Dr. Jennifer Newell is curator of Pacific Ethnography. Her particular interests are in material culture and the relationship between Pacific Islanders and their environments. Her major research project explores climate change and cultural change in the Pacific. This research will be tracing how islanders in a range of atolls and islands are perceiving the challenges of sea level rise, extreme weather events, loss of reefs, and more, and how they are thinking about maintaining cultural continuity in the face of needing to leave their home islands. The project also investigates how museums might usefully provide places for diaspora communities to meet and reconnect with their heritage.