Students funded in 2014
- Minoo Hassani Esfehani, PhD candidate, Department of Tourism, research provisionally entitled 'The Role of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) in Ecotourism Development in Natural Protected Areas (NPA).'
- Dylan Gaffney, PhD candidate,Department of Anthropology and Archaeology,
- Sarah Rahmani, PhD candidate, Department of Theology and Religion,
- Nick Sutton, Masters student , Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, research provisionally entitled 'Pots on the Move?: Ceramic Production and Mobility at Oposisi, Papua New Guinea.'
- Shogo Tanaka, PhD candidate, Department of Physical Education, research provisionally entitled 'A qualitative study of acculturative stress amongst Japanese rugby players in New Zealand.'
- Linda Zampol D'ortia, PhD candidate, Department of Theology and Religion, research provisionally entitled 'Evangelization at a crossroad: Francisco Cabral, S. J. and his outlook for the Jesuit Mission in Japan 1570-1580.'
Students funded in 2013
- Darren Atkinson, PhD Candidate, Department of Politics. Awarded $2000 towards the cost of his research provisionally entitled 'The Post-Communist Transformation of the People's Republic of Afganistan.'
- Ik Young Chang, PhD Candidate, Department of Physical Education. Awarded $2000 towards the cost of his research provisionally entitled 'Transnational migrations and identity negotiation: The role of sport in spaces of life of the 1.5 generation South Koreans in New Zealand.'
- Shogo Tanaka, PhD Candidate, Department of Physical Education. Awarded $2000 towards the costs of his research provisionally entitled 'A qualitative study of acculturative stress amongst Japanese rugby players in New Zealand.'
- Monica Tromp, PhD Candidate, Department of Anatomy. Awarded $1655 towards the costs of her research provisionally entitled 'Examining migrations and agriculture through plant microfossils from human and pig dental calculus from Island South East Asia and Southwest Oceania.'
- Linda Zampol D'ortia, PhD Candidate, Department of Theology and Religion. Awarded $364 towards her research provisionally entitled 'Evangelization at a crossroad: Francisco Cabral, S. J. and his outlook for the Jesuit Mission in Japan 1570-1580.
- Lin Zeng, PhD Candidate, Department of Languages and Cultures. Awarded $400 towards the costs of presenting at a conference, her research is provisionally entitled 'Encounter between languages: Liang Qichao's translational experience and translational practice.'
- Pei-hua Wu, PhD Candidate, Department of Anthropology and Archaeology. Awarded $1835 towards the cost of her research provisionally entitled 'Double sprouted pottery of Papua New Guinea and its possible prehistoric links between Asia and the Pacific.'
Asian Migrations Research Theme Summer Scholarship 2013-2014
Summer Scholarship awarded to: Dylan Gaffney, Department of Anthropology and Archaeology.
Bio: Dylan holds a BA majoring in Classics and Anthropology, and recently finished his BA hons in Archaeology. His dissertation focused on mobility and subsistence change in the PNG Highlands from the terminal Pleistocene to the mid-Holocene. In 2014 Dylan will be excavating with Professor Richard Walter at Wairau Bar, the earliest known archaeological site in Aotearoa, before beginning his MA at the University of Otago focusing on the archaeology of the Bismark Archipelago.
Proposed research title: 'Early Austronesian influence in the Papua New Guinea Highlands: Wanelek rewitnessed.'
Abstract: The proposed research (supervised by Professor Glenn Summerhayes) will address the interactions between two prehistoric Asian migratory groups. The first group being the Papuan speakers who crossed from the Sunda (the former landmass comprising island Southeast Asia) to Sahul (the former continent consisting of Australia, Tasmania and New Guinea) about 50,000 years ago; the second being the Austronesian speakers who arrived in the Western Pacific about 35000 years ago, probably originally from Taiwan. A complex of domestic animals, new crops and pottery seem to coincide with the arrival of Austronesians in New Guinea and contribute to a mixing pot of cultural traits, from which people with a shared heritage later moved east to colonise the Pacific and eventually New Zealand. Wanelek site on the boundary between the PNG Highlands and lower altitudes is perfectly situated to test these levels of interaction following Austronesian arrival. A petrographic and electron microprobe analysis will be used to examine the sources of pottery at the site, suggested to be a trading post between indigenous Papuan Highlanders, and Austronesian colonists on the coast. If pottery was locally made it would imply diffusion of pottery making techniques into the Highlands, if not local the number and location of sources will be used to infer the extend and complexity of trade networks between the Papuan Highlanders and the Austronesian pottery makers in the lowlands. No study of this kind has been attempted at Wanalek and a sourcing study would be a major advantage in our knowledge of prehistoric Asian migrations and population interactions.
Students funded in 2012
- Linda Zampol D'Ortia, PhD Candidate, Department of Theology and Religion. Awarded $1000 towards the cost of her research, provisionally entitled ' The specificities of Jesuit Christianity in XVI-XVII century Japan.'
- Danilo Giambra, PhD Candidate, Department of Theology and Religion. Awarded $2000 towards the cost of his research provisionally entitled 'Tenrikyō and Seichō no Ie. Two New Religions case studies to understand 'official' Internet usage for religious purposes in Japan.'
- Rakhee Chatbar, PhD Candidate, Department of Geography. Awarded $918 towards the cost of presenting her research provisionally entitled 'Volunteering for Information and Communication Technologies for Development.'
- Bunjong (Gaye) Wall, PhD Candidate, Department of English and Linguistics. Awarded $2000 Towards the costs of presenting at a conference, her paper was entitled 'Semiotic Mediation: A Sociocultural Perspective on Academic Writing Development.'
- Abid Akbar Vali, PhD Candidate, Department of English and Linguistics. Awarded $2000 towards the costs of his research provisionally entitled 'Genius, Appropriation and Transnational Collaboration in Cathay.'
- Pei-hua Wu, PhD Candidate in the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology. Awarded $2000 towards the cost of her research provisionally entitled 'Double sprouted pottery of Papua New Guinea and its possible prehistoric links between Asia and the Pacific.'
Asian Migrations Research Theme Summer Scholarship 2012-2013
Jade Aikman-Dodd, MA Student, Department of Anthropology and Archaeology.
Jade Aikman Dodd completed a BA (Hons I) in Māori Studies at the University of Otago, in 2012. He is currently undertaking a one-year research Masters, within the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology. Over the summer of 2012-13 he was the recipient of the Asian Migrations Research Theme Summer Scholarship, supervised by Associate Professor Jacqui Leckie. Jade undertook some preliminary research on the history of Māori and Indian relationships in New Zealand from early settlement to today, alongside hearing some stories of the whānau (families) of current Indian and Māori descendants.
Research Title: 'From Subcontinent to Subtropical: Indian-Maori relationships in Aotearoa/New Zealand,' presented in the Asian Migrations Seminar Series, 8 March 2013.
Abstract: This research builds upon the existing research and publications of Associate Professor Jacqueline Leckie concerning the history of Indian Migration to New Zealand. Records indicate that from at least 1809 Indian men were living within Māori communities and having intimate relationships with Maori women. What was the outcome for their descendants? Indian settlers in Aotearoa were intermediaries between Pakeha and Māori, between the cash and subsistence economies by providing essential, luxury and illicit goods to Māori communities. By World War II these Indian settlers included Indian women, some who formed friendships with Māori women in remote rural areas. Indians also became employers of Māori. This came to a head at Pukekohe with the formation of the White New Zealand League in 1925. Not only did it object to Indians employing Māori but possible miscegenation through “the mixing of the races.” The Akarana Māori Associated was also concerned about the impact of this on the Māori 'race.' This project is directly related to the Asian Migrations Theme, involving not only the movement of people from the Indian subcontinent to New Zealand but also their intercultural and commercial exchange and intimate relationships with Māori. It will offer fresh insight into the nature of the Indian diaspora in the South Pacific and the impact indigenous cultures there had on Indian migrants.