Duncan Wright
Postgraduate Student
Room 206: CAIS building 55
View contact details in Monash Staff Directory
Qualifications: BA University of Wales, Lampeter; Master of Arts (thesis by research), Australian National University, Canberra
Research Interests and Personal Profile
The archaeology of islands remains the prominent focus of my research. Initially working in the Micronesian archipelago of Palau I have now moved into the Torres Strait where three years have been spent completing a PhD on the island of Mabuyag. A community based approach is fundamental to my research with islander histories used as a starting point for archaeological research. I am an occasional lecturer at Flinders University in Adelaide and have undertaken research projects and consultancies in Australia and Papua New Guinea.
Current Projects
- PhD candidate at Monash University
Topic: “Exploring the archaeology of Social Groups: Goemulgau villages on Mabuyag island, Western Torres Strait”
Supervisors: Dr Ian McNiven; Professor Ian Lilley; Dr Bruno David.
- Master class at Flinders University (The archaeology of Pacific and Australian Islands, March 2009).
- Symposium at the Pacific Archaeology Conference in Palau (July 2009) and Australian Archaeology Conference (December 2009).
Selected Publications
- Wright, D. and Dickinson, W. In press. Movement of ideas not materials: The discovery of locally manufactured pottery on Mabuyag Island in the Western Torres Strait, Archaeology in Oceania 44.
- McNiven, I.J. and Wright, D. 2008. Ritualised Marine Midden Formation in Western Zenadh Kes (Torres Strait). In G. Clark, F. Leach and S. O’Connor (eds), Islands of Inquiry: Colonisation, Seafaring and the Archaeology of Maritime Landscapes. Terra Australis 29, ANU Press, Canberra: 133-148
- Clark, G. and Wright, D. 2007. Reading Pacific Pots. In: A. Anderson, K. Green and F. Leach (eds.), Vastly Indigenous: The Archaeology of Pacific Material Culture in Honour of Janet Davidson. Otago University Press, Dunedin:173-190.
- Clark, G., Anderson, A. and Wright, D. 2006. Human Colonization of the Palau Islands, Western Micronesia. Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology 1: 215-232
- Clark, G. and Wright, D. 2005. On the Periphery? Archaeological Investigations at Ngelong, Angaur Island, Palau. Micronesica 38(1): 67-91.
- Clark, G. and Wright, D. 2003. The Colonisation of Palau: preliminary results from Angaur and Ulong. In Sand, C. (Ed.), Pacific Archaeology: assessments and prospect, pp. 85-94. Les Cahiers de l'Archéologie en Nouvelle-Calédonie.
Current Funding Acknowledgements
- Monash University Postgraduate Research Scholarship
- AIATSIS research grant
- Centre for Australian Indigenous Studies travel grant