Despite a shift of global political attention from the Middle East to the Asia-Pacific Region, research in social sciences with a regional focus on the Pacific Island countries is still marginal at the global scale. There are several hubs in Europe (and beyond) that work on Pacific Islands’ issues. Some of them are connected, but these connections rely mainly on individual interests and personal contacts. In this plenary roundtable, we therefore invite researchers from different disciplines and from different research groups and countries to present and discuss their academic networks and the focus of their research. First, we aim to connect researchers with similar research interests and projects. Second, we want to analyze how researchers establish collaboration networks. The third aim is to discuss the historical background for research in certain countries (e.g. due to the colonial history of countries), but also individual and/or institutional preferences and reasons (e.g. language barriers). By addressing collaboration networks, we would like to discuss research priorities and unequal regional focuses of scholars. We particularly invite Pacific islanders and Indigenous researchers to share their points of view and their collaboration networks. Based on this exchange, we intend to publish papers in a special issue of an international peer-reviewed journal. Moreover, this plenary roundtable can be the basis for a thorough network analysis to be used for prospective (research) projects, and the weaving of new ties in and between European and Pacific Island countries and beyond.
