Annals: Departmental reports and staff listings
University of Auckland
Department of Anthropology, Private Bag 92019, Auckland 1001, New Zealand
Tel: 64 9 373 7599, ext 87662; email: anthro(AT)auckland.ac.nz
http://www.arts.auckland.ac.nz/en/about/schools-in-the-faculty-of-arts/school-of-social-sciences/anthropology.html
Departmental report
Anthropology is one of the larger departments within the Faculty of Arts at Auckland, containing (as well Social and Cultural Anthropology) Ethnomusicology, Archaeology, Biological Anthropology and Women’s Studies. It also has close links with Development Studies, Social Science for Public Health, and research and teaching links with Maori Studies, Pacific Studies, the School of European Languages and Literature, Human Geography, Sociology, Psychology and Law.
Research
The department retains a strong focus on research in Oceania/the Pacific Region and New Zealand society, and most staff members have some research interests in this area. Many also maintain a wider set of international connections as well. Within Social Anthropology, Veronica Strang maintains links with Europe and Latin America through involvement in UNESCO’s International Ecohydrology Programme. Cris Shore has ongoing research links with European universities through participation in two EU-funded projects and his involvement in the Europe Institute which he was Director of from 2007-09; Maureen Molloy works on mainstream American culture, the fashion industry and globalization and the history of Anthropology; Julie Park maintains research relationships in medical anthropology with colleagues in the US and Canada. Susanna Trnka conducts research in both Fiji and the Czech Republic. Mark Busse and Christine Dureau maintain close research ties with Australia, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.
The department has a weekly research seminar, and regularly organises conferences and workshops. In December 2008 it hosted the combined UK (ASA), Australian (AAS), and New Zealand (ASAANZ) conference on the theme of Ownership and Appropriation.
The department regularly acts as a base for distinguished scholars. In 2009 these included Professor Kay Milton (Queens University, Belfast); Dr. Jack Harris, Rutgers University (USA) Dr. Hyohyun-Dong, Gyeongiju, (South Korea); Dr. Minako Kuramitsu, Tenri University (Japan); Dr. Peter Matthews, National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka (Japan); Dr. Michael Poltorak, University of Kent (UK); Dr Richard Walter, University of Otago (New Zealand); Dr. Carolyn Morris, Canterbury University (New Zealand); and Professor Simon Harrison, University of Ulster (UK).
In the last year, researchers in the department have been successful in gaining funding from a variety of sources: externally from the Australian and Pacific Science Foundation, the European Commission (FP6 and FP7), the Marsden Foundation and the National Science Foundation; and internally, from the Faculty of Arts Research Grants, the Vice-Chancellor’s Development Fund and the fund for University Research Fellowships. The current value of open research grants held by Department members is $ 2,944,213 NZD.
Students and Teaching
The variety of sub-disciplines within and connected to the department enables it to provide research supervision in many areas. New social and cultural anthropology courses since 2008 include revised undergraduate courses in The Politics of Culture and Ethnography of Island Polynesia and revised Masters Courses, Anthropology and Intellectual Property, Contact and Colonialism and Reading Medical Ethnography.
Anthropology Students are exposed to a range of fieldwork and research situations through engagement with staff research projects. In 2009, 7 students undertook fieldwork with staff in Egypt, and one each in the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and Mongolia. Students were also engaged locally in staff research including participation in TB Project workshops, and field work in Great Barrier Island. The department is assisting its students by offering research scholarships for graduates to work with staff and by providing Tutoring positions on larger courses.
Recruitment into the department has continued to grow, and there are currently 503 undergraduate EFTS in total. There is some concern that recruitment may be affected by the University’s recent decision to cap student numbers. At present, the department has one of the highest percentages of Maori and Pasifika students in the University.
Staffing
There have been a number of staff changes within the department. A new biological anthropologist, Dr Nick Malone was hired to replace Dr Jean Boubli who left to take up a post with the Wildlife Conservation Society of New York. Dr. Malone will commence in Semester 1, 2010. Dr. Lisa Matisoo-Smith left to take up a professorship in the Department of Anatomy and Structural Biology at the University of Otago. The Department will be hiring a second biological anthropologist in 2010. Dr Anke Fleur Schwittay, a social anthropologist by training, was appointed to a new lectureship in Development Studies. Cris Shore’s completed his tenure as Head of Department in February 2009 and this role passed from Social Anthropology to Archaeology and to Professor Simon Holdaway. Finally, the Department paid tribute to Emeritus Professor Roger Green who died on 4 October. A large memorial service attended by friends and colleagues was held for Roger at the University’s Fale Pacifica.
Social and Cultural Anthropology Staff list
Dr Mark Busse (Senior Lecturer) Social Anthropology: economic anthropology, material culture, visual anthropology, kinship and marriage; Papua New Guinea
Dr Christine Dureau (Senior Lecturer) Social Anthropology: ethnographic history, indigenous Christianities, religion, gender; Melanesia, colonial cultures
Dr Anke Fleur Schwittay (lecturer) Development Studies: Market-based approaches to development, Information and Communication Technologies and Development, transnational financial networks, global corporate citizenship, social entrepreneurship, Americas
Dr Phyllis Herda (Senior Lecturer) Social Anthropology/Women’s Studies: textiles, oral traditions as history, disease and colonialism, issues of gender, status and power; Polynesia
Professor Judith Huntsman (Hon. Research Fellow) Social Anthropology: ethnography, history, local narrative, migration and change; Polynesia
Professor Maureen Molloy, Social Anthropology/Women’s Studies: gender, globalisation, nations and nationalism, fashion, history of anthropology
Professor Roger Neich, Social Anthropology: 19th century Maori Art and Material Culture, Polynesian Art, theory of material culture
Associate Professor Julie Park, Social Anthropology: anthropology of Aotearoa and settler societies, health and medical anthropology, gender, sustainability, research methods
Professor Cris Shore, Social Anthropology: Anthropology of Europe, political anthropology, audit culture, anthropology of policy, organisations and elites, corruption, ethnographies of university reform in New Zealand and Europe, the EU.
Professor Veronica Strang (Social Anthropology/Environmental Anthropology): human-environmental relations; cultural landscapes; land and natural resources; art and material culture; performance and gender; Australia, the UK, Latin America.
Dr Paul Tapsell (Senior Lecturer) Social Anthropology, Auckland War Memorial Museum: Social anthropology and museum ethnology regarding Maori tribal society
Dr Susanna Trnka (Senior Lecturer) Social Anthropology: political violence, religious identity, the body; Indo-Fijians in Fiji; social memory and violence, medical anthropology, the Czech Republic.
Dr Yvonne Underhill-Sem (Senior Lecturer, Director of the Centre for Development Studies): Gender and development, critical population geographies, enculturating economic processes and progressive social movements