William Rollason

Will received his PhD from the University of Manchester in 2008. His thesis was based on eighteen months of ethnographic fieldwork on the island of Panapompom in southeast Papua New Guinea (PNG) between 2004 and 2006. His fieldwork focussed on young men, following their involvement in a newly established football association, and their work diving for the edible sea cucumber that local people make into bêche-de-mer – a luxury food for export.

His thesis has been published under the title, We are Playing Football: Sport and Postcolonial Subjectivity on Panapompom Island, Papua New Guinea by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. He is currently writing a second monograph on the experience of Panapompom bêche-de-mer divers. This book reflects his ongoing research interest in indigenous understandings of the future and their importance for understanding contemporary life in the Pacific region.

He is currently editing a volume entitled Future Selves in the Pacific: projects, politics and interests to be published by Berghahn.

Will is developing his interest in the future in a new research project on slum dwellers in Kigali, Rwanda. This project will explore subaltern futures in relation to the official state future of modernisation.

Qualifications

• PhD in Social Anthropology (2008), University of Manchester
• BA Social Anthropology (2002), London School of Economics

Teaching: Introduction to Anthropology, Issues in Social Anthropology, Dimensions of Ethnography, Research Methods in Social Anthropology

Undergraduate Admissions tutor for Anthropology

Research Interests

Papua New Guinea, Rwanda, race, ethnicity, development and the post-colony, the future, post-structural and post-colonial theory
methodology.

Publications

Journal Papers

(2011) Rollason, W., We are playing football: Seeing the game on Panapompom, PNG, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 17 481- 503

(2010) Rollason, W., Working out abjection in the Panapompom bêche-de-mer fishery: Race, economic change and the future in Papua New Guinea, The Australian Journal of Anthropology 21 (2) : 149- 170

(2008) Rollason, W., Ontology – just another word for culture, Anthropology Today 24 (3) : 28- 31

(2008) Rollason, W., Counterparts: Clothing, value and the sites of otherness in Panapompom ethnographic encounters, Anthropological Forum 18 (1) : 17- 35

(2008) Rollason, W., Black skin, white yacht: Race opposition in Panapompom tourist encounters, Tourism Culture & Communication 8 (2) : 109- 121

(Accepted) Rollason, W., My boss: Insincerity, capitalism and development in Papua New Guinea, Etnofoor 22 (1) : 103- 117