Professor Stephen May elected convenor of the Royal Society Te Apārangi

Stephen is a Professor in Te Puna Wānanga (The School of Māori and Indigenous Education) in the Faculty of Education and Social Work and Director of the faculty’s Tai Tokerau Campus.

The society’s Academic Executive Committee is primarily responsible for the selection of RSNZ Fellows each year. All committee members must be Fellows of RSNZ.

“The Academic Executive Committee has been reorganised this year as part of Te Apārangi’s ongoing commitment to diversifying who is recognised as fellows, with a particular emphasis on the recognition of more women and Māori,” Stephen says.

“It is also continuing to broaden the academic areas represented, changing from an initially narrow focus on hard sciences to a more interdisciplinary engagement with social sciences and the humanities.”

Stephen’s role as convenor will be particularly important in recognising and promoting the academic merits of Aotearoa New Zealand’s social scientists, including educationalists, in the future.

“That this is an ongoing challenge for education, in particular, is represented by the fact that to date there have only ever been five educationalists including myself elected as Fellows,” Stephen adds.

“However, I’m feeling particularly hopeful about the changes Te Apārangi have been undertaking in recent years, along with the reorganised committee structures, and related nomination and selection processes for Fellows. This accords closely with the issues that Melinda Webber raised on her appointment to the RSNZ Council.”

The following University of Auckland academics have also been elected to key positions within the Royal Society of New Zealand (RSNZ) Te Apārangi:

• Dr Tom Baker, Senior Lecturer from the School of Environment – Elected Councillor representing Early career researchers for a three-year term
• Distinguished Professor Jane Harding from the Liggins Institute – Elected Domain Convenor Health and Medical Sciences for a two-year term