Kalissa Alexeyeff is a Senior Lecturer in Gender Studies with a background in Critical Theory and Anthropology. Kalissa specialises in the areas of gender and sexuality, globalisation and development.
She has also published widely on a range of interdisciplinary topics including Pacific performing arts and material culture, contemporary transgender identities and masculinities in the Pacific, human-animal relations, tourism, and transnationalism. Her first book Dancing from the Heart: Movement, Gender and Cook Islands Globalization (2009) explores the significance of dance to Cook Islands femininity throughout colonial history and in its contemporary global manifestations. She is co-editor with Niko Besnier of Gender on the Edge: Transgender, Gay, and Other Pacific Islanders (2014) which explores alternative sexualities and gender identities in the Pacific region.
In 2015, Gender on the Edge was a recipient of the ICAS Reading Committee Edited Volume Accolade in the Social Sciences.
Since 2012, Kalissa has been the vice president of the Australian Association for Pacific Studies (AAPS) and in 2015, an editorial board member of American Ethnologist.
Current Research Projects
New Regional Labour Circuits in the South Pacific: Gender, Culture and Transnationalism (ARC Future Fellowship)
This project examines globalisation, migration and gendered affect. It looks at circuits of labour mobility in the Pacific region, Australia, Cook Islands, Samoa and Fiji in order to map inter-regional labour flows. The broad geopolitical and economic triggers of this movement are connected to the movement of individuals and families, and to their gendered and culturally embedded and embodied practice. Working with local NGOs across the region it aims to generate applied outcomes through documenting the impact and implication of transnational migration and inform public policy in the region.
Touring Pacific Cultures (with John Taylor, LaTrobe University)
As tourism is vital to the economies of most Pacific nations and is a site for the meaningful and dynamic production of Pacific Islanders’ cultural values, this project seeks to animate a comparative regional perspective on crucial issues in the anthropology of tourism including those concerning the crafting of personal and social identities, community development and cultural heritage. The project seeks to generate new theories to apprehend tourism as a complex site of lived engagement, meaning and value.
Find out more about Kalissa Alexeyeff's experience
Kalissa Alexeyeff's highlights
FEATURED Journal article
Cinderella of the south seas? Virtuous victims, empowerment and other fables of development feminism
Read moreKalissa Alexeyeff's selected work
Projects
Displaying the 4 most recent projects by Kalissa Alexeyeff.
Project Types
2
Internal Research Grant
2
Research Grant
Scholarly Works
Displaying the 40 most recent scholarly works by Kalissa Alexeyeff.
Credentials
Positions
Senior Lecturer In Gender Studies
Social And Political Sciences
Vice-President
Vice President, Australian Association for the Advancement of Pacific Studies (AAAPS)
Member
Australian Anthropological Society
Education
Bachelor of Arts
La Trobe University
Master of Arts
Monash University
Graduate Certificate in University Teaching
University of Melbourne
Doctor of Philosophy
The Australian National University