Program leaders Dr. Andrew Strathern and Dr. Pamela J. Stewart (Strathern) have more than 40 years of combined professional experience in New Zealand and the Pacific Islands generally. Pitt in the Pacific brings together a lifetime of their intellectual interests and heritage with traditions of Scottish historical settlement and contemporary engagement with Pacific Islands. Strathern and Stewart have lived, worked, and research in both the Pacific and Scotland for decades, and have published extensively on their findings in scholarly venues. They lead the program with foci on Culture, History, Environmental Sustainability and Responses to Climatic Change, Peace and Conflict Resolution, Ritual and Religious Practices, and Language usages within the Pacific, while allowing students to explore their creativity in comparative studies important to the global world that we live in. The Program Leaders are experts on all of the topics to be studied as well as experienced travelers through the Pacific. Strathern and Stewart have lead this program before and have a wealth of experience.
See their webpage at: http://www.stewartstrathern.pitt.edu/. Their work has also recently been covered by the University Times.
They have authored books and many essays on all of the course sections, including the following books:
---Strathern, A. and Pamela J. Stewart. Second edition, "Curing and Healing: Medical Anthropology in Global Perspective".
---Stewart, Pamela J. and Andrew Strathern. Ritual: Key Concepts in Religion.
---Stewart, Pamela J. and Andrew Strathern. Working in the Field: Anthropological Experiences across the World.
---Strathern, A. and Pamela J. Stewart. Peace-making and the Imagination: Papua New Guinea Perspectives.
---Strathern, Andrew, Pamela J. Stewart, Laurence M. Carucci, Lin Poyer, Richard Feinberg, and Cluny Macpherson. Oceania: An Introduction to the Cultures and Identities of Pacific Islanders.
---Stewart, Pamela J. and Andrew Strathern (eds. ) (2010). Landscape, Heritage, and Conservation.
---Stewart, Pamela J. and Andrew Strathern (eds.) (2003) Landscape, Memory, and History: Anthropological Perspectives."