THE BRIDEWEALTH PROJECT

Bridewealth Project - team

Principal investigator:

Christine Jourdan
Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Concordia University

  • Christine Jourdan received her Ph.D. in Linguistics and Anthropology in 1987 from the Research School of Pacific Studies at the Australian National University and joined Concordia in 1991. Her work focuses on theories of cultural and social change, on the pidginization and creolization of cultures and languages, on urbanization in the Pacific, on language ideology and on changing food practices in Québec and in the Pacific. She has published and edited books and articles on Solomon Islands Pijin, urbanization in the Pacific, socio-cultural creolization, and food ideologies and practices.

Research Assistants in Canada :

Alexis Black

  • Alexis is a PhD Candidate in Linguistic and Cognitive Anthropology at Concordia University in Montréal. She has worked with the Bridewealth Project for three years in a variety of functions including research, project administration, and website management. Currently, she and Christine Jourdan are working on an article concerning bridewealth and identity using raw data compiled during Dr. Jourdan's fieldwork in the Solomon Islands.

Fabienne Labbé

  • Fabienne is a PhD Candidate in Anthropology at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales, France. She is affiliated with the Center for research and documentation on Oceania. Fabienne has research experience on Fiji, New Caledonia and the Solomon Islands and joined the Bridewealth Project in September 2016 to add her expertise on the Pacific to the team. Currently, she and Christine Jourdan are working on a publication concerning bridewealth and the productive and reproductive autonomy of women in the Solomon Islands.

Research Assistant in the Solomon Islands :

Nathan Bond

  • Nathan is currently a PhD Candidate in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne, Australia. His research on the project concerns bridewealth practices among To'abaita people in North Malaita and Honiara, with whom he has also explored Evangelical Christianity, state-building and history. His doctoral project develops an ethnography of the Tidung of north-eastern Borneo vis-à-vis borders and frontiers. He is broadly interested in indigenous knowledges and their implications for the social sciences and development, especially in Southeast Asia and Melanesia.

Karazai Evelyn Pabulu

  • Karazai graduated from USP Suva in 2016 with a degree in Environmental Sciences. In the team, she was responsible for researching the links between bridewealth, divorce and children custody in the archives of the Magistrates Court in Honiara.

Janet Fifi'i

  • Janet is a student at USP Suva, focusing on community organization. In the team, she carried out research on bridewealth and marriage in the archives of the British Solomon Islands Protectorate, held at the National Archive in Honiara.