Qualifications
Msc University Leiden, The Netherlands. PhD University of East Anglia, UK.

Jara Hulkenberg is an anthropologist who has done research in Fiji on the production, use and significance of masi (Fijian barklcoth) for her PhD. She is currently an Honorary Research Fellow at the Centre for Pacific Studies, University of St Andrews where she has done post-doctoral research among Fijian migrants living in the UK. This research examines how and why Fijians in the UK live life ‘in the Fijian way’ (vakaViti)? She investigates how kinship and complex hierarchical relations are played out in the day-to-day fulfillment of ritual obligations centered on life cycle and religious events, and how ceremonies create transnational spaces that connect Fijians globally.

Main Interests:
Fiji, material culture, arts, migration, Christianity, money, exchange, gifting, kinship, ritual, life cycle events, personhood  

Publications
(2015) The Cost of Being Fijian in the UK, in a special issue of Anthropological Forum, edited by Verena Keck and Dominik Schieder
(2015) Fijian Kinship: Exchange and Migration in New Perspectives on Pacific Kinship, edited by C. Toren and S. Pauwels. Published by Berghahn Books
Forthcoming Masi: House and Cloth of the Vanua, Journal of Material Culture
Forthcoming Masi: Cloth of the Vanua. To be published by The Fiji Museum, Suva, Fiji Islands.
(2005) Masi, mats and associated objects. Catalogue entries based on unpublished acquisition report by Jara Hulkenberg. Digital publication (www.rmv.nl)
(1999) Abelam yam and baba masks. Catalogue entries based on literature study and unpublished research by Dr. N. Mc Guigan and D. Smidt. Digital publication (www.rmv.nl)