Senior Fulbright scholars announced for exchanges to US
Art interventions, freedom of expression and extreme sports are just some of the fields of research for ten recipients
of exchange awards to the United States of America announced by Fulbright New Zealand today. The recipients of various
awards under Fulbright New Zealand’s senior scholar programme will research and/or lecture in their specialist fields at
universities of their choice across the US.
Sculptor Paul Cullen, a Senior Lecturer in Visual Arts at AUT University, has been awarded one of six 2012 Fulbright New
Zealand Senior Scholar Awards to research collaborative and non-gallery public art practises at Auburn University in
Auburn, Alabama, in the first phase of a collaborative sculpture/design intervention with Dr Rob Barnett from Auburn’s
School of Architecture for the ArtWeb Alabama project. The collaboration will ultimately result in a sculptural
installation and public exhibition in Alabama in late 2013.
Husband and wife Andrew Geddis and Jacinta Ruru from the University of Otago’s Faculty of Law have both received awards
to research different aspects of law at US universities. Andrew, who obtained an LLM from Harvard University as a 1997
Fulbright New Zealand Graduate Student, has been awarded a Fulbright New Zealand Senior Scholar Award to conduct a
socio-legal study of freedom of expression in New Zealand, with a particular focus on the freedom to dissent. He will
undertake research at both Arizona State University in Tempe and the University of California, Los Angeles. Jacinta has
been awarded the 2012 Fulbright-Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga Senior Scholar Award to research indigenous challenges to
Western property law, at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon and Arizona State University in Tempe. She will focus on how property law could be
recalibrated to better accommodate indigenous claims to Crown or publicly-owned lands and natural resources.
Former competitive snowboarder Holly Thorpe, a Senior Lecturer in Sport and Leisure Studies at the University of
Waikato, is one of two academics selected for the Fulbright Visiting Scholar Award in New Zealand Studies, a
semester-long teaching and research position based at Georgetown University’s Center for Australian and New Zealand
Studies in Washington, DC. Holly will research children and young persons’ involvement in extreme sports, while teaching
an undergraduate course on sport in New Zealand society.
The remaining Fulbright New Zealand senior scholars will similarly conduct three to five month exchanges relevant to
their expertise and interests.
2012 Fulbright New Zealand Senior Scholar Awards:
• Fiona Cowles from the University of Otago will research the cellular function of the COMMD10 protein, at the University of Texas
Southwestern in Dallas.
• Paul Cullen from AUT University will research collaborative and non-gallery public art practises as part of a sculpture/design
intervention for the ArtWeb Alabama project, at Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama.
• Jennifer Curtin from the University of Auckland will research career pathways of women politicians in Westminster countries and the US,
at Georgetown University in Washington, DC.
• Andrew Geddis from the University of Otago will research the socio-legal history of freedom of expression in New Zealand, at Arizona
State University in Tempe and the University of California, Los Angeles.
• Frances Hughes from Porirua will research the preparation of health professionals for psychosocial response to natural disasters, at
Rutgers University in Piscataway, New Jersey.
• Shane Telfer from Massey University will research carbon dioxide capture by metal-organic frameworks, at the University of
California, Berkeley.
2012 Fulbright Visiting Scholar Awards in New Zealand Studies:
• John Hopkins from the University of Canterbury will research the Administrative Procedure Act and the US system of federalism, and
teach a course on comparative global constitutionalism from a Pacific viewpoint, at Georgetown University in Washington,
DC for their Spring 2012 semester.
• Holly Thorpe from the University of Waikato will research children and young persons’ involvement in extreme sports, and teach a
course on sport in New Zealand society, at Georgetown University in Washington, DC for their Fall 2012 semester.
2012 Fulbright-Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga Senior Scholar Award:
• Jacinta Ruru from the University of Otago will research indigenous challenges to Western property law, at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon and Arizona State University in Tempe.
2012 Fulbright-Cognition Scholar Awards in Education Research:
• Kate Thornton from Victoria University of Wellington will research mentoring and coaching of teachers and educational leaders, at the
University of California, Santa Cruz.
ENDS
Fulbright New Zealand was established in 1948 to promote mutual understanding through educational and cultural exchanges
between New Zealand and the United States of America. The Fulbright programme offers a range of prestigious awards for
New Zealand and American graduate students, academics, artists and professionals to study, research and teach in each
other’s countries. Fulbright New Zealand offers over 70 exchange awards each year – half to students and half to
scholars – and more than 1,400 New Zealanders and 1,100 Americans have benefited from a Fulbright award to date. The
programme is mainly funded by the US and New Zealand governments with additional funding from award sponsors, private
philanthropists and alumni donors.
See www.fulbright.org.nz for details about Fulbright awards and how to apply, or download a Media Fact Sheet of further
background information here: www.fulbright.org.nz/about/mediafactsheet.pdf