Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses experiences of differentiation in university education in Papua New Guinea. Beyond the distinction of Western and Melanesian worlds, I draw attention to distinct regional identities that Papua New Guineans construct among themselves in the process of educational differentiation.

Paper long abstract:

This paper discusses experiences of educational differentiation in Papua New Guinea (PNG) based on ethnographic research with students and staff at the University of Goroka. Schooling could arguably be considered an integral element of the lifeworld of Papua New Guineans today. Yet, it is particularly the step of attending university, and potentially ensuing employment career, that cements a level of differentiation vis-à-vis kin that seems to trigger novel forms or heightened challenges in the navigation of kinship relations for a person. Often indeed explicitly conceptualized as negotiating incompatible cultural worlds, there is a diverse array of experiences behind heuristically deployed distinctions such as between the (Western) independent individual and the (Melanesian) dependent kinsperson. In this paper I outline some experiences of educational differentiation of university students and staff vis-à-vis kin networks or 'communities', also in relation to distinct regional sensibilities surrounding exchange and reciprocity, level of study or career, gender, and personal background more broadly. I do so by drawing on 18 months of ethnographic work in 2013/14 with a number of informants that I followed closely through daily campus life, on visits home, and conducted life history interviews with (partly with acquaintances already established while 12 months as student in Goroka in 2010). In conclusion, I draw attention not only to the experiences that underlie the conceptual distinction between putatively different Western and Melanesian worlds, but also to the distinct regional identities that Papua New Guineans construct among themselves in the process of educational differentiation at a PNG university.