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Postgraduate research in English

View the list of past theses

MA candidates

Charlotte Cook

BA Hons English (Otago)

Topic: Nature, the natural world, and eco-criticism in CS Lewis

Email cooch447@student.otago.ac.nz

Supervisor: Dr Paul Tankard

Sandra Jones

BA Hons English and Old Norse (Wales)

Topic: Are we on the same journey? The exiled wanderer and the practical pilgrim in the early medieval period

Email sandra.jones@postgrad.otago.ac.nz

Supervisor: Professor Simone Marshall

Chris Lam

BSc in Genetics, minor in Zoology; BA(Hons) in Media and Communication Studies, minor in Sociology

Topic: Precarity, Play and Posthumanism: Tracing the New Weird from Gothic Literature to Art Games

Email chrislam@keemail.me

Supervisor: Associate Professor Dave Ciccoricco

Ursula Standring Bellugue

BA Hons in English, minor in Religious Studies (Otago)

Topic: Indigeneity, Culture, and Simulation in Video Games

Email staur372@student.otago.ac.nz

Supervisor: David Ciccoricco

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PhD candidates

Liz Breslin 2022 imageLiz Breslin

Proposed topic: Straining the fence lines: unsettling settler coloniser writing in the rural south of Te Waipounamu the South Island of Aotearoa New Zealand (creative critical)

Email breli612@student.otago.ac.nz

Primary supervisor: Jacob Edmond

Rachel Connor

PhD Topic: Richard Holland’s Buke of the Howlat

Email: conra395@student.otago.ac.nz

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Kim Cope TaitKim Cope Tait image (2023)

Qualifications: MFA in Poetry, Vermont College of Fine Arts, 2000

Proposed topic: Beyond the Veil of Neoliberal Multiculturalism: Personal Ambivalence in the Poetry of Indigenous Women Poets

Email kim.copetait@postgrad.otago.ac.nz

Primary supervisor: Lynley Edmeades

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Sarper Dorter

Topic: From Yesterday’s Rubble to the Futuer Edgelands: Designated Temporalities and the Ruinscapes of Africa

Email dorsa219@student.otago.ac.nz

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Jasmine Gallagher

PhD Topic: The New Sincerity in Contemporary New Zealand Poetry and Art

Email galja734@student.otago.ac.nz

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Rakibul Hasan Khan image 2020Md. Rakibul Hasan Khan

Qualifications: MPhil, MA, and BA (Honours) in English (University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh)

PhD Topic: Globalization, the Environment, and the Postcolony: Studies in Selected South Asian Novels in English of the Twenty-First Century

Research Interests: postcolonial and eco-postcolonial studies, globalization, and diaspora studies

Email khara602@student.otago.ac.nz

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Essa May Ranapiri imageEssa May Ranapiri

Qualifications: MA in Creative Writing (Victoria University of Wellington), and BA (Honours) in English (University of Waikato) BA in History (University of Waikato) Undergraduate Diploma in Māori and Indigenous Studies (University of Waikato)

Topic: Takatāpui Toikupu and the Cyborg, an investigation into poetry by contemporary takatāpui writers and how they utilise the cyborg in content and form to realise Mana Takatāpui

Primary Supervisor: Professor Jacob Edmond

Research Interests: Contemporary Poetry and Poetics, Indigenous Studies, Queer Studies, Philosophy of Technology.

Email essawrites@outlook.co.nz

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Arundhati SethiArundhati Sethi image

Qualifications: MA (Honors with Research) in English (University of Mumbai), BA in English (St. Xavier's College, University of Mumbai)

Proposed topic: Affective Mobilities: Exploring Spatio-Corporeal Configurations and Liminal Aesthetics in Contemporary Refugee Comics

Primary Supervisors: Professor Catherine Fowler (Media, Film and Communication), Dr Rochelle Simmons (English)

Email arundhati.sethi@postgrad.otago.ac.nz

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Mere TaitoMere Taito image

Qualifications: BA in Lit/Lang and Hist/Pol (University of the South Pacific), M. App Ling (University of Southern Queensland)

Proposed topic: Waywriting a collection of multilingual Fäeag Rotuạm ta-English poetry from reading creative Fäeag Rotuạm ta archival and contemporary texts: a creative option for Rotuman language regeneration in Aotearoa, NZ

Research Interests: Creative Practice, Creative Writing, Language Regeneration, Rotuman Language, Rotuman Creative Literature

Email meremarinataito@gmail.com

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Michael Thames

Proposed topic: Hope within Tolkien’s Literary Corpus and its Northern Sources: The Kalevala, Norse Edda, and Beowulf

Primary supervisor: Associate Professor Paul Tankard

Email thami739@student.otago.ac.nz

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Adam Stewart

Qualifications: BA Hons. English Literature/Music Studies (Victoria University, Wellington), MA Creative Writing (IIML)

PhD Topic: "Toitū: the story of a stream" - Deconstruction, the New Historicism and Digital Historical Fiction

Research Interests: deconstruction, narratology, gaming and the digital humanities

Email stead429@student.otago.ac.nz

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Pamela Treanor image 2021Pamela Treanor

Qualifications: BA in History, Massey University; PGDip Librarianship, Victoria University of Wellington; GradDip Russian, University of Otago, MA English, University of Otago.

PhD Topic: “Layers of Intent and Meaning in Medieval European Lettered Textiles, and Their Portrayal in Literature”

Research Interests: Medieval literature, textile history, bibliography, NZ theatre history

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Rushi Vyas image 2020Rushi Vyas

Education: BS (University of Michigan), MFA (University of Colorado-Boulder)

PhD Topic: Creative/Critical: Rituals of Relinquishment and Poetry of the Extreme Present

Research Interests: Creative Practice, Creative Writing, Contemporary Poetry and Poetics, Decolonial Theory, Race and Poetry, Performance Studies

Web rushivyas.org

Email vyaru178@student.otago.ac.nz

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Louise Wallace

PhD Topic: Womanhood in Contemporary Long-Form Narrative Poetry

Email mealo128@student.otago.ac.nz

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Eileen Yu

Topic: Virginia Woolf and the cinema

Primary Supervisor: Dr Rochelle Simmons

Research Interests: Virginia Woolf, Modernism, cinema studies, visual cultures, feminism.

Email yuei5909@otago.student.ac.nz

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Yu Zhang 张宇

PhD Topic: Reading Poetry in English through the Chinese Poetic Concept of “Idea-scape,” or yijing 意境

Email zhayu888@student.otago.ac.nz

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