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
PhD candidates
Liz 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
Kim Cope Tait
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
Sarper Dorter
Topic: From Yesterday’s Rubble to the Futuer Edgelands: Designated Temporalities and the Ruinscapes of Africa
Email dorsa219@student.otago.ac.nz
Jasmine Gallagher
PhD Topic: The New Sincerity in Contemporary New Zealand Poetry and Art
Email galja734@student.otago.ac.nz
Md. 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
Essa 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
Arundhati Sethi
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
Mere Taito
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
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
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
Pamela 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
Rushi 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
Louise Wallace
PhD Topic: Womanhood in Contemporary Long-Form Narrative Poetry
Email mealo128@student.otago.ac.nz
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
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
