Niko Besnier

Niko Besnier serves as Adjunct Professor in the Department of Social Inquiry at La Trobe University, following his tenure as Research Professor there (2017–19). He maintains extensive academic affiliations with institutions including the University of Illinois, Yale University, Victoria University of Wellington, UCLA, and the University of Amsterdam (2005–22).

His research spans socio-cultural and linguistic anthropology with focus areas in Pacific Island studies (particularly Tuvalu and Tonga), gender and sexuality, sports anthropology, and neoliberal globalization. Besnier examines how globalization affects masculinity, migration, and identity politics across diverse contexts including transformational festivals, Senegalese wrestling, and transgender mobilization in Tonga. His work consistently bridges theoretical frameworks with ethnographic fieldwork spanning four decades.

Besnier's publication trajectory reveals increasing focus on sports anthropology since 2016, with recent works (2020-2024) analyzing Pacific Island sports, gender dynamics in global sport, and neoliberal impacts on athletic migration. His scholarship demonstrates interdisciplinary reach across anthropology, gender studies, sports sociology, and political economy.

His significant service contributions include:

• Editor-in-Chief of American Ethnologist (2016–2019)
• Current member of Advisory Board for Insaniyyat: Palestinian Anthropological Society
• Service on Review Panels for Research Foundation Flanders and Wenner Gren Foundation
• Editorial board membership across a dozen anthropology and gender studies journals

Besnier directs impactful research initiatives including the European Research Council-funded project 'Globalization, Sports, and the Precarity of Masculinity' (2012–17). He regularly conducts academic writing and grant proposal workshops, leveraging his editorial experience to mentor emerging scholars. His fieldwork methodology combines long-term Pacific Island engagement with comparative analysis of global phenomena.