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Search Marsden awards 2008–2017

Search awarded Marsden Fund grants 2008–2017

Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2012

Title: Toi te Mana: a history of indigenous art from Aotearoa New Zealand

Recipient(s): Dr DS Brown | PI | The University of Auckland
Ms NG Ellis | PI | The University of Auckland
Prof J Mane-Wheoki | PI | The University of Auckland

Public Summary: Although Maori art has long been acknowledged as one of the world's great art traditions, no comprehensive history of Maori art has yet been written. Internationally, art historians have begun to dismantle boundaries around Western fine art that have purposefully excluded indigenous making and makers, and this coincides with a time when Maori are leading research into indigenous knowledges. We are ideally placed within these discussions to help transform the discipline globally through the development of an innovative Maori art history. Toi Te Mana will investigate the relationships, continuities, and commonalities between the art of the ancestors and their descendants using specially-developed art historical and Kaupapa Maori research methodologies. It will trace the development of the art from its Polynesian origins to the present day though a detailed and reflexive analysis based on case studies, ancestral narratives, historical records, investigations of art works and artist interviews. The project will make the experience of Maori art accessible and intelligible to local and international audiences in a major team-authored book with specialist dissemination through journal articles and conference presentations. Toi Te Mana will set an academic precedent as the first comprehensive indigenous art history created by and with indigenous peoples.

Total Awarded: $552,174

Duration: 3

Host: The University of Auckland

Contact Person: Dr DS Brown

Panel: HUM

Project ID: 12-UOA-234


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2013

Title: Tongues, trees and Bayesian inference: towards a global language phylogeny

Recipient(s): Dr QD Atkinson | PI | The University of Auckland
Dr RR Bouckaert | PI | The University of Auckland
Professor RD Gray | AI | The University of Auckland

Public Summary: Despite over 200 years of careful scholarship, linguists have been unable to unite the world’s 7000 languages into a single global family tree. High rates of language change and a lack of appropriate statistical tools are generally taken to undermine any attempt to establish deep language ancestry. However, new data and methods are challenging this assumption. Recently, phylogenetic methods from biology have been successfully applied to infer language family trees from a range of linguistic data types. By combining multiple lines of evidence into a single analytical framework, and quantifying uncertainty in a principled way, this approach holds the promise of recovering deeper connections between language lineages than has previously been thought possible. We will develop new Bayesian phylogeographic methods that combine lexical and structural language data with existing information on language locations, divergence times and established family groupings. Rather than a single fully resolved tree, our approach seeks to push back the time barrier on deep language links by identifying a credible set of ancestral language trees. Our findings will help unravel the human colonization of the globe, provide scaffolding for comparative studies of cultural and linguistic evolution, and a means for prioritising language documentation and revitalization.

Total Awarded: $847,826

Duration: 3

Host: The University of Auckland

Contact Person: Dr QD Atkinson

Panel: EEB

Project ID: 13-UOA-121


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2008

Title: Topic and emotional affect in speech perception and production

Recipient(s): Assoc Prof J Hay | PI | University of Canterbury

Public Summary: Recent models of speech perception and production implicitly predict that there should be a strong connection between phonetic memories and social memories. If you access a memory which has been associated with certain speech characteristics, then these associative memories should affect both speech production and speech perception. This project uses corpus and experimental work to test this hypothesis, using childhood memory as a test case. Does talking about childhood involve using different phonetics than talking about adulthood? Do we process speech differently when reminded of childhood events? In what way does emotional response to events affect speech production and/or perception?

Total Awarded: $466,667

Duration: 3

Host: University of Canterbury

Contact Person: Assoc Prof J Hay

Panel: HUM

Project ID: 08-UOC-089


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2009

Title: Topics in mathematical general relativity and theoretical cosmology

Recipient(s): Professor M Visser | PI | Victoria University of Wellington

Public Summary: This research project will address a number of topics in mathematical general relativity and theoretical cosmology. Specifically: What is the most appropriate mathematical definition of horizon to correctly capture the key features of black hole physics? How does this affect the endpoint of the Hawking evaporation process? Where, exactly, is the Hawking radiation created? How can one reconcile the lumpy cosmological matter distribution with the extremely smooth cosmological background radiation? What is an appropriate non-perturbative generalization for the usual FLRW cosmological spacetimes? These questions exhibit a rich and deep mathematical structure, and are of wide interest to the scientific community.

Total Awarded: $422,222

Duration: 3

Host: Victoria University of Wellington

Contact Person: Professor M Visser

Panel: MIS

Project ID: 09-VUW-047


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Fast-Start

Year Awarded: 2013

Title: Touchy-feely justice or veiled retribution? An ethnography of therapeutic jurisprudence in New Zealand problem-solving courts

Recipient(s): Dr KA Thom | PI | The University of Auckland
Professor ML Perlin | AI | New York Law School

Public Summary: The American invention of therapeutic jurisprudence has recently been imported into New Zealand’s specialist courts, where legal and therapeutic approaches are used to problem-solve the underlying psychosocial causes of offending to promote healthy behaviours and reduce recidivism. With evaluation research dominating the literature, exactly what ‘therapeutic’ means in these courts is unknown. This study will explore the meaning of therapeutic in three Auckland problem-solving courts addressing family violence, drug use, and homelessness. Using ethnographic methods it will pay close attention to how therapeutic discourse is constructed and negotiated within the courts, and shaped by legal, political and cultural factors. For the first time internationally, the study will provide an evidential foundation for the jurisprudence underpinning problem-solving courts, building a platform to better evaluate whether these courts are meeting their objectives and address serious concerns that they operating covert paternalism. By advancing knowledge on the usage of therapeutic principles in problem-solving courts, the study will shed light into the management of institutional complexities associated with the merging of professional ideologies. The study will clarify the therapeutic intentions of the courts, define their place in the criminal justice system, and generate insights into societal understandings of appropriate responses to significant social problems.

Total Awarded: $300,000

Duration: 3

Host: The University of Auckland

Contact Person: Dr KA Thom

Panel: SOC

Project ID: 13-UOA-204


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2017

Title: Towards an improved theory of language change: understanding the covariation of linguistic variables within and across speakers

Recipient(s): Dr KD Watson | PI | University of Canterbury
Dr L Clark | AI | University of Canterbury
Professor JB Hay | AI | University of Canterbury

Public Summary: The study of language variation and change is rooted in the notion of the sociolinguistic variable. Examples of well-studied variables in New Zealand English are the /t/ in words like 'butter' (which might sound more 't-like' or more 'd-like'), and the vowel in words like 'fish' (which might be more 'feesh'-like or more 'fush'-like). These pronunciations vary considerably across speakers. They are also used variably by individuals in the course of everyday conversations. A vast literature studies the use of such variables, but the focus is on studying them in isolation - one study might consider /t/, and another might consider a particular vowel. This project builds on 20 years of research on the ‘Origins of New Zealand English’ corpus - comprising over 1500 speakers, 3 million words and 130 years of sound change. We will innovate a 'big data' approach to this corpus, analysing millions of data points together, to provide new insight into how sociolinguistic variables work together. This project thus radically pushes the field in a new direction: developing a sociolinguistics of sound systems, which shifts the focus away from the isolated sociolinguistic variable, and onto the sociolinguistic system as a whole.

Total Awarded: $635,000

Duration: 3

Host: University of Canterbury

Contact Person: Dr KD Watson

Panel: HUM

Project ID: 17-UOC-049


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2012

Title: Towards atomic resolution biological imaging using free electron X-ray laser radiation - the granulovirus connection

Recipient(s): Assoc Prof P Metcalf | PI | The University of Auckland
Prof HN Chapman | PI | DESY and Hamburg University
Prof JA Jehle | PI | Julius Kühn-Institute

Public Summary: Free electron X-ray lasers promise to revolutionize structural biology because diffraction data can be obtained before radiation degrades the sample. Granulovirus is a unique semi-crystalline biological nanostructure and an ideal test specimen to develop atomic resolution femtosecond imaging. The applicants are leading researchers in micro-crystallography (Metcalf), granulovirus (Jehle) and free electron laser imaging (Chapman). They began collaborating in 2011 and have already obtained preliminary femtosecond diffraction images. Funding is sought for the NZ team, who will be primarily involved in characterizing granulovirus, interpreting the results, determining atomic structures of granulovirus proteins and matching them to the free electron laser images.

Total Awarded: $843,478

Duration: 3

Host: The University of Auckland

Contact Person: Assoc Prof P Metcalf

Panel: PCB

Project ID: 12-UOA-078


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2009

Title: Towards better vaccines: investigating the role of langerin+CD8(alpha)+ dendritic cells in innate and adaptive immunity

Recipient(s): Dr IF Hermans | PI | Malaghan Institute of Medical Research
Dr JR Kirman | PI | Malaghan Institute of Medical Research
Dr T Petersen | PI | Malaghan Institute of Medical Research
Dr DP Macartney-Coxson | AI | Institute of Environmental Science and Research

Public Summary: Dendritic cells (DCs) are a heterogenous group of cells that can activate cells of the immune system, such as T cells, against pathogens and cancer. We propose to determine the role of a discrete DC population, expressing CD8(alpha) and langerin, that we have shown to be crucial for T cell-mediated immunity. We will use a new in vivo model to specifically deplete this DC subset and examine the role of these DCs in immunity to viral and bacterial infection and cancer. This study will explore differences in function between DC subsets which can be exploited in the design of better vaccines.

Total Awarded: $714,667

Duration: 3

Host: Malaghan Institute of Medical Research

Contact Person: Dr IF Hermans

Panel: BMS

Project ID: 09-MIM-003


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2012

Title: Toxic in crowds: the triggers of toxin production in planktonic cyanobacteria

Recipient(s): Prof DP Hamilton | PI | Waikato University
Dr SA Wood | PI | Carthron Institute
Prof DR Dietrich | AI | University of Konstanz

Public Summary: Cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) produce toxins that can be fatal for animals and humans, and can impact entire aquatic ecosystems. Despite extensive research into the biological role of these toxins, their function remains a mystery. Microcystis is a widely-distributed genus of cyanobacteria which often forms toxic surface blooms. During a recent field-based lake study we demonstrated for the first time that Microcystis can “switch” toxin production on and off. We also experimentally induced Microcystis to rapidly alter toxin production with changes in cell densities. In the proposed research we will use in-lake chambers to understand how 'crowding' and environmental variables trigger and regulate toxin production. A computer simulation model will be used to identify the variables that influence toxin production in the experimental chambers. This model will guide the development of a whole-lake simulation model of Microcystis and toxin concentrations. These small-and large-scale models will help to unify understanding of toxin production from disparate field studies that have been constrained by sampling frequency and spatial extent. Using samples from the in-lake chamber experiments the dynamics of many thousands of genes of the Microcystis genome will be monitored to help unravel the long-debated functional role of their toxins.

Total Awarded: $800,000

Duration: 3

Host: University of Waikato

Contact Person: Prof DP Hamilton

Panel: EEB

Project ID: 12-UOW-087


Fund Type: Marsden Fund

Category: Standard

Year Awarded: 2012

Title: Tracing the evolution of radio halos and relics with next generation radio telescopes

Recipient(s): Dr M Johnston-Hollitt | PI | Victoria University of Wellington
Prof RP Norris | AI | Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation 

Public Summary: Next generation radio telescopes such as the Murchison Wide Field Array (MWA) and Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) will provide astronomers with surveys of the radio sky to unprecedented sensitivities.This project aims to undertake the first study of a representative, volume-limited sample of radio relics and halos detected by the newly constructed MWA and ASKAP telescopes. This sample, with complimentary data observed from centimeter to meter wavelengths, will be ideal to address outstanding questions in astrophysics including: how cosmic ray particles found in these source were accelerated, where they originated from and how large-scale magnetic fields in the universe formed?

Total Awarded: $756,522

Duration: 3

Host: Victoria University of Wellington

Contact Person: Dr M Johnston-Hollitt

Panel: ESA

Project ID: 12-VUW-183


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