2024 Early Career Research Excellence Award for Social Science

As a transdisciplinary social scientist, Lara’s work spans political science, and social psychology, and uses both quantitative and qualitative methods to interrogate large datasets. 

Lara was the lead author of the paper ‘Well-being and cultural identity for Māori: Knowledge of iwi (tribal) affiliations does not strongly relate to health and social service outcomes’, which was inspired by the experiences of some of her own whānau who identify as Māori but do not have an iwi affiliation or wider knowledge of their whakapapa.

The paper took a new approach to the question of Māori identity, building on many decades of theoretical and empirical work on Māori cultural identity and well-being. Lara used Stats NZ's Integrated Data Infrastructure to explore patterns in reported identity for Māori — focusing on whether people report knowing their iwi or not — and linking this to health and social service outcomes.

Lara’s work has been an important source in informing public policy, and reshaping public understanding of the experiences of Māori in our society. Her paper has received interest from government agencies, and for some it has become a standard reference in training courses for using the administrative data sources.

Lara is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington, as well as a Senior Research Fellow of Statistics at the University of Auckland and the Director of Demos and Data Limited.

The selection committee saw Lara as one of the foremost social scientists of her generation. Having worked with news media on more than 1000 occasions, she is one of the nation's most engaged social scientists.

Lara says one of the most rewarding aspects of social science is finding problems in your own life or the lives of those around you such as your whānau and communities, then finding ways to apply academic research to explore policy solutions.

"I'd like to acknowledge the great mentorship I have had in my early career from senior colleagues. In this work I have also been privileged to work with some amazing early career colleagues. I am grateful to the Health Research Council for funding the research cited in this award.

 "It is humbling to receive this award and such kind words from the committee."

Early Career Researcher Excellence Award for Social Sciences:

The Royal Society Te Apārangi Early Career Research Excellence Award for Social Sciences is awarded annually for the encouragement of early-career researchers currently based in New Zealand for social sciences research in New Zealand.

Citation:

To Lara Greaves for research that uses large administrative datasets to better understand the complex relationships between Māori identity, social well-being, and health.