Anna-Karina Hermkens obtained her PhD in Cultural Anthropology and Gender Studies from Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands in 2005. Her doctoral research on the historical and contemporary interplay between identity and material culture in West Papua (Indonesia) and Papua New Guinea (PNG), was published as Engendering Objects: Dynamics of Barkcloth and Gender among the Maisin of Papua New Guinea (Sidestone Press, 2013). Between 2005-2008, her research focused on the interplay between Catholicism and violence in PNG, with special emphasis on the role of the Virgin Mary in the context of domestic violence in Port Moresby and Madang (PNG) and the Bougainville crisis. Since 2008, she has been doing research on the ideological underpinnings of violent conflicts in Solomon Islands, Bougainville (PNG), and North Moluccas (Indonesia) in terms of religion and gender. This has provided insight into the gendered nature of religious beliefs and symbols, the enigma of religious movements, and the interplay between religion, nationalism, violence and gender. She has published widely in peer-reviewed journals, edited volumes and museum catalogues and co-edited three volumes: “Moved by Mary. The Power of Pilgrimage in the Modern World” (Ashgate 2009); a special volume of the journal Oceania on “Gender and Personhood in Oceania” (2015); and a volume on Value and Material Culture titled “Sinuous Objects: Revaluing Women’s Wealth in the Pacific (ANU-Press 2017).
