In March and April 2019, an Engaged Anthropology Grant enabled Ivo Syndicus to spend almost six weeks in Papua New Guinea (PNG) to engage a range of audiences about his dissertation research on higher education in PNG. In his PhD dissertation, he describes and analyzes various fields of student experiences related to university education, especially at the University of Goroka, such as:
how university students, but also staff, experience processes of social stratification vis-à-vis kin and sponsors;
how a cultural politics of difference, drawing on the reification of culture such as sensibilities surrounding exchange and reciprocity, feeds into the construction and consolidation of provincial identities at universities and beyond;
how forms and styles of leadership in both university management and student politics become contested at university, especially in prolonged student strikes.
Read the full blog here: http://blog.wennergren.org/2019/06/engaged-anthropology-grant-ivo-syndicus/