BCA, BAHons(VUW), MA(Auckland), PhD(VUW)Contact
Office 3S9a Richardson Building, South Tower
Tel +64 3 479 8301
Email emma.powell@otago.ac.nz
Research
Emma has completed research on Pacific anglophone literatures, mostly in the Polynesian region and more specifically on writing and cultural traditions of the Cook Islands and the Eastern Pacific. She has written about the influence of Cook Islands Māori writers in her graduate research and was a researcher on Associate Professor Alice Te Punga Somerville's Marsden Project Writing the New World (2020). She published parts of her research in this area in Mana: 50 years of Cook Islands creative writing (2018).
Emma's doctoral work in Pacific Studies explored the genealogical practices of Cook Islands Māori people. She took a comparative and interdisciplinary approach to that study and argued for the ways genealogical praxes can help shape indigenous historiography, and notions of nationhood and futurity.
Her current research work focuses on the political, social, cultural and genealogical imbrications of New Zealand's imperial Realm. She also explores notions of exchange, correspondence and genealogical connection across the Eastern Polynesian region.
Teaching
- MAOR 102 Māori Society (Convener)
- INGS 501 Indigenous Theory and Method
- INDV 301 Māori and Indigenous Development
Distinctions
- 2020: International Studies Association, Teresia Teaiwa Award
- 2020: Royal Society Te Apārangi, Moana Oceania Te Koha Prize
- 2019: Polynesian Society Inc, Honorary Membership
- 2018: Victoria University of Wellington Doctoral Scholarship
Funding
- 2020: Victoria University of Wellington Joint Research Committee, Research Grant
- 2019: Polynesian Society Inc, Bruce Grandison Biggs Grant
- 2019: Victoria University of Wellington Joint Research Committee, Research Grant
Publications
Powell, E. N., & Hogue, R. H. (2023). (Post)colonial Indigenous Anglophone fiction of the Pacific Islands. In D. S. Lynch (Ed.), Oxford research encyclopedia of literature. (Online ed.) Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/acrefore/9780190201098.013.1377
Chapter in Book - Research
Powell, E. (2023, July). These changing years: Imagining the Cook Islands. Verbal presentation at the 5th Pacific Islands Universities Research Network (PIURN) Conference, Rarotonga, Cook Islands.
Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs
Powell, E., Walter, I., & Kokaua, S. (2023, July). Kite pakari ē te ‘uki ‘ou: Cook Islands Māori knowledge making and the next generation. Verbal presentation at the 5th Pacific Islands Universities Research Network (PIURN) Conference, Rarotonga, Cook Islands.
Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs
Powell, E. N. (2023). Tei te akau roa: An ocean of metaphor in Pacific research methodologies. Waka Kuaka/Journal of the Polynesian Society, 132(1-2), 41-55. doi: 10.15286/jps.132.1-2.41-56
Journal - Research Article
Powell, E., Pasisi, J., Bean, T. M. P., Dziedzic, A., Asafo, D., Bennett, J. L., Fortin, M., … Fa'avae, I. A. (2023). Mapping otherwise realms. Proceedings of the Australian Association for Pacific Studies (AAPS) Conference. (pp. 36-37). Retrieved from http://pacificstudies.org.au/
Conference Contribution - Published proceedings: Abstract
Powell, E. N., & Hogue, R. H. (2023). (Post)colonial Indigenous Anglophone fiction of the Pacific Islands. In D. S. Lynch (Ed.), Oxford research encyclopedia of literature. (Online ed.) Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/acrefore/9780190201098.013.1377
Chapter in Book - Research
Powell, E. E. N. (2018). Introduction. In J. Gragg, P. Thompson, N. Papatua & R. Dixon (Eds.), Mana: 50 years of Cook Islands creative writing. (pp. 2-11). Rarotonga, Cook Islands: University of the South Pacific Press.
Chapter in Book - Research
Powell, E. N. (2023). Tei te akau roa: An ocean of metaphor in Pacific research methodologies. Waka Kuaka/Journal of the Polynesian Society, 132(1-2), 41-55. doi: 10.15286/jps.132.1-2.41-56
Journal - Research Article
Powell, E., & Newman, E. (2022). Growing into: Pacific intellectual genealogies and indigenous development. Pacific Dynamics, 6(2), 104-117. doi: 10.26021/10639
Journal - Research Article
Powell, E. E. N. (2020). Naming the Cook Islands: Articulation theory and 'akapap'anga. Pacific Studies, 43(2), 119-141.
Journal - Research Article
Powell, E. (2022). [Review of the book Polynesia, 900-1600: An overview of the history of Aotearoa, Rēkohu, and Rapa Nui]. New Zealand Journal of History, 56(2), 117-118. [Book Review].
Journal - Research Other
Powell, E. (2020). [Review of the book New Oceania: Modernisms and modernity in the Pacific]. Journal of New Zealand Studies, 2020(30), 152-154. doi: 10.26686/jnzs.v0iNS30.6503
Journal - Research Other
Powell, E. (2023, July). These changing years: Imagining the Cook Islands. Verbal presentation at the 5th Pacific Islands Universities Research Network (PIURN) Conference, Rarotonga, Cook Islands.
Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs
Powell, E., Walter, I., & Kokaua, S. (2023, July). Kite pakari ē te ‘uki ‘ou: Cook Islands Māori knowledge making and the next generation. Verbal presentation at the 5th Pacific Islands Universities Research Network (PIURN) Conference, Rarotonga, Cook Islands.
Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs
Powell, E. (2022, November). Puka(puka): Books and the Pacific. Plenary presentation at the University of Otago Centre for the Book Symposium: Books and the Pacific, [Hybrid].
Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs
Powell, E. (2021, April). Tei te akau roa: Cook Islands Māori imaginaries in the time of COVID-19. Verbal presentation at the Australian Association for Pacific Studies (AAPS) Postgraduate & Early Career Researchers' Symposium, [Online].
Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs
Powell, E., & Johnson, M. (2021, December). Empire, indigeneity and the archive in the New Zealand realm. Verbal presentation at the Museum as Archive Conference: Using the Past in the Present and Future, Dunedin, New Zealand.
Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs
Powell, E., & Johnson, M. (2021, July). Inside (and outside) the bubble of empire: A dialogue on the New Zealand realm. Verbal presentation at the Empire and Ecologies Symposium: Transimperial, transhistorical and transregional natures from the 17th to the 21st century, Dublin, Ireland.
Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs
Te Punga Somerville, A., Apiata, A. H., Powell, E. N., Wright, K. M., Henderson, N., Ieremia-Allan, W., & Kokaua, S. (2021, November). Off the map: New Zealand history beyond borders. Panel discussion at the New Zealand Historical Association (NZHA) Conference: Ako: Learning from History? [Online].
Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs
Greenhalgh, C., Johnson, M., Kluge, E., & Powell, E. (2019, November). Archive frictions: Ethics and politics of knowledge-making in Pacific contexts. Panel discussion at the New Zealand Historical Association (NZHA) Conference: Kanohi-ki-te-Kanohi: Histories for Our Time, Wellington, New Zealand.
Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs
Powell, E. E. N. (2019, May-June). "Ka 'apai mai au i tōku ngaru ki konei", I will carry my wave here: (Re)scaling Cook Islands migrations through discursive genealogies. Verbal presentation at the Transregional Academy: Histories of Migrant Knowledge in and across the Transpacific: Agencies, Scales, Translations, Berkeley, USA.
Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs
Powell, E. N. (2019, June). "I'm sorry but I don't know/I'm not that kind of Māori": Māori articulations in the New Zealand Beyond Aotearoa. Verbal presentation at the Native American & Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA) Conference, Hamilton, New Zealand.
Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs
Powell, E. (2012, November). Diasporic explorations of the Tivaevae methodology in literary studies: Notes from an M.A. student. Verbal presentation at the SPACLALS (NUS Branch) Literary Festival, Apia, Samoa.
Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs
Powell, E. N. (2022). A subtle recipe. In T. L. Mangioni & K. Teaiwa (Eds.), Sustenance: Decolonial recipes for wellbeing, self and community care in the academy. (pp. 15). Canberra, Australia: Australian National University. [Guide].
Other Research Output
Powell, E. E. N. (2020, August). Honouring our intellectual heritage. Writing the New World Podcast (ep. 4), hosted by Alice Te Punga Somerville and Wanda Ieremia-Allan. Retrieved from https://www.buzzsprout.com/1259606/4993154-3-honouring-our-intellectual-heritage
Other Research Output
Powell, E. N. (2020, November). Moana Oceania Award for 2020 Early Career Researchers ataata video competition. Pacific Media Network, OMNY FM, New Edition with Ete and Inangaro Vakaafi. Retrieved from https://omny.fm/shows/pacificmedianetwork/emma-ngakuraevaru-powell-moana-oceania-award-for-2?in_playlist=pacificmedianetwork!early-edition-with-ete
Other Research Output