender and sexuality in the Pacific through the successive encounters of exploratory voyages, Christian missions, labour trade and plantation development, World War II and militarism, mobility and the diaspora. Key thematic areas will include contemporary debates about women’s influence and participation in church and state; gendered economies, kinship and land; transnational and regional feminisms and human rights; gender violence; gender, sexuality, health and HIV; and gender and sexual identities. The course will integrate readings and performances of literature, drama, and visual media by both Oceanic and foreign authors and artists. Indigenous Pacific Islander approaches to engaging and learning about Oceania are highlighted. The course draws upon the extensive academic expertise at ANU in gender and Pacific studies and is especially suitable for students of anthropology, history, politics, gender, sexuality and culture, Pacific studies, and development studies in both CAP and CASS. It will focus on Fiji, PNG, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu but offer comparisons across Oceania.