2022 Early Career Research Excellence Award for Humanities: Orphan relief in China
Dr Anna High, Faculty of Law, University of Otago, has been awarded the Royal Society Te Apārangi Early Career Research Excellence Award for Humanities for her socio-legal exploration of orphan relief efforts, child rights and charity regulation in mainland China.
Anna’s award-winning book Non-Governmental Orphan Relief in China: Law, Policy and Practice is based on extensive longitudinal, ethnographic research, drawing on participant observation and semi-structured interviews with NGOs and private caregivers across rural and urban China engaged in quasi-legal/unofficial provision of orphan relief.
Her book focusses on child rights and the oversight, both legal and extra-legal, of charitable endeavours, in the context of one of China’s most disadvantaged groups of children – gu’er, literally the “lonely children”.
Described as “masterful and thoughtful”, her book was awarded the 2020 Asian Law and Society Association Distinguished Book Award, reflecting its outstanding merit as an original piece of humanities research.
Royal Society Te Apārangi Early Career Research Excellence Award for Humanities:
For early career researchers to recognise excellence in humanities research.
Citation: For socio-legal exploration of orphan relief efforts, child rights and charity regulation in Mainland China.