Grant McCall was an anthropologist who focused his research on Rapanui and Eastern Polynesia. He received his BA in Anthropology from the University of California (Berkeley) in 1966, and his MA from San Franciso State College in 1968. During his MA, he studied Basque migrant communities in North and South America. He then spent three months continuing that field work in a Spanish fishing village in 1969. He received a Diploma of Social Anthropology and Bachelor of Letters from the University of Oxford, 1970-1971. From April 1972 to January 1974, he completed field work in Rapanui (Easter Island), which led to his PhD thesis at the Australian National University, Reaction to disaster: continuity and change in Rapanui social organisation (available online: http://hdl.handle.net/1885/128801). He was awarded his PhD at the Australian National University in 1977. He worked extensively in Rapanui with fieldwork trips from 1972-1975, 1984-1986, 2001-2002, and in Chile while working on Rapanui- related matters in 2008. He conducted fieldwork in Tahiti, particularly among expatriate Rapanui in 1974, 1975, 1984, and 1985. McCall also undertook fieldwork in Aitutaki and Mangaia, Cook Islands (1988, 1989/1990); Freeport Mine, West Papua Province, Indonesia (January 2011) and Timbuktu, Mali (January 2012).
Grant McCall was appointed to several positions at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) from 1976 until 2009 including the Director of the Centre for South Pacific Studies from 1987-1992 and 1999-2009. In 2011 he was appointed an associate of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Sydney. In 2014 he was made a Distinguished Professor, World Environment & Island Institute, Jeju National University.
Grant McCall was active in a number of organisations, notably the founding convenor and later Vice-President of the Australian Association for the Advancement of Pacific Studies (AAAPS) and serving as President of the International Small Islands Studies Association (ISISA) from 1998-2014.