INVITED SPEAKERS

Safua Akeli Amaama is the Head of the Department of Ethnology and Curator Oceania at the Übersee-Museum in Bremen. She is a historian and is the current President of the Pacific History Association. Formerly she worked at Te Papa Museum as Head of New Zealand Histories & Pacific Cultures and was the Director for the Centre for Samoan Studies at the National University of Samoa.

Victoria Campbell (Kāi Tahu) is a passionate advocate for te reo me ōna tikaka and the sharing of mātauraka Māori, with a particular focus on tātai aroraki (Māori astronomy). She is the General Manager of the Dark Sky Project in Takapō, where she plays a leading role in weaving Indigenous knowledge into contemporary stargazing experiences. Victoria also serves on the board of the Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve and has contributed nationally through her involvement in the government’s Matariki Advisory Group, which guided the establishment of the Matariki Public Holiday. Her work reflects a deep commitment to celebrating and sustaining Māori knowledge systems, both locally and nationally.

William “Matt” Cavert received his PhD from the University of Hawaiʻi Mānoa in the spring of 2022. His doctoral research focused on the intersection of environment, culture, and colonial development programs in the French colonial Pacific from 1842 to 1931. He has published articles on the Third Plague Pandemic and Spanish Influenza in the colonial ports of Nouméa and Papeʻete, respectively, with forthcoming work on phosphate mining in the French colonial Pacific and the intersection of invader species and narratives of decline in colonial discourse. He currently teaches courses on the history of disease, environment, and empire at the University of Hawaiʻi West Oʻahu.

Kerri A. Inglis has been teaching Hawaiʻi and Pacific Islands History at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo since 2005. She resides in Keaʻau on Hawaiʻi Island, but was born and raised in British Columbia, Canada. Inglis moved to the islands and earned a BA in History from BYU-Hawaiʻi (1993), then completed her MA at the Institute for the History & Philosophy of Science & Technology at the University of Toronto (1995), before returning to Hawaiʻi to pursue a doctorate in Hawaiian history – with complimentary fields in Pacific and World history – at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (2004).

Inglis’ research specialization is in the history of Hansen’s disease/leprosy, publishing her first book Ma‘i Lepera: disease and displacement in 19th century Hawai‘i with UH Press in 2013. She has presented her work locally and internationally, and has published in several journals – most articles dealing with Hansen's disease (including examinations of criminalization and stigma), epidemics, medical treatments, and community, with a focus on Hawaiʻi and the Pacific.

Inglis is currently working on a second book about the history of leprosy: Maʻi Hoʻokaʻawale ʻOhana [the disease that separates family]: Hansen’s Disease in Hawaiʻi, 1900-1969. She has also partnered with Kalaupapa National Historical Park over the years for research projects that involve undergraduate students developing skills in primary source research, records management, oral history interviews, translation and transcription projects. Inglis enjoys teaching and emphasizes place-based, applied, and service-learning opportunities with her students – often taking students to Kalaupapa for research and service opportunities.

Roy MacLeod is an Emeritus Professor of History at Sydney University. Educated in History and Science at Harvard, he was the first Junior Fellow in History at Churchill College, Cambridge; founding Reader in History and Social Studies of Science and founding Fellow of the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) at Sussex University; and foundation Professor of Science Education at the Institute of Education, University of London. With David Edge, he co-founded and for 22 years co-edited the journal Social Studies of Science; co- founded the Pacific Circle (a Scientific Commission off the IUHPS); and was Editor of Minerva for a decade. For twenty years, with the EHESS and MSH in Paris, he co-chaired Project PAREX, among the forerunners of EASST. Since retirement, he has been a Humboldt Fellow in Goettingen, Hamburg, and Karlsruhe, and a Visiting Professor in Bologna. In 2008, he held the Gordon Cain Fellowship at the Chemical Heritage Foundation, and in 2009, a Braudel Fellowship at the EUI in Florence, followed in 2010 by the Lindbergh Chair at the National Air and Space Museum. He is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences, the Academy of the Humanities in Australia, the International Academy of the History of Science, and the International Science Council. At Sydney, he is a member of the School of History and Philosophy of Science and the Centre for International Security Studies, where he works in nuclear history, global biosecurity, and Space governance.

Dr Gary Werskey completed his PhD in History and the History of Science at Harvard under the supervision of Prof Everett Mendelsohn. He has held academic positions at Edinburgh University (the Science Studies Unit), Imperial College (School of Business) and the University of New South Wales (Faculty of Engineering). Gary is currently an Honorary Associate in the Department of History, School of Humanities, University of Sydney. He first met Roy MacLeod in 1968 and has collaborated with him on various projects over the years, including the reissue of Nicolai Bukharin et al Science at the Cross Roads and as Roy's Book Reviews Editor at Minerva.