This course introduces students to the wealth of Pacific knowledge, resources and institutions at ANU and in Canberra more broadly. Pacific Worlds will be explored in seminar format and in dialogue with selected scholars and policy-makers, and through visits to institutions such as the National Library, National Archives, National Gallery or National Museum of Australia. It will provide students with an exciting opportunity to experience the ways in which the Pacific has been critical to the development and contemporary cultural, scholarly and political priorities of former colonial powers, including Australia. The course will highlight the ways in which Pacific Islanders themselves have responded critically to these uneven relationships and how documentation and collection practices in Australian institutions reflect these political dynamics. The course is organized into 4 themes: 1. "What is the Pacific?" focusing on the environmental impacts and multi-scalar social effects of this ocean. 2. "How is the Pacific region and its indigenous peoples represented?" including historical and popular ways in which the region and islanders have been named, framed and "collected". 3. "What is the political nature of this space and what are the key challenges?" focusing on contemporary nation-states, territories, activism and regional dynamics. 4. "What are the key cultural and popular features of Oceania?" thinking about diverse indigenous and introduced languages, societies, the diaspora, artistic and cultural production. Assessment is linked to each of these dimensions so that students are provided with the requisite writing and analytical skills through diverse and complementary activities.