Annals: Departmental reports and staff listings
University of Auckland
Department of Anthropology, Private Bag 92019, Auckland 1001, New Zealand
T: 64 9 373 7599, ext 87662; E: anthro(AT)auckland.ac.nz
W: 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, Human Geography, Sociology, Psychology and Law.
Research
The department has 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, Cris Shore directs a European Institute, and Veronica Strang maintains links with Europe and Latin America through involvement in UNESCO’s International Ecohydrology Programme. Maureen Molloy works on mainstream American culture and the history of Anthropology, Julie Park maintains research relationships in medical anthropology with colleagues in the US and Canada, and Susanna Trnka conducts research in the Czech Republic.
The department has a regular weekly research seminar, and regularly organises conferences and workshops. It hosted the ASAA/NZ annual meeting in 2005 and the EU Centres Network annual conference in 2006. In 2008 it is hosting a United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) workshop and, in December, the combined ASA, AAS, ASAANZ conference Ownership and Appropriation.
The department regularly acts as a base for distinguished scholars. In 2007, these included Professor Kay Milton (Queens University, Belfast); Professors Akil Gupta and Purnima Mankekar (UCLA); Dr Georgina Bourne (Cambridge) and Professor Andrew Barry (Oxford); Dr. Ruth Finnegan (Open University); Professor Ann Herring (McMaster University); and Dr Hans Baer (University of Melbourne).
In the last year, researchers in the department have been successful in gaining funding from a variety of sources: the Australian Research Council, UNESCO, the European Union, and the Wenner Gren Foundation and, internally, from the Faculty of Arts Research Grants, the Vice-Chancellor’s Development Fund and the fund for University Research Fellowships.
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 2007 include a revised undergraduate course The Anthropology of Art and Performance; a new Special Topic course Anthropology and Conflict; and two new Masters Courses, Applying Anthropology, and Anthropology and Public Policy. The department is assisting students in focusing their studies by developing course ‘pathways’ in Social Anthropology, Environmental Anthropology, Art and Performance, Biological Anthropology, Medical Anthropology, Archaeology and Ethnomusicology.
Recruitment into the department has continued to grow, and there are currently 472 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
This year Dr Okusitino Mahina moved to Massey University to take up a post as Director of Massey’s Pasifika strategy. Dr David O’Kane came from Birmingham (and Belfast) to fill in as a temporary lecturer. Cris Shore’s tenure as Head of Department finishes at the end of 2008, and with this, the role will pass from Social Anthropology to a different sub-disciplinary area for the next three years.
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 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 (Head of Department) Social Anthropology: anthropology of policy, political anthropology, elite cultures, audit culture, corruption; the European Union; organisation; University reform
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, the Czech Republic