Daniel Midena

Lecturer & Discipline Coordinator

Email: daniel.midena@usp.ac.fj
Office: CELT Building, Room 104

Education

BA (Hons) / BSc (ANU), Master of International Studies (University of Melbourne), PhD (University of Copenhagen)

Research Areas

Pacific history, history of the social sciences, mission history, German and British colonialism

Bio

I am a historian with interests spanning the histories of science and religion (and especially their intersection) in the South Pacific region over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. My research concentrates on missionary, legal and administrative archives generated by German and British colonialism.

Past and current history projects include: an exploration of the epistemology and natural world view of Lutheran missionaries in German New Guinea, 1880s-1920s; the secularisation of Anglican-run healthcare institutions in the final years of the British Solomon Islands Protectorate; the role of the questionnaire-form in documenting indigenous legal systems in German colonies around 1900; and the criminalisation of “sorcery” and “witchcraft” within the British Western Pacific Territories as seen through colonial court and administrative records.

Publications

See my academia.edu profile

Courses Taught

• HY201: Pacific History: Colonial Worlds to Independence
• HY207: Melanesian Worlds
• HY303: Special Topic: USA in Asia Pacific region
• HY304: Pacific History: Protest and Identity
• HY401: Reading and viewing in Pacific history
• HY404: Special Topic (The History of Conversion in the South Pacific)

Postgraduate supervision

I am happy to discuss supervision with prospective graduate students whose thesis proposals overlap with my research and teaching expertise.