Social Sciences

Project (two students)

Māori roll or general roll? Every five years New Zealanders of Māori descent get to choose. If everyone of Māori descent were on the Māori roll, there would be 13 Māori electorates, yet currently there are only 7. An increase in Māori electorates means more Māori representatives, and probably more Māori political power: so why are more Māori not on the Māori roll? Researchers, Indigenous groups, and policymakers worldwide often look to Aotearoa as a unique case study in Indigenous representation because we have had the Māori roll for over 150 years. The aim of this research project is to find out why Māori make the roll choices that we do. We expect that these reasons will be as broad and diverse as Māori ourselves! The findings are important to ensure effective modes of political representation for Māori, and for Indigenous peoples more broadly. The research consists of a large, mixed-methods survey – hosted on a custom-designed website – that asks people of Māori descent to describe their reasons for their roll choice in their own words. The scholar will join an active and collaborative (and majority Māori) research team, after data have been collected.

Scholar’s Work on the Project: The summer scholar will help the researcher to devise a coding scheme based on the participants' qualitative answers. They will then help to code the data to summarise the themes as to why people make certain roll choices. Participants go to a survey website and complete the survey. By summer, we will have a lot of open-ended data as answers to questions on why people have chosen the Māori roll or General roll. The scholar’s task will first be to read a collection of academic and non-academic works on the Māori roll. From this, and with the help of the researcher, they will help to devise a multi-level coding scheme and help to code some of the data. They will help present these codes to the advisory rōpu and other groups. They will also help to create resources and feedback for those who participated in the study and help to write text for the project’s website.

Required Skills/Pre-requisites: Knowledge of the Māori roll/Māori politics – such as POLITICS 107, 229, and/or Māori studies courses. Te reo knowledge at a beginner university course level/high school level or higher is desirable (e.g. MĀORI 103 or higher). No data analysis skills are required.

Benefits to Scholar: The summer scholar will join an active team in the area of Māori politics where they can meet and work with likeminded others of different career phases. The process will help to demystify research and hopefully lead to postgraduate study or further research assistant opportunities. The summer scholar will gain experience with qualitative data, with coding and classification schemes, and develop a broader knowledge base in Māori politics and the politics of representation more broadly. They will also attend hui and have an opportunity to present their work to a supportive audience.

Expectations: My expectations are that the scholar communicates well via email, zooms, and ā-kanohi meetings. The summer scholar should have an interest or passion for Māori politics and be interested in doing good things for Aotearoa.

Project

This project builds on ongoing work conducted from 2020-2022 under a collaborative research project on “Climate-Induced Migration: Global Scope, Regional Impacts and National Policy Frameworks” that aims to define the new field of climate migration and climate mobility justice. The project is funded by the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN) and brings together more than 30 academics from 15 research institutions across five continents. A major output of the project will be a “Handbook on Climate Migration and Climate Mobility Justice” commissioned by De Gruyter Publisher. Co-editors of the handbook are A/Prof Bukola Salami (University of Alberta) and Dr Natasha Pauli (University of Western Australia). The Handbook will provide a comprehensive and accessible collection of scholarly contributions on key issues, novel theories and empirical studies in the field of human migration and climate change and examine how the nexus of migration and climate change is likely to transform the future of societies in various world regions. The Handbook aims to contribute to this rapidly evolving field by inviting work on new conceptual frameworks and empirical studies on climate im/mobilities from a variety of disciplines.

Scholar’s Work on the Project: The summer scholar will help the supervisor editing various book chapters from authors who do not have English as their first language. The summer scholar will also help proofreading all chapters and check for consistency in formatting and referencing style. The summer scholar will also be able to develop a topic of their own choice and turn it into a chapter co-authored by the supervisor. The summer scholar is expected to conduct an extensive literature review on the topic of their choice and collate secondary data (e.g. from media reports, migration databases, government reports, development blogs) as a basis for the book chapter. The summer scholar will do a thematic analysis of the secondary data. If the material is rich enough, a co-authored journal article may form a second research output from the summer scholarship.

Required Skills/Pre-requisites: The summer scholar should have superior academic writing skills and be proficient in the use of academic referencing software systems, such as Endnotes or RefWorks. Ideally, the scholar is familiar with the wider fields of Global Studies, Development Studies, Human Geography and/or Migration Studies and has a firm grounding in the social sciences. A background and/or interest in climate change, migration and mobility justice is preferable. Applicants who are familiar with these topics, either through intensive prior engagement with the relevant literature or through their own travel, volunteer or activist experience, will be given priority. Māori and Pacific students who can bring an Indigenous perspective to the field of climate migration and climate mobility justice are particularly encouraged to apply.

Benefits to Scholar: The summer scholar will have the opportunity to get involved in a multidisciplinary and multi-institutional publication project, thereby getting exposure to a global academic network. They will substantially improve their writing and editing skills. The scholar will be involved in a major academic writing project, leading to one co-authored chapter in the Handbook on Climate Migration and Climate Mobility Justice, commissioned by De Gruyter Publisher. While working toward these objectives, the summer scholar will receive training on conducting desk-based research and a systematic literature review on a topic of their own choice in the wider field of climate migration and climate mobility justice.

Expectations: The summer scholar will help editing various book chapters from authors who do not have English as their first language. The summer scholar will also help proofreading all book chapters and check for consistency in formatting and referencing style. The summer scholar will add value to the Handbook on Climate Migration and Climate Mobility Justice by developing a topic of their own choice and turning it into a co-authored chapter.

Project

American Ethnologist (AE), a world-leading journal in social and cultural anthropology, is published by the American Ethnological Society (AES), the oldest professional anthropological association in the United States (founded in 1842). Its operations are overseen by the American Anthropology Association (AAA), the world’s largest scholarly and professional organisation of anthropologists. For the first time in its 50-year history, AE is now led by an editorial team based in the Southern Hemisphere: Professor Dr Susanna Trnka (University of Auckland), Editor in Chief; Dr Jesse Hession Grayman (University of Auckland), Associate Editor; and Professor Dr Lisa Wynn (Macquarie University), Associate Editor. The summer scholar will provide timely support to this newly appointed editorial team as they take stock of the journal’s history and future in anticipation of AE’s 50th anniversary year in 2023. The summer scholar, ideally an advanced undergraduate in social/cultural anthropology, has an opportunity to contribute to the editing of journal manuscripts that review aspects of AE’s contributions to the discipline. The editors based at the University of Auckland (Professor Trnka and Dr Grayman) will be the summer scholar’s main supervisors.

Scholar’s Work on the Project: This research internship presents an opportunity to explore Anthropology’s 20th and 21st century history through one of the discipline’s leading journals, while also gaining hands-on experience in AE’s day-to-day management. Tasks may include: 1. Assist in the day-to-day management of incoming and outgoing manuscripts for peer review. This primarily consists of finding appropriate reviewers, tracking progress of manuscripts, and managing correspondence with authors. 2. Track recent trends in AE’s publication record to identify emerging topics, gaps, and possible future directions in the journal’s outputs during this new editorship. 3. Assist the editors with preparation of special forum topics that address current social issues of interest (some past examples here: https://americanethnologist.org/read/forums ). Possible topics include the role of ethnography in critically examining issues like racialised state violence, state responses to Covid-19, how to conduct research in the midst of a pandemic, anthropological approaches to climate change, the place of conspiracy theories in contemporary political movements, ongoing efforts to decolonise academia, and the impact of the #MeToo Movement. The summer scholar has an opportunity to make an original contribution in this area.

Required Skills/Pre-requisites: The summer scholar should have excellent academic writing skills and must be proficient in the use of academic search engines, such as Google Scholar and Scopus, and referencing software systems, such as Endnotes or RefWorks. The scholar should be familiar with the wider field of social and cultural anthropology. Interest in academic publishing is preferable.

Benefits to Scholar: The summer scholar will have the opportunity to become involved in the day-to-day operations of a leading international academic journal and gain exposure to a global academic network of scholars in social and cultural anthropology. The student will learn how research manuscripts proceed selectively, via comprehensive peer review, toward publication. While working toward these objectives, the summer scholar will receive immersive training on the tools that the journal’s editors use to search for scholars, conduct literature reviews, track manuscripts, and manage correspondence. The editors will also support the summer scholar to define, research, and complete a literature review that contributes to one of AE’s research forums.

Expectations: The summer scholar will provide crucial support in the day-to-day administration of AE’s editorial office. This primarily involves the management of manuscript peer review, including the search for qualified peer reviewers, and correspondence with reviewers and authors. The editors will also work with the summer scholar to decide which areas of interest the summer scholar would like to pursue for a literature review linked to one of the journal’s research forums.

Project

University complaint processes are often obscure and designed to fit bureaucracy as opposed to student and staff needs. Recent national scandals in relation to New Zealand universities suggest that we are not immune to these international patterns. This project conducts a literature review of critical university studies and complaint (including Sara Ahmed’s Complaint!) to create a theoretical grounding for critiquing and engaging in a mapping of our eight universities' complaints processes. This research will then become part of a co-authored paper with the Summer Scholar in a higher education research journal.

Scholar’s Work on the Project: The scholar will work with Dr Naepi from design to publication of a peer reviewed article. The scholar will: 1. Conduct a literature review of critical university studies and complaint. 2. Work with Dr Naepi to create a research plan from the literature. 3. Locate appropriate complaint policies in each university. 4. Work with Dr Naepi to map the different policies. 5. Co-write a paper for peer reviewed publication with Dr Naepi that brings together the literature and mapping of complaint processes.

Required Skills/Pre-requisites: Summer scholar should have an ability to read widely and summarise information. The ability to navigate university websites is also important. This summer scholarship involves submitting for a peer reviewed paper so it is important that the scholar has strong writing abilities.

Benefits to Scholar: This project enables a Summer Scholar to experience a full research project from design to publication. The scholar will learn how to take international critical university studies theory and apply it to an Aotearoa New Zealand context. There will be one co-authored paper so that the scholar will learn more about the publishing process and also contribute to the scholars' CV, making them a stronger candidate for graduate studies. There maybe an opportunity for conference attendance to present the work at a later stage.

Expectations: I expect to meet with my Summer Scholar at least once a week to discuss research plans and outputs for that week. I expect my Summer Scholar to commit to co-authoring a publication with me.

Project

The project invites a scholar to co-author a report on public views about health and health care services that will be informative to policymakers and the academic community. A survey on Health and Health Care (February-June 2022) was implemented by COMPASS as part of the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP). The survey offers a wealth of new data on several health-related areas such as self-reported health and wellbeing, self-reported addictive behaviours, experiences in accessing and satisfaction with health care services, and perceptions about alternative medicine. We aim to analyse the data and produce a report that will be informative to policymakers, the health sector, COVID-19 mitigation and immunisation programmes, and other researchers. Our research questions include: How does the public regard healthcare in terms of quality and accessibility? Are perceptions about inequities in health care access prevalent? How frequently do people rely on the Internet for health information, and how do they gauge the usefulness of Internet-based health information? Which health-related behaviours (e.g., regular physical activity, healthy diets) strongly predict self-reported health conditions? How supportive is the public of the Government's COVID-19 mitigation measures?

Scholar’s Work on the Project: The scholar may either contribute to quantitative data analysis OR carry out a multiple-topic literature review. The scholar will first review the survey questions, consider angles of importance to New Zealand, and formulate their own research questions and/or hypotheses to add to what we have identified. Quantitative data analysis: With support from the research team, the scholar will: prepare the data for analyses (variables re-coding) in SPSS, Stata, SAS or R; carry out the relevant statistical analyses; prepare tables and/or graphs for the presentation of results; contribute to the written interpretation of the results. Literature review: The scholar will carry out a literature review to identify recent local and international research that will help contextualise our findings. Together with the research team, the scholar will: identify key search terms that will usefully inform a selected set of research questions/topics; identify the most relevant databases (e.g., Scopus, PubMed, Google Scholar) for conducting the search; learn to use a bibliographic software packgage or app (e.g., Endnote, Zotero) to retrieve and store the identified literature; write brief overviews for each research question/topic based on the literature.

Required Skills/Pre-requisites: Familiarity with quantitative data analyses OR literature reviews; Basic knowledge of a statistical OR bibliographic software package; An interest in the social aspects of health and health care; Good analytical and writing skills; Ability to work independently and as a team; Enthusiasm for research and learning new research tools.

Benefits to Scholar: With our mentorship, the scholar will: learn how to generate theory-based hypotheses or research questions; develop technical skills in using statistical OR bibliographic software; develop skills in quantitative data analysis OR systematic literature search and review procedures; develop critical analysis and academic writing skills; develop an understanding of international survey research; gain experiential knowledge of being part of a research team; develop the confidence to undertake postgraduate studies; gain research experience that will add value to their curriculum vitae. During their time with us, we will encourage the scholar to register with and explore the ISSP portal, which contains publicly accessible international survey data (involving up to 43 countries) on a broad range of social science topics dating back to 1985. The ISSP offers readily accessible datasets for cross-national and cross-time research on critical social attitudes that the scholar may wish to consider for their postgraduate study.

Expectations: A willingness to take up the challenge of learning at a rapid pace; Be on time for meetings with supervisors, be attentive, and ask questions if they are unclear; Put forth their best efforts throughout the project; Work towards the common goal of quality in our research output.

Project

Policy analysis is part of the government’s core business, informing the design and delivery of programmes and services. This is work undertaken by bureaucrats, political advisers as well as researchers and advocacy groups. It has evolved over time, influenced by colonial constitutional and institutional arrangements, international ideas and trends, and bureaucratic rules and norms. Because policy analysis is seldom conducted in a comparable manner across states, our project is comparative in orientation, and will seek to identify what is distinctive about the national policy culture of Aotearoa New Zealand. We will begin by drafting a background paper on the historical evolution of policy analysis to set the scene. This will include a focus on the imposition of colonial bureaucratic practices on Māori despite the signing of Te Tiriti, the impact of becoming bureaucratically independent of Britain, the enthusiastic adoption of new public management principles and the more recent embrace of microdata analysis, science advice and predictive modelling to inform new policy. We will also build a repository of policy analysis scholarship authored by experts from Aotearoa with a view to bringing them together in 2023 for a workshop to explore old practices and current trends in policy analysis and bureaucratic practice.

Scholar’s Work on the Project: The scholar will work with Professor Jennifer Curtin and Dr Kemi Igiebor to undertake the following: Search for and summarise relevant second order literature on the history of bureaucratic practice and policy advisory work in Aotearoa New Zealand; Map the history of New Zealand’s bureaucratic institutional design and processes that have informed the development of policy analysis; Create a timeline and summary of when and how governments in Aotearoa have engaged with Te Tiriti o Waitangi in relation to public policy and the key actors involved; Co-author with project supervisors a background report that traces the evolution of public policy practice in a bicultural context; Identify and create a database (using excel) of public policy scholars in Aotearoa New Zealand from across a range of disciplines and their areas of expertise; Work with project supervisors to solicit potential contributors to a one-day workshop for delivery in Semester Two 2023.

Required Skills/Pre-requisites: The scholar should demonstrate the following: A broad knowledge of public policy and a demonstrated interest in New Zealand politics and public policy, Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and New Zealand; Have excellent research, writing, analytical and communication skills; A capacity to work independently and as part of a team.

Benefits to Scholar: The scholar will gain skills through involvement in all stages of the research process, from data gathering to knowledge mobilisation. In particular, the scholar will gain the following benefits: Become familiar with a range of different primary source materials relating to public policy; Gain additional skills in critical analysis and the writing of literature reviews; Learn to build electronic libraries/bibliographies and databases using relevant software including RefWorks and Excel; Learn to write for academic publication and other audiences on topics related to public policy; Increased knowledge of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, becoming Tangata Tiriti, and engaging with Te Ao Māori; In addition, the research experience will add value to the student’s CV and will improve their career opportunities and confidence about undertaking postgraduate studies. As supervisors we will provide the summer scholar with a half day induction, encourage engagement with the Faculty of Arts programme of support, organise fortnightly sessions on the research process led by staff in the Public Policy Institute and participate in reading group meetings. These sessions will bring together summer scholars hosted by the PPI as well as MPP research students, and will include topics such as literature reviews, building data sets, and writing for multiple audiences, as well as providing space for social interaction and sharing ideas and challenges.

Expectations: The successful scholar will be: keenly interested in the politics and public policy of Aotearoa New Zealand; motivated to engage in independent and team-based activities; open to learning more about Tikanga Māori and the research process alongside their Tauiwi supervisors.

Project

The world currently faces a human migration policy crisis. In 2022 there are more than 26.4 million refugees displaced around the world. In addition, tens of millions of others reside on temporary visas in a country other than the one of their births. Considerable attention has been paid to immigration policy issues in the European and North American contexts, while significantly less to the those of Oceania and the Pacific region. This project seeks to address this gap by advancing two lines of research. The first will be to survey current citizenship laws and policies throughout the Pacific. The second is to disentangle the various classes of visas and citizenship statuses in the region. The aim to present a typology of a new global cohabitation system. The student will work closely with the research supervisor to compile research and write up initial findings. In combination, this data will allow us to explore restrictive immigration policies designed to maintain temporary status for most migrants. The result has been the creation a large underclass of individuals who are increasingly denied permanency in the form of grants of citizenship.

Scholar’s Work on the Project: The scholar will work with Tim Fadgen to undertake the following: 1. Search for and summarise relevant scholarly and grey literature on citizenship laws across Oceania. 2. Organise legal research from countries into an accessible database using Excel or similar program. 3. Contribute to a co-authored paper for possible publication in 2023.

Required Skills/Pre-requisites: The scholar should demonstrate the following: 1. A broad knowledge of public policy and law with a strong interest in citizenship, and a demonstrated interest in comparative politics and history 2. Have excellent research, writing, analytical, and communication skills 3. A capacity to work independently and as part of a team.

Benefits to Scholar: The scholar will gain skills through involvement in all stages of the research process, from data gathering to knowledge mobilisation. In particular, the scholar will gain the following benefits: 1. Become familiar with a range of different primary source materials. 2. Gain additional skills in critical analysis and the writing of literature reviews. 3. Learn to build electronic libraries/ bibliographies and databases using relevant software, including RefWorks and Excel. 4. Learn to write for academic publication, other audiences, and undertake editorial work. In addition, the research experience will add value to the student’s CV, and will improve their career opportunities and confidence about undertaking postgraduate studies. I will provide the summer scholar with a half day induction, encourage engagement with the Faculty of Arts programme of support, organise fortnightly sessions on the research process led by staff in the Public Policy Institute and participate in reading group meetings. These sessions will bring together summer scholars hosted by the PPI as well as MPP research students, and will include topics such as literature reviews, building data sets, and writing for multiple audiences, as well as providing space for social interaction and sharing ideas and challenges.

Expectations: The successful scholar will be: 1. keenly interested in citizenship law and policy issues, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region 2. motivated to engage in independent and team-based activities 3. open to learning more about Tikanga Māori and the research process alongside their Tauiwi supervisor.

Project

The focus of this Natalie Blair Summer Research Scholarship is investigating Ahuahau Great Mercury Island depositional processes, the creation of gardening matrixes via additives such as charcoal, shells, and fire cracked rock, and the ecodynamic relationships associated with niche construction. Excavations at Tamewhera and Waitetoke have documented a series of raised-bed taro gardens with associated areas for dryland kumara. Initial micro and macro botanical analyses coupled with radiocarbon dating indicate that people initially settled the island some 700 years ago and created a highly productive horticultural landscape. During the excavations at Tamewhera and Waitetoke a series of sediment cores and samples were recovered. The geoarchaeological and palaeoenvironmental analysis of these by the summer scholar will provide insights into the pre-human palaeoenvironment and how the area was transformed through the intentional and unintentional actions of people.

Scholar’s Work on the Project: The scholar will conduct geoarchaeological and palaeoenvironmental analyses of the Tamewhera and Waitetoke sediment samples. This involves a range of laboratory techniques including assessing total organic carbon, grain size distributions, and XRF (X-Ray fluorescence) and XRD (X-ray diffraction) of sediments. Soil micromorphology profiles will be obtained using thin-sections and micro-analysis (microscopy and electron microprobe) to determine soil development processes. Analyses will be conducted in the Roger C. Green Archaeological Laboratory and in the School of Environment laboratories. The scholar will conduct analyses and statistically assess the results and write a report on their work which will form the basis for a journal article on the geoarchaeological processes of Tamewhera and Waitetoke.

Required Skills/Pre-requisites: Ability to work as a member of a transdisciplinary research group and openness to being supervised and supported during project activities. 1. Ability to conduct independent laboratory activities. 2. Ability to develop and follow consistent protocols and procedures. 3. Familiarity with Excel and statistical software is advantageous, and the ability and desire to develop these skills is necessary. 4. Desire to develop report writing skills.

Benefits to Scholar: The summer scholar will be a member of a well-established transdisciplinary research group. This group involves staff, postgraduate and undergraduate students. The scholar will be integrated into the group and will be directly supported and supervised by Ladefoged. Being part of the research group will teach the scholar how to be a productive research collaborator. The scholar will be shown the benefits of postgraduate study and encouraged to pursue their academic goals.

Expectations: The Scholar will be expected to be a cordial and productive research collaborator. They should be open to suggestions and directives from their supervisor and other project team members. They should have the ability to think laterally and proactively solve problems, and an enthusiasm for the research process.

Project

Obsidian hydration dating (OHD) directly dates obsidian artefacts by measuring the rate of water diffusion into the surface of a freshly flaked artefact. OHD has been applied worldwide and was initially developed in Aotearoa New Zealand over 20 years ago but was abandoned shortly thereafter due to serious reservations regarding its efficacy. The Ahuahu Great Mercury Island Archaeological Project in conjunction with a Marsden funded project is currently developing the methodology in Aotearoa to create an inexpensive dating method with improved accuracy and precision. The current approach assumes a uniform temperature history for artifact samples, negating post-depositional processes and changes in archaeological context (e.g., burial and re-exposure). The Natalie Blair Summer Research Scholar will analyze obsidian from Ahuahu Great Mercury Island to help develop a method that correlates the hydration layer refractive index (RI) value with the average hydration temperature of archaeological samples.

Scholar’s Work on the Project: The scholar will conduct laboratory experiments where an immersion oil surrounding an obsidian sample is heated to change its RI. When the RI of the liquid matches the RI of the sample, light transmittance through the sample will reach a maximum. The scholar will help identify whether the cross-section density of diffused water within the hydration layer measured by the RI is a good proxy indicator for an artifact’s average hydration temperature. Analyses will be conducted in the Roger C. Green Archaeological Laboratory. The scholar will conduct analyses and statistically assess the results and write a report on their work which will contribute to a journal article on OHD of Aotearoa artifacts.

Required Skills/Pre-requisites: Ability to work as a member of a transdisciplinary research group and openness to being supervised and supported during project activities. 1. Ability to conduct independent laboratory activities. 2. Ability to develop and follow consistent protocols and procedures. 3. Familiarity with Excel and statistical software is advantageous, and the ability and desire to develop these skills is necessary. 4. Desire to develop report writing skills.

Benefits to Scholar: The summer scholar will be a member of a well-established transdisciplinary research group. This group involves staff, postgraduate and undergraduate students. The scholar will be integrated into the group and will be directly supported and supervised by Ladefoged. Being part of the research group will teach the scholar how to be a productive research collaborator. The scholar will be shown the benefits of postgraduate study and encouraged to pursue their academic goals.

Expectations: The Scholar will be expected to be a cordial and productive research collaborator. They should be open to suggestions and directives from their supervisor and other project team members. They should have the ability to think laterally and proactively solve problems, and an enthusiasm for the research process.

Project

The international justice system has failed the millions who need it most, those who have suffered the gravest violations, such as genocide, torture, slavery, and extrajudicial killing. Against multiple crises, including rising authoritarianism, record-levels of violent conflict, and climate change, solving the injustice crises is more urgent than ever. This political research will help solve this vexing problem. Beyond holding violators to account, it seeks to help restore survivors and repair the damage inflicted on them. Why have our legal-political systems so profoundly failed these victims? How can they find justice? This project seeks to understand the multifarious barriers to justice – including legal/political, psychological, sociological, economic and geographic – through multiple methods. These include a rigorous, multidisciplinary literature review, metadata study, oral history interviews with the advocates representing these survivors, and document analyses, of materials drawn from court, legislative, government, and media reports related to these cases.

Scholar’s Work on the Project: The scholar will work alongside the supervisor on four parts of this research, depending on the scholars’ strengths, skills and desires. These include: 1/ Approximately 120 hours working with the supervisor in conducting literature searches in different disciplines to understand the barriers to justice that have already been studied. This would include searching in journals related to sociology, politics, law, psychology, political geography, and economics. (Some of this has been conducted already but there is more to do.) This literature that addresses these unique barriers will then need to be organized thematically. 2/ Approximately 110 hours working with the supervisor searching for specific documents related to the cases, organising them in a coherent way with regards to types of barriers to justice. 3/ Approximately 90 hours working with the supervisor to read and analyze interview manuscripts of human rights advocates to further identify and understand the barriers to justice as discussed by the advocates, particularly those that may have not yet been identified in the literature. These will also be organized thematically, and analyzed (and potentially coded) alongside the literature. The scholar and supervisor will then discuss and contrast the literature with the findings from the interviews to identify what is new to the fields, how this material might contribute to the scholarship, and what journals make the most sense for those findings. 4/ Approximately 80 hours writing sections of the paper that will be submitted to a journal, co-authored if the scholar desires to do so.

Required Skills/Pre-requisites: Most importantly, the summer scholar should have an interest in human rights redress-related matters and the questions around these impediments. Further, the summer scholar should have critical analysis and written communication skills and a capacity to be creative and comprehensive in conducting searches. The supervisor will guide the scholar about coding and analysis of this material. It would be great (but not required) if the scholar has some background or experience in law-related courses and issues. Some of the material is difficult emotionally, so the scholar should be prepared for approaching these experiences of survivors.

Benefits to Scholar: The scholar will learn about the issue itself, learn about researching, analysing, and coding this type of material, and if desired, may get a publication, co-authored with the supervisor. These skills will also help propel the scholar with future post-graduate work or analytic roles or positions. I am looking forward to mentoring another student who is interested in learning about this part of human rights and contributing to the solution for this human rights crisis.

Expectations: In the past, I have co-authored a paper with one of my summer scholars who helped build a dataset, analyse and write an article. Because he took the lead, he is the lead author. I do not necessarily expect every scholar to do this, but it is on offer. My expectations are enthusiasm of the subject, completion of tasks on time, a degree of initiative, and a collaborative attitude.

Project

Aotearoa New Zealand has a long history of undertaking significant infrastructure-focused projects, including the construction of dams, hydro-electrical structures, and roading. In recent times several significant roading-related infrastructure projects have been completed – or are near completion – including Transmission Gully in the Greater Wellington region, and the Waikato Expressway By-Pass project. To date, the extensive history of major infrastructure projects has not been matched by significant research on the social impacts of the projects on the communities, whanau/families and individuals residing nearby. The work programme for the scholarship will involve collation and analysis of background information on the Waikato Expressway project published on central government agency and local government websites, collation, and analysis of media publications on the social impacts of the project, and an annotated bibliography of recent academic publications on the social impacts of major infrastructure projects. The purpose of the work earmarked for the summer scholarship is to assist the project supervisors with the development of an inter-disciplinary, multi-method research project on the social impacts of the Waikato Expressway By-Pass project on the northern Waikato towns of Huntly and Ngaruawahia. It is envisioned the completed work will inform the development of an application to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Enterprise’s Endeavour fund in 2023.

Scholar’s Work on the Project: The successful applicant will work with Juan Tauri, Ritu Parna Roy and Robert Webb to complete the following tasks: (1) Collate and analyse background information on the Waikato Expressway project published on central government agency and local government websites. (2) Collate and analyse media publications on the social impacts of the Waikato Expressway project. (3) Work with the project supervisors to write a summary report on analysis of material analysed in tasks 1 and 2. (4) Develop an annotated bibliography of recent (social science) academic publications (both internationally and local) on the social impacts of major infrastructure projects.

Required Skills/Pre-requisites: A broad knowledge of public policy. 2. An interest in researching and analysing key social issues. 3. Excellent research, writing, analytical and communication skills. 4. A capacity to work independently and as part of a team.

Benefits to Scholar: The successful applicant will gain transferable skills through involvement in all stages of the research process set out above, from data gathering, to analysis and report writing. In particular, the scholar will gain the following benefits from participation in the proposed project: 1. Become familiar with a range of different data and source materials relating to analysis of significant social issues. 2. Gain skills in critical analysis of a range of information sources. 3. Gain skills in report writing. 4. Gain skills in constructed annotated bibliographies. 5. In addition, the research experience will add value to the student’s CV and will improve their career opportunities and confidence about undertaking postgraduate studies. As supervisors we will provide the successful applicant with a half day induction, encourage engagement with the Faculty of Arts support processes and organise fortnightly sessions on the research process led by staff in the Public Policy Institute and participate in reading group meetings. These sessions will bring together summer scholars hosted by the PPI as well as MPP research students, and will include topics such as literature reviews, building data sets, and writing for multiple audiences, as well as providing space for social interaction and sharing ideas and challenges.

Expectations: The successful applicant will be: 1. Keenly interested in public policy. 2. Motivated to research significant social issues that arise in Aotearoa New Zealand. 3. Willing to engage in independent and team-based activities.