Visiting Fellows

Sinclair Dinnen is a Professor with the Department of Pacific Affairs, Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, at the Australian National University.  Professor Dinnen is a well-recognised expert in the Pacific  with longstanding research interests  and publications in regulatory pluralism, comparative criminology, justice and policing, conflict and peacebuilding, post-colonial state formation and development studies in Melanesia.

Barbara Dreaver is the Television New Zealand Pacific Correspondent. She was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2024 for services to investigative journalism and Pacific communities has received numerous accolades including two awards at New Zealand’s Voyager Media Awards for her coverage of the 2019 Samoa measles outbreak and in November 2022 she was named Reporter of the Year at the New Zealand Television Awards. She is of Kiribati-Cook Islands-Kiwi heritage.

Kenneth Gofigan Kuper is Associate Professor of Political Science and Micronesian Studies at the University of Guam, where he serves as a research professor at the Micronesian Area Research Center focusing on geopolitics and international relations. He is also a director of the Guam-based organization, Pacific Center for Island Security, which provides an island and islander perspective to geopolitical developments in the Pacific Islands region. He also sits on the Government of Guam’s Commission on Decolonization and has authored the most comprehensive study on Guam’s future political status options to date.

Mary Hattori (PhD)is Director of the Pacific Islands Development Program, East West Center, in Honolulu. PIDP is a founding member of the Council of Regional Organizations of the Pacic (CROP) and the Secretariat of the Pacic Islands Conference of Leaders (PICL) which is comprised of the 20 Heads of Government from the Pacific. She is Affiliate Graduate Faculty of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and the USC Rossier School of Education. Dr. Hattori is a community organiser for Pacific Islanders in Hawai’i, co-organizer of cultural events such as the Annual Cultural Animation Film Festival, the Annual Celebrate Micronesia Festival, Micronesian Women’s Summit, and Oceania on the Reel, and is an author, poet, public speaker, and philanthropist. Dr Hattori is a native Chamoru of Guåhan (Guam).

James Movick has extensive leadership experience in national and regional inter-governmental cooperation in diplomacy, fisheries, trade policy and development in the Pacific region. He served as the inaugural Director of the Pacific Fusion Centre in Vanuatu (2022-2024). Previously he served as Deputy Director-General and Director General of the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) from 2010 to 2018. He is a national of the Federated States of Micronesia.

Tess Newton Cain is an Adjunct Associate Professor with Griffith University, public commentator, and former lecturer in law at the University of the South Pacific. Her expertise lies in Pacific regionalism and security and she is the co-lead of the Defence Diplomacy in the Pacific project. She is a citizen of the United Kingdom and Vanuatu.

Lopeti Senituli is President of the Tonga Law Society specialising in the fields of law and politics. He was formerly the Political and Media Advisor to Prime Ministers Dr Feleti Vaka’uta Sevele (2006-2010) and Samuela ‘Akilisi Pohiva (2018-2019).

Dr. Levi Tavita is a Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Samoan Studies of the National University of Samoa. He majors in Samoan Studies on Contemporary Politics and Government, Samoan Linguistics, and Academic Literacy. As an educator, he has served in Aotearoa New Zealand as a Tertiary Lecturer, Secondary Teacher, also had brief stints at Intermediate and Primary. Prior to, he worked in the Samoan media as a writer, editor and publisher of a newspaper he helped founded. He began his early career in the Samoa Public Service continuing on at the New Zealand Public Service before embarking on a teaching career. He also edits an online publication, OLA Puletini A’oga, that serves to promote the Samoan Language internationally. As a publisher he has published 15 books, 8 of which he authored, and more than 50 educational resources (readers, references, posters, etc). This is his first collection of short stories in Samoan.

Tevita Tupou is a senior advisor with UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development), a consultant with the IOM (International Organisation for Migration), and a lecturer at the University of South Pacific Post Graduate Program Border Security. Previously, Mr Tupou held roles as Program Coordinator RSO Bali Process (Bangkok), providing policy and technical advice to the RSO Co-Managers and Bali Process member states, focusing on the Pacific Island members. He was the Operations Manager for the Oceania Customs Organisation (OCO) Secretariat. Prior to his joining the OCO, Mr. Tupou spent more than 25 years with the Fiji Islands Revenue and Customs Authority. ​Mr. Tupou has a Master’s in International Customs Law and Administration and a Master’s in International Revenue and Administration, as well as a post-graduate Certificate in International Customs Law, from the University of Canberra (Australia).