Congratulations to our Arts Research Award recipients:
The Faculty Research Award in Humanities, Social Sciences or Creative Arts:
Professor Natalia Chaban (LSAP)
Kairangahau Māori Award for research in Māori philosophies (both traditional and contemporary) and Māori methodologies:
Professor Carl Mika (Aotahi)
Early Career Award for Humanities, Social Sciences and Creative and Performing Arts:
Dr Nicholas Smith (NCRE)
Abridged citations for each award:
The Faculty Research Award in Humanities, Social Sciences or Creative Arts
Awarded to Professor Natalia Chaban for outstanding and innovative research into perceptions in international relations and public diplomacy, most recently regarding the war against Ukraine.
Professor Chaban is an internationally recognised expert on political communication and perceptions in international relations and public diplomacy. Having researched Ukraine since independence, she is an influential global commentator on how the current war has impacted communication/expectations/attitudes internationally and her research has united scholars, diplomats, and students from around the world into collaborative research networks informing policymaking. A founding expert in studying global perceptions of the European Union (EU), she challenges Eurocentric understandings, in scholarship and practice, of EU foreign policy. Her pioneering expertise is recognised by numerous awards, visiting fellowships/professorships, and invitations to collaborate.
Kairangahau Māori Award for research in Māori philosophies (both traditional and contemporary) and Māori methodologies
Awarded To Professor Carl Mika (Tuhourangi, Ngāti Whanaunga) acknowledging the dynamism that underpins both Te Ao Māori and Mātauranga Māori and is awarded for research that has potential to shift boundaries and change directions of inquiry.
Professor Mika’s research into how interconnections can be enacted in the everyday world for Māori, has influenced understanding of how Māori can engage with institutions in ways that advance spiritually and philosophically healthy perceptions and has redefined commonly cited Māori terms. His scholarship has informed a new school of philosophical thought. The international impact of Professor Mika’s research is evidenced in invitations to co-lead successful international research collaborations and he is regularly invited to speak with diverse groups of scholars, artists, art theorists, and communities.
Early Career Award for Humanities, Social Sciences and Creative and Performing Arts:
Awarded to Dr Nicholas Smith of the NCRE. The prime criterion for the award is a single paper, book or creative project arising out of work carried out in New Zealand.
Nicolas Smith’s new paper, New Zealand’s ‘Māori foreign policy’ and China: a case of instrumental relationality? International Affairs 99: 4 (2023) 1575–1593, co-authored with Bonnie Holster (Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāti Whakaue, and Ngāti Rangiwewehi) advances new understandings and approaches to the study of world politics by examining the increasing influence of tikanga Māori on New Zealand’s foreign policy-making through analysis of the case study of New Zealand Foreign Minister’s Nanaia Mahuta leadership within the Sixth Labour Government and the contribution that Te Ao Māori relationship principles played in advancing foreign affairs with China at a time of increasing great power rivalry and competition.
