Dr Chris Ballard
ANU School of Culture, History and Language
ANU College of Asia and the Pacific
Chris Ballard is an Associate Professor in Pacific history in the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific.
Dr Ballard is a historian and archaeologist of the Pacific and New Guinea, with particular interests in Indigenous history and the evolution of cultural diversity in the region, and specific experience in West Papua, Papua New Guinea, and Vanuatu.
He also works as a consultant for UNESCO on the intersection between culture and emergencies, including natural hazard disasters and climate change. In the past he has focused on large resource projects and land rights, especially in West Papua, and on agricultural history and food security in the Papua New Guinea Highlands.
Currently Dr Ballard is exploring the local, regional and global impacts of one of the human world’s largest volcanic eruptions, at Kuwae in Vanuatu in 1452CE.