The School of Social and Cultural Studies

PO Box 600, Wellington

Tel: 463 5317 Email: sacs@vuw.ac.nz

June 2017

Social Sciences at Victoria

MESSAGE FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL

Welcome to Victoria’s School of Social and Cultural Studies newsletter

There is so much happening in our School that we wish to

share this with a wider audience.

Our student numbers keep growing and new staff have joined

the School, contributing to a sense of new endeavours and

excitement.

There is a new emphasis on writing opinion pieces for media outlets, significant new monographs have been published,

students are being selected for awards and internships, and

new research projects are designed addressing pressing issues in societies over the world.

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

To many sportsmen get off ............ 2

SACS 428 Internship ..................... 3

Anthropology 50th ........................ 4

Counterfutures launch ................... 4

New Lectures. Anthropology ......... 5

New opinion pieces……....………....5-6

PG Thesis Bootcamp ...................... 7

SPECIAL POINTS OF INTEREST

‘Trafficking of Antiquities course

run for the first time

New book published for Dylan

Taylor

John Pratt cited in Financial

Times

Catherine Trundle publishes new

book

Graduate Tanja Rother gets job

working with Iwi

Between the 1950s and 1980s, more than 100,000

children were taken from their parents and put into state institutions Elizabeth researched 105 cases of

individuals sent to institutions as children and

interviewed 40 of them for her book, The Road to

Hell: State Violence Against Children in Postwar New Zealand.

Elizabeth Stanley was interviewed earlier this year

on Radio New Zealand by broadcaster Kim Hill.

You can listen to this podcast on the Radio New

Zealand webpage.

We wish to share this success and show that our

research and teaching matter. Hopefully some of the pieces and links will be of interest to you. We

would like to hear from you, especially our alumni

and hope that we can cover some alumni

information pieces in future issues.

DR ELIZABETH STANLEY INTERVIEWED ON

RADIO NZ

"Trafficking of Antiquities" attracted over 50 students from

criminology, law, classics, and other departments

Dr Donna Yates, a Lecturer in Antiquities Trafficking

and Art Crime at the University of Glasgow’s Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research,

visited the Institute of Criminology in December and

January to deliver a summer course on the looting

and trafficking of cultural objects. "Trafficking of Antiquities" attracted over 50 students from

criminology, law, classics, and other departments

which made for lively cross-disciplinary discussion and debate about this topic. The course followed the

illicit pathways through which stolen antiquities pass

to enter some of the world’s elite museums and collections, considering economic conditions in

source countries, organised crime connections

during transit, and white collar crimes in the

marketplace, with a special focus on New Zealand and Australia. The School hopes to offer this course

again in the future depending on funding and staff

availability.

TOO MANY SPORTSMEN GET OFF

CRIM 330 RUN FOR THE FIRST TIME

IN TRIMESTER 3 2016

Lecturer Dr Lynzi Armstrong

has recently written an opinion piece for the NZ Herald.

Our rugby culture is on trial

even though players

implicated in assaults often face limited repercussions.

Despite numerous on-field

successes for New Zealand rugby this year, the behaviour

of some of its players and

officials off the field has raised tough questions about our

country's sporting culture.

Cases of violence towards others and mistreatment of

women by some of New

Zealand's rugby players have

led to limited repercussions. A national conversation

regarding why these events

occurred, and how they may be addressed, is long overdue.

Read more: The Herald.

New book published

for Dr Dylan Taylor

Dr Dylan Taylor, a

Lecturer in the

Sociology Programme, has just had a new book

published called Social

Movements and Democracy in the 21st

Century This book

contends that the

impasse of the Left today is in part, a result

of an anarchist

‘common sense’ among

activists. The

author argues that the vital

dynamics of

anarchism and

social movements need to be combined with a

reappraisal of the

Communist party and state.

Michaela Maguire is a

Sociology BA (Honours) student in

her fourth year at

Victoria.

As part of her Honours work she is taking the

internship course SACS

428. Her internship is taking place at the

New Zealand Drug Foundation. Michaela goes

to her job every Tuesday and gets to work

with a friendly team, who she says, have been incredibly welcoming and supportive.

The primary focus of the work that she does

for the foundation is researching the effect of cannabis legalisation on adolescent use. She

is looking comparatively at countries that

have legalised cannabis for either medicinal

use or recreational use, and examining how a

cannabis policy in New Zealand would approach the issue of use among young

people. She has also helped complete

research components for her supervisor

when needed, including the collection of drug and alcohol statistics from around New

Zealand.

Michaela has also been lucky enough to sit in on sit in on a few meetings which she has

found very interesting.

“Before I started this internship, I had a deep appreciation of the work that the New

Zealand Drug Foundation does, so it has

been a great privilege to experience first-hand some of the wonderful work they do”,

says Michaela.

3

In honour of the Cultural Anthropology

programme's 50th anniversary, an event was held on Kelburn campus highlighting the

history of anthropology at Victoria, exploring

the changing face of the discipline in New

Zealand and speculating about the futures of anthropological knowledge.

The celebration began on 10 May with a

Pōwhiri and Marae Kōrero at Te Tumu Herenga Waka Marae.The origins of the

Cultural Anthropology programme were

discussed with two of its founding members, Dame Dr Joan Metge and Bernie Kernot.

The next day began with a keynote address

by Dr Michael Jackson, programme alumnus

and Distinguished Professor of World Religions at Harvard University. This was

followed by two panel discussions involving

anthropologists across New Zealand. Finally,

Professor Dame Anne Salmond from the University of Auckland delivered a second

public keynote. The events of 12 May

concluded with a morning symposium

featuring the work of current postgraduates and programme alumni.

SACS 428 INTERNSHIP AT THE NZ DRUG FOUNDATION

CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY 50TH CELEBRATIONS A SUCCESS

COUNTERFUTURES JOURNAL LAUNCH

Issue three of Counterfutures journal was launched in

Wellington on the 27 April. It is a special issue concerned with incarceration, and features the following articles: ‘Feculent

Hovel: Auckland’s First Gaol 1841-1865’, Mark Derby and

Warwick Tie; ‘Left Backs Working Prisons”: Cross-Partisan

Production of Criminal ‘Nonpublics’, Ian Anderson; ‘Indigenous Insider Knowledge and Prison Identity’, Tracey

McIntosh and Stan Coster; and ‘Imagining an Aotearoa/New

Zealand Without Prisons’, John Buttle. In addition, it includes an interview with the abolitionist group No Pride in Prisons, an

essay from Pip Adam, “Interventions on the Trump

presidency”, from Tim Corballis and Chamsy el-Ojeili,along with book reviews.

Sarah Wright from the School of Social and Cultural Studies

spoke at the event, along with Julia Whaipooti of Just Speak.

The launch was attended by a large and lively crowd. Counterfutures’ editor, Dylan Taylor of the School of Social

and Cultural Studies, said he was ‘thrilled’ with the launch and

the latest issue of the journal.

PROFESSOR JOHN PRATT CITED IN THE

FINANCIAL TIMES

COUNTERFUTURES

JOURNAL

In 2016 Dr Dylan Taylor (the editor) and Sociology Staff launched the Counterfutres Journal

‘Counterfutures’ peer reviewed and

published biannually, is a multidisciplinary journal of Left research, thought, and alternatives. The publication aims to intervene in and

inaugurate debates about how to understand, imagine and influence our society, politics, culture and

environment.

‘Counterfutures’ seeks connections with the work of labour, trade union, Māori, Pasifika, global indigenous, anti-racist, feminist,

queer, environmental, and other social movements in Aotearoa and internationally – with an especial focus on the Pacific.

http://counterfutures.nz/

4

Professor John Pratt was

recently cited in the Financial Times.

The article was written with

Michelle Miao when he was in

Hong Kong 'Penal Populism: the End of Reason'

Read more : Penal Populism

NEW LECTURER

IN CULTURAL

ANTHROPOLOGY

We welcome

Janepicha Cheva-Isarakul (Bambi) to

the Cultural

Anthropology Programme and

School.

Bambi is about to enter her final year of

her PhD in 2017 and

has also just started a new role as a part-

time lecturer for the

Cultural Anthropology

Department.

Bambi is teaching, an

honours course (ANTH 410), which

explores the current

trends in Anthropological

thought. The

students will be

looking at the important shifts in

anthropological

theories and how anthropologists

themselves perceive

their role over time.

She will be teaching

a migration course

(ANTH317) in Tri 2, and is also a

coordinator for the

Cultural Anthropology programme Seminar

Series.

NEW LECTURER NAYANTARA SHEORAN APPLETON

Dr Carol Harrington has recently written an opinion piece for the Newsroom ...

The new Ministry for Vulnerable Children

continues CYF’s ambulance at the bottom

of the cliff approach by focusing on children who have already been abused or

in trouble with the police, writes Dr Carol

Harrington … Read more The Newsroom.

Dr Nayantara Sheoran

Appleton is also a new Lecturer in the Cultural

Anthropology program. Her

research interests fall in the

fields of anthropology (medical, feminist, and

visual), cultural studies,

feminist theories, and Science and Technology Studies. She

is currently working on a book

manuscript, which seeks to analyse shifts in the politics of

health and reproduction in

liberalised India by focusing

on pharmaceutical contraceptives and their

marketing to women (and

men) within neo-liberal and neo-Malthusian frameworks.

Her second project, which was

part of her post-doctoral research at the Graduate

Institute, Geneva, looks at

regenerative medicine and

burgeoning biotechnologies. In particular, the ‘ethics of

governance, and governance

of ethics’ around stem cell research and therapies in

India. She is currently

teaching an Honours paper on Ethnographic Research, and

an undergraduate paper on

Conflict and Reconciliation.

JUSTICE IN AN AGE OF UNREASON

NEW MINISTRY SET TO MAKE SAME

MISTAKES AS CYF?

Professor Simon Mckenzie has written an opinion piece for Stuff

Does the responsibility of government imply a duty "not to

inflame passion and give it new objects to feed upon but to

inject into the activities of already too passionate men an ingredient of moderation"?,

Inflaming execrable passions, politicians in

the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe have promoted offensive views on

minorities, immigrants, and women. Read

more on Stuff.

“Nearly 200 households have been evicted from the

communities that line Khon Kaen’s railway tracks”.

Dr Catherine Trundle has had a new book published. Noting the

pervasiveness of the adoption of "responsibility" as a core ideal of neoliberal governance, the contributors to Competing Responsibilities

challenge contemporary understandings and critiques of that concept

in political, social, and ethical life. They reveal that neoliberalism's

reification of the responsible subject masks the myriad forms of individual and collective responsibility that people engage with in their

everyday lives, from accountability, self-sufficiency, and prudence to

care, obligation, and culpability. The essays—which combine social theory with ethnographic research from Europe, North America,

Africa, and New Zealand—address a wide range of topics, including

critiques of corporate social responsibility practices; the relationships between public and private responsibilities in the context of state

violence; the tension between calls on individuals and imperatives to

groups to prevent the transmission of HIV; audit culture; and how

health is cast as a citizenship issue.

Dr Eli Elinoff has just had an article

published in the “New Mandala”.

New Mandala provides anecdote,

analysis and new perspectives on

Southeast Asia.

The junta’s urban development

plans aren’t just about the economy. The city itself is being

weaponised against the poor and

their politics.

In the last several months, nearly

200 households have been evicted

from the communities that line Khon Kaen’s railway tracks. These

evictions—like others at Pom

Mahakan and along Lad Phrao Canal, as well as the ‘heavy

regulation’ of food vendors in

Bangkok, the construction of the overbuilt bike path along the Chao

Phraya River, and the nation-wide

proliferation of luxury shopping

malls and condominiums—reveal the convergence between the

junta’s economic plans and its

political strategy. Urbanisation itself

has become a critical mechanism to silence political debate.

Residents living along the tracks in Khon Kaen have been involved in

protracted negotiations with the

State Railway of Thailand (SRT) to legitimise their claims to this land

for well over two decades. They

protested and cooperated with state

agencies. They organised and argued with each other. They

improved the city with housing and

infrastructure projects. Indeed, some communities gained legal

rights to the land by signing

renewable leases with SRT, among the first in the country. Read more

in The New Mandala.

DR CATHERINE TRUNDLE ‘S NEW BOOK

DESPOTIC URBANISM IN THAILAND - NEW MANDALA

“The Bootcamp was run like a communal writing event”

For my PhD thesis I explored the everyday Māori-Pākehā relations in

owning and governing Ōhiwa Harbour, a natural inlet in the Eastern the Eastern Bay of Plenty. In this ethnographic study I investigated

the harbour as a natural common good, at local government and

community level. I also discuss the commons as an alternative

governance model and demonstrate its practicability.

After completing my PhD in Cultural Anthropology at Victoria in 2016

I returned to live at Ōhiwa Harbour. I feel very fortunate to now be

working in the context of the Ōhiwa Harbour Strategy that is a partnership of local government, iwi, hapū and the Department of

Conservation. I’ve established my own consultancy and contract

mainly to Bay of Plenty Regional Council who oversees the implementation of the Strategy. Currently, I’m working on a Natural

and Cultural Heritage Trail for the harbour. This year, I’ve also

managed Envirohub Bay of Plenty’s Sustainable Backyards

programme.

The School of Social Cultural Studies postgraduate students held a writing Bootcamp on 25

and 26 May 2017 at the Kelburn Campus. The Bootcamp was run like a communal writing event where postgraduate students sat together behind their laptops and type as much as

possible. The students found that there was an almost silent accountability when they

worked together because of the energy and motivation in the room. 14 postgraduate

students attended the Bootcamp from the School of Social and Cultural studies with four students from the School of Psychology, Engineering, Health, and Information

Management.

Participants wrote down three goals they wished to achieve on coloured note stickers which was stuck on the ‘Goals Set’ poster. Upon achievement of any one of the goals, the

respective participant informed the moderator of the bootcamp and then moved the

coloured note sticker to the ‘Achieved Goals’ poster. A small recognition in a form of congratulatory note was given to participants who achieved their goals. The Bootcamp was

a great success and many participants expressed their satisfaction with the amount of work

they had completed and the motivation given to one another.

CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY GRADUATE

POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS RUN THESIS BOOTCAMP

7

THE SCHOOL OF

SOCIAL AND

CULTURAL STUDIES

This School comprises four subjects: Criminology, Cultural Anthropology, Sociology and Social Policy (Social Policy is a minor). There are 30 academic staff and an administration office of four. There are also many tutors, research assistants and teaching fellows. The School is one of the biggest schools in the University and has grown in size rapidly over the last few years. Many graduates have gone onto successful jobs and there is a vibrant postgraduate community.

Abby Fisher selected for 29th Ship For

World Youth Leaders 2017

Eleven carefully selected youth leaders from around

Aotearoa New Zealand, including Cultural Anthropology student, Abby Fisher, and a national leader from

Whanganui, were selected to take place in the Japanese

government led programme called the 29th Ship For

World Youth Leaders

120 youth from 10 different countries, Brazil, Canada,

Costa Rica, Egypt, Fiji, India, Kenya, New Zealand,

Tonga and Ukraine attended and were joined by 120 other youth from Japan. Delegates were hosted for a

few days at local homestays, and for Abby Fisher it was

Hiroshima. They then spent one week in Tokyo participating in pre-departure orientation and attending

various seminars from specialists around Japan, before

heading to Yokohama and jumping on board the cruise

ship ‘Nippon Maru’ – their new home for the next 33 days. This boat carried the World Youth Leaders for

these 33 days around the Pacific, stopping at Vanuatu,

Aotearoa NZ, Fiji and Solomon Islands. They had various focus groups, seminars, activities, discussions, cultural

events and institutional visits both on board and at the

various ports.

Upon reflection Abby had the following to say about her

trip of a lifetime.

”Yes the world issues are important and affect all of us.

But if we are not content with ourselves or with our current local, national, or regional situations, we have

little chance of impacting the world.

International Cooperation Course Discussion Group visiting JICA’s (Japanese Internation-

al Cooperation Agency) projects in the outskirts of Suva.

NEW PERMANENT

ADMINISTRATOR

Debbie Evans has taken up the position of Administrator in the Administration office on a permanent basis. Debbie has come from the School of Linguistics and Applied Languages Studies and had been on secondment for the past year. The School is pleased that she is now here in a permanent capacity and look forward to continuing to work with her.