Teaching Fellow, Co-ordinator, Pacific Student Support – Sciences
BA(S Pac) PGDip(S Pac) PhD(ANU)
3rd Floor, Science Library
Science III Building
730 Cumberland Street
Tel +64 21 278 9267
Email vanisha.mishra-vakaoti@otago.ac.nz
Research
Vanisha has a background in Psychology and Social Research. Her PhD thesis explored the experience of children’s schooling and discontinuing schooling in Fiji.
She has worked as an independent research consultant in the Pacific for over 13 years, helping organisations plan, conduct, and produce impactful, engaged, and inspired research, training, and knowledge products.
Vanisha was the Fiji consultant on the International Women’s Development Agency (IWDA) – Individual Deprivation Measure (IDM) project. The measure was the first to assess deprivation at the individual level, making it possible to see who is poor, in what way and to what extent.
Vanisha co-led the Citizens’ Constitutional Forum (Fiji) nation-wide consultation on the 2013 Fiji Constitution. She was also the lead researcher in the Pacific Community (SPC) 100 Pacific Leaders Research, a multi-country study of Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu, and the Solomon Islands.
Vanisha a particular interest in children and young people. She served as the Child Protection and Gender Specialist in a Fiji Government and Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade project to create child-friendly, culturally sensitive, context specific and age-appropriate educational material for primary school students in Fiji.
Teaching
On returning to the academy after years in the field, Vanisha brings a strong research grounded approach to teaching.
In her classes, students can expect to feel like they belong in the academy, being able to stand firmly in their identities, while being supported to achieve academic excellence.
Vanisha teaches:
- Academic skills workshops through the Pacific Community and Support Team – Division of Sciences
- Into papers across the Division of Sciences and wider university
- One-on-one academic sessions with students.
Publications
Vakaoti, P., & Mishra-Vakaoti, V. (2015). Social media and the 2014 elections in Fiji. Round Table, 104(2), 189-198. doi: 10.1080/00358533.2015.1017260 Journal - Research Article
Mishra-Vakaoti, V., & Vakaoti, P. (2014). Understanding the 2013 Constitution: A perceptions survey. In S. Fong, R. Tuivaga, B. Dhanasar, B. Tilbury, N. Tillon & S. Smiles (Eds.), Fiji in transition: Towards a sustainable constitutional democracy. (pp. 63-104). Suva, Fiji: Citizens’ Constitutional Forum. Chapter in Book - Research