Qualifications

• Master of Arts with First Class Honours in English - University of Auckland (2006)
• Doctor of Philosophy in English - University of Auckland (2015)

Certifications and Registrations

• Licence, Supervisor, Massey University

Research Interests

Maori Literature in English, especially poetry.

Pacific Literature in English, especially poetry.

Postcolonial literature.

Creative writing--poetry and creative nonfiction.

Area of Expertise

Field of research codes
Creative Writing (incl. Playwriting) (190402): Performing Arts and Creative Writing (190400): Studies In Creative Arts And Writing (190000)

Keywords

New Zealand Māori poetry

Pacific poetry

Teaching Statement

At the University of Hawai'i at Manoa I taught postgraduate creative nonfiction, and poetry. I also specialised in Maori and Pacific poetics. I received the Chancellor's Citation for Teaching Excellence.

Graduate Supervision Statement

I always work with a student's intentions for their creative manuscript whether that is to produce a publishable manuscript or for personal or social benefits. The creative decisions made by a student are respected, and advice I offer will always be with the aim of furthering the writer's intention for the work. As an indigenous writer with a mix of creative and critical publications, and as an anthologist of the work of many indigenous writers in the Pacific and Aotearoa, I am able to make useful connections for students that brings them into a variety of creative, discursive practices nationally and internationally. I led the creatve writing programme in the English Department at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa for a time which among many strengths is known for its cultural studies specialisation. Graduates of the programme are themselves professors and authors. My own Doctoral and Masters research surveyed the work of five significant indigenous authors using a phenomenological, 'wayfinding' method of close reading which draws on the cultural backgrounds of the authors to find signs within their texts to reveal new meanings. This critical work has been published by Routledge India in their Indigeneity series, the American journal Biography, and The New Zealand Journal of Literature. Other critical work by me is published in Landfall and The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics for which the entries for Māori and Pacific poetry.

Current Doctoral Supervision

Main Supervisor of:

• Whiti Hereaka - Doctor of Philosophy
  Ariā

Co-supervisor of:

• Dan Burgess - Doctor of Philosophy
  Laughing while Māori: Humour, Culture, and Contestation in Aotearoa NZ
• Richard Pamatatau - Doctor of Philosophy
  Do you know who you are? An investigation to explore the intersecting relationships and silences between place, space and identity to create a poetic atlas of Aotearoa New Zealand