Finding a place in between: Joseph Meredith

Heading en masse to the airport to see someone off on their travels conjures up images of Love Actually, but it’s also a sociological phenomenon worthy of study.

Bachelor of Arts graduate Joseph Meredith, who’s graduating on 8 May in the University of Auckland autumn ceremonies, majored in sociology and Pacific Studies, and found a common thread across both for one of his final essays.

“I was interested in the sociology of the self; thinking about how you are embedded in sociology and sociology is embedded in you. I had to write an autobiographical story relating to a particular sociological practice, and I chose the idea of sending people off at the airport.

“An Indigenous Pacific lens on that is that Pacific families in New Zealand are especially known for it, but it’s also a wider New Zealand tradition, as a country so far away from the rest of the world; it also connects to my own story as a migrant to New Zealand from Samoa.”

Looking in depth at this practice, says Joseph, allowed him to not only analyse that part of life, but also connects to the tradition of ocean-going vaka heading across the Pacific to unknown shores centuries ago.

“It's pretty interesting to see how we've translated that into sending families off at the airport. That's been a key highlight from my degree, seeing these practices change, but also retain some similarities across time.”

As sociology is largely about examining power and who benefits from it, another area of interest that connected both disciplines, he says, was which countries have power in the Pacific and how they use it.
 

The first in his immediate family to attend university, Joseph is the second eldest of four siblings, and is expecting six of his family to be at graduation, with the rest probably “having to wait outside”.

“I have a large family!”

At 21, and now doing a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Pacific Studies, he’s always “done his own thing” by attending university, he says, with the rest of his siblings going to work straight from school.

“I’ve always loved being a student, I’m not ready to go into the real world; I’m just building myself up before I make that big step.”

Joseph attended St Peter’s College in Auckland, then after completing his BA in the Faculty of Arts last year, has remained connected to the faculty as a graduate teaching assistant in Pacific Studies, and also as a Tuākana mentor ( a community that provides mentoring by high achieving Māori and Pacific students to fellow Māori and Pacific undergrads) in Sociology 100.

“It’s a full circle moment because I did that paper myself when it was taught by Professor Steve Matthewman, who was the reason I switched to sociology as a major in the first place, because I enjoyed his lectures so much.”

His honours dissertation focuses on Pacific queer social circles in New Zealand secondary schools, and how the live in a state of ‘in-between-ness’ in many ways.

“You not only have Pacific people living away from their home countries in the diaspora in a state of ‘cultural in-between-ness’, you also have Pacific queer people living in yet another layer of 'societal in-between-ness’ within that.

“I’m applying what I’ve learned from both sociology and Pacific studies and I’m so grateful to be able to speak out in this area.”

For some people, this could still be a risk, he says, but he doesn’t view it that way.

“I see it as an opportunity to build Pacific queer literature and increase the understanding of Pacific queer people living in the diaspora; in particular, those living in New Zealand.”
 

His supervisor is Dr Patrick Thomsen, another inspirational figure, he says.

“I really like how he manages to bring himself into his work.”

At this stage, Joseph is contemplating going straight to a PhD from his honours year, despite admitting the workload looks daunting.

And his advice for anyone in two minds about whether they belong at university?

“Based on my experience, I would advise anyone considering university to get out of their comfort zone. When I started going into places where I felt uncomfortable, I had to embrace the unknown," he says.

“University life is not an easy journey, there’s always going to be some stuff that sets you off track. Before I came here, I just wanted to stay in my own little world, but then I made connections and found like-minded people, or not, that’s okay too, and started to grow.”