Dr Edmond Fehoko is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Human Nutrition with a background in criminology, sociology, cultural studies, mental health and addiction, reproductive health and public health.
Dr Fehoko has extensive expertise in development, design and evaluation of Pacific and indigenous interventions to promote health and positive wellbeing, qualitative and Pacific research methods and methodologies.
Dr Fehoko is currently funded by the Health Research Council of New Zealand to conduct a exploratory study on Pacific males perspectives on the strengths and harms of digital wellbeing, more specifically around social media use and addiction, online gaming and pornography. He will later explore food disorder and the influence of food advertisements from a Pacific perspective.
Dr Fehoko is also a Pacific Research Lead on a Marsden study exploring Pacific perspectives of infertility and assisted reproductive technologies.
Before moving to the University of Otago, Dr Fehoko was a Postdoctoral Fellow with the School of Māori Studies and Pacific Studies at the University of Auckland, Pacific Academic Partner at the Pacific Development Office, Manukau Institute of Technology, and a Learning Advisor at the Auckland University of Technology. Dr Fehoko is a past recipient of the Prime Ministers Pacific Youth Awards, Sunpix Pacific Peoples Education Award and has received multiple awards from the Health Research Council of New Zealand.
Dr Fehoko welcomes postgraduate students with an interest in mental health and addiction, qualitative research, indigenous and Pacific research methods, and methodologies.
Memberships
Member of the Advisory Committee for Assisted Reproductive Technologies
Member of the Royal Society of New Zealand
Editorial Board Member for Sites: A Journal of Social Anthropology and Cultural Studies
Editorial Board Member for the Harm Reduction Journal
Publications
Faleolo, R. L., Fehoko, E., Dyck, D., Hafu-Fetokai, C., Malungahu, G., Clark, Z. L., … Fa'avae, D. T. M. (2024). Our search for intergenerational rhythms as Tongan global scholars. Art/Research International, 8(2), 663-704. doi: 10.18432/ari29797
Journal - Research Article
Long, N. J., Aikman, P. J., Appleton, N. S., Davies, S. G., Deckert, A., Fehoko, E., … Tunufa'i, L. (2024). On epidemiological consciousness and COVID-19: Envisioning vulnerability, hazard, and public health policy in Aotearoa New Zealand and the United Kingdom. In S. Abram, H. Lambert & J. Robinson (Eds.), How to live through a pandemic. (pp. 20-39). Abingdon, UK: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003359371-2
Chapter in Book - Research
Deckert, A., Long, N. J., Aikman, P. J., Appleton, N. S., Davies, S. G., Fehoko, E., … Tunufa'i, L. (2023). "It has totally changed how I think about the police": COVID-19 and the mis/trust of pandemic policing in Aotearoa New Zealand. Criminal Justice Review. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1177/07340168231193023
Journal - Research Article
Shaw, R. M., & Fehoko, E. (2023). Barriers to accessing assisted reproduction for diverse and minority groups in Aotearoa New Zealand: Findings from a qualitative study. Aotearoa New Zealand Social Work, 35(4), 102-111. Retrieved from https://anzswjournal.nz/anzsw/article/view/1033
Journal - Research Article
Richards, R., Walter, I., Finigan, A., Ruhe, T., Avia, L., Schaaf, M., & Fehoko, E. (Eds.). (2023). Proceedings of the Pacific Postgraduate Symposium: Pacific Voices XX. Dunedin, New Zealand: Pacific Islands Centre, University of Otago. 44p. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10523/16433
Conference Contribution - Edited volume of conference proceedings
Fehoko, E. S., Bellringer, M. E., & Fairbairn-Dunlop, P. (2023). The interface of gambling and cultural practices: A Tongan male perspective in Aotearoa | New Zealand. Frontiers in Sociology, 8, 1116312. doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2023.1116312
Journal - Research Article
Shaw, R. M., & Fehoko, E. (2023). Epistemic injustice and Body Mass Index: Examining Māori and Pacific women’s access to fertility treatment in Aotearoa New Zealand. Fat Studies, 12(2), 338-352. doi: 10.1080/21604851.2022.2063507
Journal - Research Article
Long, N. J., Hunter, A., Appleton, N. S., Davies, S. G., Deckert, A., Sterling, R., … Aikman, P. J., Fehoko, E., … Trnka, S. (2022). The research imagination during COVID-19: Rethinking norms of group size and authorship in anthropological and anthropology-adjacent collaborations. Anthropological Forum, 32(4), 351-370. doi: 10.1080/00664677.2023.2169250
Journal - Research Article
Fehoko, E. S., Fa'avae, D. T. M., Tecun, A., & Siuʻulua, S. A. (2022). Digital Vā: Pacific perspectives on the shift from 'ordinary practices' to 'extraordinary spaces' during the COVID-19 pandemic in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Anthropological Forum, 32(4), 307-324. doi: 10.1080/00664677.2023.2172549
Journal - Research Article
Fehoko, E. S., Bellringer, M. E., & Fairbairn-Dunlop, P. (2022). Culture, church, and collective: A qualitative study about gambling harm prevention and reduction in Aotearoa/New Zealand: A Tongan male perspective. Harm Reduction Journal, 19, 134. doi: 10.1186/s12954-022-00717-2
Journal - Research Article
Holroyd, E., Long, N. J., Appleton, N. S., Davies, S. G., Deckert, A., Fehoko, E., … Tunufa'i, L. (2022). Community healthcare workers' experiences during and after COVID-19 lockdown: A qualitative study from Aotearoa New Zealand. Health & Social Care in the Community, 30(5), 2761-2771. doi: 10.1111/hsc.13720
Journal - Research Article
Fa'avae, D. T. M., Fehoko, E., & Vaka, S. (2022). Fakakoloa as embodied mana moana and agency: Postcolonial sociology within Oceania. New Zealand Sociology, 37(1), 93-119. doi: 10.3316/informit.370380535106817
Journal - Research Article
Fehoko, E. S., Bellringer, M. E., & Fairbairn-Dunlop, P. (2022). Learning from home, schools, and the media: Exploring the learning of gambling from a Tongan male youth perspective in New Zealand. Asia-Pacific Journal of Public Health, 34(8), 804-805. doi: 10.1177/10105395221107854
Journal - Research Article
Long, N. J., Tunufa'i, L., Aikman, P. J., Appleton, N. S., Davies, S. G., Deckert, A., Fehoko, E., … Sterling, R. (2022). 'The most difficult time of my life' or 'COVID’s gift to me'? Differential experiences of COVID-19 funerary restrictions in Aotearoa New Zealand. Mortality, 27(4), 476-492. doi: 10.1080/13576275.2022.2049527
Journal - Research Article
Long, N. J., Appleton, N. S., Davies, S. G., Deckert, A., Fehoko, E., Holroyd, E., … Tunufa'i, L. (2022). Pathways and obstacles to social recovery following the elimination of SARS-CoV-2 from Aotearoa New Zealand: A qualitative cross-sectional study. Journal of Public Health, 44(4), e548-e556. doi: 10.1093/pubmed/fdab394
Journal - Research Article
Fehoko, E. S. (2021). Exploring the progression from games to gambling in Tonga. Journal of the Polynesian Society, 130(4), 311-326. doi: 10.15286/jps.130.4.311-326
Journal - Research Article
Fehoko, E., Hafoka, I., & Tecon, A. (2021). Holding tightly onto land and people during a pandemic: Kava pedagogies and tertiary learning relationships in Vahaope. Journal of Global Indigeneity, 5(1), 1-15.
Journal - Research Article
Martin-Anatias, N., Long, N. J., Graham Davies, S., Aikman, P. J., Appleton, N. S., Deckert, A., Fehoko, E., … Tunufa'i, L. (2021). Lockdown Ibuism: Experiences of Indonesian migrant mothers during the COVID-19 pandemic in aotearoa New Zealand. Intersections, 2021(45), 1-13.
Journal - Research Article
Trnka, S., Long, N. J., Aikman, P. J., Appleton, N. S., Davies, S. G., Deckert, A., Fehoko, E., … Tunufa'i, L. (2021). Negotiating risks and responsibilities during lockdown: Ethical reasoning and affective experience in Aotearoa New Zealand. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, 51(Suppl. 1), 55-74. doi: 10.1080/03036758.2020.1865417
Journal - Research Article
Fa'avae, D. T. F., Fehoko, E., Siu'ulua, S., & Tovo, F. (2021). Poetic deviances, lessgo deconstruct the master’s tools: Creatively critical talanoa mālie and critical autoethnographic defiance. Journal of New Zealand Studies, NS33, 110-126. doi: 10.26686/JNZS.INS33.7386
Journal - Research Article
Deckert, A., Long, N. J., Aikman, P. J., Appleton, N. S., Davies, S. G., Trnka, S., Fehoko, E., … Tunufa'i, L. (2021). ‘Safer communities … together’? Plural policing and COVID-19 public health interventions in Aotearoa New Zealand. Policing & Society, 31(5), 621-637. doi: 10.1080/10439463.2021.1924169
Journal - Research Article
Fehoko, E. S. (2020). From games to gambling: An exploratory study of Tongan-born and New Zealand-born male perceptions and experiences of gambling and problem gambling in New Zealand (PhD). Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10292/13818
Awarded Doctoral Degree
Appleton, N. S., Long, N. J., Aikman, P. J., Davies, S. G., Deckert, A., Fehoko, E., … Tunufa'i, L. (2020). (Alter)narratives of 'winning': Supermarket and healthcare workers' experiences of COVID19 in Aotearoa New Zealand. Sites, 17(2), 51-77. doi: 10.11157/sites-id471
Journal - Research Article
Fehoko, E. (2017) The cultural classroom: The faikava as an epistemological site for teaching and learning. Kava: A workshop for kava researchers and enthusiasts, Anthropology and Pacific Studies Seminar Series, The University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand. Retrieved from https://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/handle/10289/11048
Other Research Output
Fehoko, E. (2016). Pukepuke Fonua: An exploratory study on the faikava as an identity marker for New Zealand-born Tongan males in Auckland New Zealand. In N. Hadjigeorgiou (Ed.), Identity, belonging and human rights: A multi-disciplinary perspective. (pp. 113-124). Brill. doi: 10.1163/9781848884571_012
Chapter in Book - Research
Fehoko, E. S. (2015). Social space and cultural identity: The faikava as a supplementary site for maintaining Tongan identity in New Zealand. New Zealand Sociology, 30(1), 131-139.
Journal - Research Article