Forum: Kōanga 2020

Message from the Academy Chair - Professor Charlotte Macdonald

Professor Charlotte Macdonald shares her first foreword as Chair of the Academy Executive Committee.

Bees' needs

In this section for submissions by our Fellows, Distinguished Professor Steve Wratten writes about his research to explore 'bees' needs' in more depth. His research may overturn the accepted gospel since Aristotle about the importance of pollen and nectar for honeybees and what about their taste for 'dirty water'?

Newly elected Academy Executive Committee member: Professor Charlotte Macdonald

Charlotte has been elected Chair of the Academy Executive Committee. Charlotte’s expertise is as an historian of the modern period, largely nineteenth and early twentieth century with a particular focus on New Zealand in the context of empire and colony, women and gender.

Newly elected Academy Executive Committee member: Professor David Schiel

David has been elected Convenor for Biological and Environmental Sciences on the AEC. David has headed research teams over the years in aquaculture, marine ecology, fisheries, habitat restoration, nearshore oceanography, and ecological impacts from the Canterbury and Kaikoura earthquakes, and the Rena Oil Spill.

Newly elected Academy Executive Committee member: Professor Susy Frankel

Susy has been elected as Convenor for the humanities domain. Susy’s research is about international intellectual property (patents, copyright and trade marks) and how it functions as innovation incentives, both globally and in New Zealand. This includes the relationship between intellectual property law and policy and several areas including mātauranga Māori, international trade and access to medicines. An important part of her research is how the legal rules and heuristics of treaty interpretation relate to intellectual property policy and law.

Research grants

The Academy oversees a number of research scholarships and awards, using the Fellowship to assess applications. The following awards have been made.

Criminal Justice, Risk and Revolt against Uncertainty

Professor John Pratt FRSNZ has released a book with his PhD student Jordan Anderson. This book examines the impact and implications of the relationship between risk and criminal justice in advanced liberal democracies, in the context of the 'revolt against uncertainty', which has underpinned the rise of populist politics in these societies.

Farewell Silent Spring

Dr Howard Wearing FRSNZ has devoted his scientific career to research in insect ecology, and the development and implementation of integrated pest management programmes, and these topics lie at the heart of his new book.

Invasive Predators in New Zealand

Professor Carolyn King FRSNZ from the University of Waikato, has recently published a significant book — ‘Invasive Predators in New Zealand: disaster on four small paws’.

The Crown and Constitutional Reform

Professor Cris Shore FRSNZ and Professor Emeritus David Williams FRSNZ are editors on a book which is an innovative, interdisciplinary exchange between experts in law, anthropology and politics about the Crown, constitutional monarchy and the potential for constitutional reform in Commonwealth common law countries, with collaborators from a Marsden Fund project.

The New New Zealand: Facing demographic disruption

Distinguished Professor Paul Spoonley FRSNZ, has recently published a book on New Zealand’s changing demography, in part to remind New Zealanders that while they should consider the country’s future in terms of the disruptive consequences of climate change or technology, equally significant is the demographic transformation that is under way.

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Forum: Kōanga 2020