Search Marsden awards 2008–2017

Recipient(s): Dr CJ Trundle | PI | Victoria University of Wellington

Public Summary: The rights of military personnel is a topic of increasing concern within legal and scholarly spheres. In a range of countries, servicemen and veterans are now demanding that the state guarantee their civil liberties and extend their welfare entitlements. This project will examine one veteran group pioneering increased access to information and healthcare for military personnel. In the late 1950s thousands of servicemen from Britain and New Zealand participated in a series of British nuclear bomb tests in the Pacific. Decades later many of these ‘test veterans’ claim to suffer radiation-related illnesses and attempt to gain pensions, compensation and access to classified information. Relying increasingly on the logic of human rights, they are forging new possibilities for veteran claim-making. This research will ask: what are the shifting socio-cultural ideals that drive and enable test veteran demands, and how do their claims influence the wider social, political and legal domains of human rights, governmental process and military practice? Through interviews, document analysis and participant observation with test veteran groups in New Zealand and Britain, this research will extend current anthropological theories of social inclusion and exclusion, human rights and citizenship.

Recipient(s): Dr M Kawharu | PI | The University of Auckland
Prof PJ Tapsell | PI | University of Otago
Dr H Petrie | AI | The University of Auckland
Dr CR Woods | AI | The University of Auckland

Public Summary: For forty years there has been no major analytical work on contemporary Maori leadership. The economic condition of Maori tribal groups has changed dramatically during that time, from a state of resourcelessness to an unprecedented phase of economic development as a result of Treaty settlements. How have these changes, and the remarkable rise of the entrepreneurial leader, affected traditional notions of leadership? How do tribal groups balance the competing demands of culture and commerce, heritage and development? This ground-breaking research will reveal the significant contribution that indigenous entrepreneurship can make in areas of wealth creation, social stability, and national identity, and its importance to New Zealand’s social, economic, and political future. The multi-disciplinary team - an historian, two anthropologists, and an economist - will use a case-study approach to show how matters such as commercial/cultural balance, trusteeship, accountability to multiple stakeholders, and reciprocity between leaders and their people are negotiated, and how their successful resolution contributes to tribal well-being. The results of their work will lead to a new model of indigenous entrepreneurial leadership that demonstrates the centrality of culture and the complexities of entrepreneurship from an indigenous perspective, and makes an important contribution to international literature on entrepreneurship.

Recipient(s): Dr R Weiss | PI | Victoria University of Wellington

Public Summary: The experiences of nineteenth-century Hindus under colonialism were varied, yet all sought, and sometimes struggled, to make sense of rapid social and political change. Most commentators trace the beginnings of modern Hinduism to this period, when religious leaders addressed diverse audiences in formulating new ways of being Hindu. Their formulations differed according to levels of education, caste, and exposure to colonial power. However, almost all studies of religious change in colonial India have focussed on the writings of urban, elite Hindus, overlooking the concerns of religious leaders speaking in vernacular languages to local audiences. Consequently, little is known about the changing face of Hinduism of non-elite practitioners.

In my research, I will examine important projects of religious innovation among non-elite Hindus in nineteenth-century South India. These projects entailed re-imagining caste, gender, ritual practices, and sources of authority. My principal aim is to consider the impact of colonial and missionary forces on the ways that Hindus reconceived their traditions at the beginning of the modern era. By emphasising non-elite responses to colonialism, this research will challenge prevailing scholarly narratives of the development of contemporary Hinduism.

Recipient(s): Dr RP Fitzgerald | PI | University of Otago
Assoc Prof M Legge | PI | University of Otago
Assoc Prof JK Park | PI | The University of Auckland
Dr MG Bell | AI | University of Otago
Ms M Kawharu | AI | The University of Auckland

Public Summary: Reproductive decisions such as whether to terminate a pregnancy or to give birth to a child with genetic anomalies are often made rapidly in real life. To decide what to do, people have no time to study for a bioethics degree; instead they must rely on the moral toolkit they have at hand. The ‘right to choose’ seems an inappropriate framing of their dilemma since their choices are so few, and rights are based in notions of individualism while decisions about the expression of genetic difference always affect more than one person. Providing choice for women in these situations is also presented as the moral impetus for their work by scientists who shape, through genetic profiling and genetic testing of embryos, the broader social group ‘the disabled’. This project both explores and explains what we call the 'everyday ethics' of people in such situations. Using ethnographic interviewing and prior studies, with national and international comparison, we explain and explore the actual concepts that different publics use to make a series of individual reproductive decisions that can affect the wider society, and which often have the power to override formal ethical governance. Our findings will be disseminated to diverse audiences.

Recipient(s): Dr KD Brounéus | PI | University of Otago

Public Summary: Truth and reconciliation commissions (TRC) play a pivotal role in post-conflict peacebuilding processes around the world, yet research on their effectiveness is lacking. This study will be the first to use a before–after design to assess the effects of a TRC process in both women and men and will thereby be breaking new ground within the field of transitional justice. Through surveys and interviews, the project will follow the Solomon Islands TRC, examining the effect of the TRC on people’s attitudes concerning trust, coexistence, peace, and security. Based on previous research, the following three hypotheses will be tested: (H1) Over time, hearing TRC testimonies will lead to more reconciliatory attitudes and behaviour in people who were not directly affected by the violence during the conflict; (H2) Due to the types of violence women are subjected to in and after war, the TRC process will involve more challenges and risks for women than for men; and (H3) The TRC hearings will lead to incidents of threat and violence against witnesses in their home communities. Knowledge on the effects of TRCs is essential so that these processes can be designed to build sustainable peace, minimizing potential risks for those participating.

Recipient(s): Dr JM Hodgkiss | PI | Victoria University of Wellington

Public Summary: This project will use exceptionally short laser pulses in order to study ultrafast electron dynamics in organic solar cells. Many organic molecules and polymers have an electronic structure similar to inorganic semiconductors such as silicon – the material most widely used in today’s solar cells. But the propensity of electrons to be shared and transferred between individual molecular components varies widely and is poorly understood. Understanding the pathways by which light absorption triggers the release of tightly bound electrons holds the key to the widespread deployment of organic semiconductors in printable solar cells.

This project tackles the problem by zooming in to femtosecond timescales (millionths of a billionth of a second) to directly explore the transfer of electrons. We will measure the interaction of timed sequences of laser pulses with electrons on ultrafast timescales. In doing so, we will capture snapshots of the dynamically changing electronic landscape in molecular semiconductors. Our aim is to determine whether photocurrent generation in organic solar cells can be explained by ultrafast bursts of electronic dynamics.

Recipient(s): Dr IA Pecher | PI | GNS Science
Dr AR Gorman | PI | University of Otago
Dr H Abuel-Naga | AI | The University of Auckland
Prof C Berndt | AI | University of Kiel
Dr JMK Bialas | AI | University of Kiel
Dr B Davy | AI | GNS Science
Dr GJ Moridis | AI | Lawrence Berkeley Lab
Dr H Neil | AI | NIWA - The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Ltd
Dr MT Reagan | AI | Lawrence Berkeley Lab
Dr GJ Rickard | AI | NIWA - The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Ltd

Public Summary: Large quantities of methane are stored beneath the seafloor in ice-like gas hydrates. Gas hydrate stability depends on pressure and temperature and thus, vast amounts of methane may be released from melting hydrates during climate change with potentially significant environmental implications. Much of the released methane may be oxidized in the ocean contributing to ocean acidification. If methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, reaches the atmosphere, it may accelerate global warming. We have discovered a unique area east of New Zealand’s South Island with evidence for past methane release from gas hydrates. Seafloor depressions over an area of >20,000 km2 appear to have formed as a result of significant quantities of gas expelled from dissociating hydrates during glacial-interglacial cycles. We propose to study the formation of these features to better understand climate-driven methane release from hydrates. Our research will involve two cruises in collaboration with international partners to map and sample the inferred gas-escape features. Geophysical, geochemical, paleoceanographic, and geomechanical analyses will allow reconstruction and timing of glacial gas-escape events. Results from these studies will provide calibration for modelling the response of the gas hydrate reservoir to past and possible future climatic changes.

Recipient(s): Prof A Cockburn | PI | University of Canterbury
Prof C Gutwin | AI | University of Saskatchewan

Public Summary: Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) mediate most communication between humans and computing devices. Their success is partly due to their natural support for novice users, but the visual search and direct manipulation mechanisms that make GUIs effective for novices fail to support users as they become more experienced, and GUIs often trap users in ‘beginner mode.’ Conversely, interfaces explicitly designed for experts (typified by command-line interaction) allow high levels of performance, but only after extensive training. While interfaces for novices or for experts have been well investigated, the transition from novice to expert is poorly understood.

We will establish new fundamental understanding of the interface and human factors that influence users’ transition from novice to expert performance with computing systems. Methods will include the design, implementation, and evaluation of interfaces to test theories and demonstrate new interactive capabilities, as well as construction of predictive performance models. Research outcomes will demonstrate how interface designers can support rapid attainment of high levels of performance, as well as enabling them to predict the impact of design decisions without the expense of implementation and evaluation. Funding will enable Canterbury to continue building its reputation as an international centre of excellence for Human-Computer Interaction.

Recipient(s): PB Rainey | PI | Massey University
Dr EC Libby | AI | Massey University

Public Summary: Building an Extended Synthesis of evolution requires incorporation of development into the Modern Synthesis. This requires knowledge of the factors that affect the translation of mutation into phenotypic variation. Central to the translation process is the complex network of functional and regulatory connectivities that define the genotype-to-phenotype map. Theory predicts that this network of genetic interactions – the totality of development – constrains and channels evolution; restricts the pathways it takes and – by imposing limits to phenotype space – defines the rules by which it operates. The work outlined in this proposal uses a well-established and uniquely powerful experimental system to test the hypothesis that evolution proceeds via ‘pathways of least resistance’, that is, via those pathways that have the greatest capacity to translate mutation into phenotypic variation. Using a combination of genetics, genomics and mathematics, this proposal will generate insight into the workings of evolution and the rules underpinning genetic evolution. Together these insights will contribute toward the emergence of a richer and more predictive theory of evolution.

Recipient(s): Dr ML Ward | PI | The University of Auckland

Public Summary: Cardiomyocytes are the 'working' cells of the heart, responsible for the synchronised contraction and relaxation that enables the heart to function as a pump, yet myocytes comprise only 25% of the total cell number. Most abundant are the fibroblasts that produce the various extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins, and in close contact with every single myocyte are vascular smooth muscle, and their associated endothelial cells. Traditionally the ECM has been thought of as providing a mechanical scaffolding for force production in the heart. However, we believe it also modulates calcium handling within the myocytes, and that (bidirectional) signalling between cardiomyocytes and the ECM is essential for normal heart function. Our aim is to monitor intracellular calcium from multicellular heart tissue whilst sequentially dismantling the ECM with enzymes that target specific components. At different stages of matrix-myocyte disruption, the abundance and localization of key proteins, as well as myocyte structure, will be examined using immuno-cytochemistry. Endothelial cell-to-myocyte signalling will also be examined in intact tissue. This study will provide new insights into the cellular processes underlying contraction in the heart, potentially resulting in novel targets for development of drug treatment strategies for hearts on the road to failure.