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Fulbright New Zealand has announced the seven recipients of the 2024 NZ Scholar Awards. These prestigious awards are worth up to US$37,500 for New Zealand academics, artists and professionals to study and/or lecture at a US institution of their choosing.
Research subjects covered by this year’s cohort include indigenous language, childhood nutrition and young adult justice.
The full list of 2024 Scholar Award recipients is as follows.
Hona Black (Tūhoe, Te Whānau-a-Apanui, Te Whakatōhea, Tūwharetoa) receives the 2024 Fulbright-Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga Scholar Award and will explore language interference with te reo Māori and the Hawaiian language at the University of Hawai’i.
Kathryn Hay from Kapiti will research how neurodivergent learners can be supported to succeed in their work-integrated learning experiences at Drexel University, Philadelphia.
Jason Ingham from Auckland will research heritage and sacred architecture with a focus on vulnerability assessment and remediation at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana.
Mahsa McCauley from Auckland will explore transforming bee welfare with secure AI-enhanced precision apiculture at the Farm Security Operations Centre (FSOC) at North Carolina A&T State University, in Greensboro North Carolina.
Mei Peng from Dunedin will research parental decision-making on plant-based food choices at the University of California, Davis, and Washington State University, Pullman.
Jesse Pirini from Wellington will research how innovative data visualization can support Indigenous development at the University of Massachusetts (Amherst and Boston).
Ashley Shearar, living in Rotorua, will research the emerging field of young adult justice at Columbia University in New York.
Fulbright New Zealand Executive Director Penelope Borland says the breadth of research interests is a sign of Fulbright’s wide impact across disciplines.
“At its heart, the Fulbright programme exists to promote mutual understanding and peace between nations, and every year a fresh group of outstanding individuals takes up that challenge,’ said Penelope Borland.
“This year’s cohort of NZ Scholars represent a wonderfully diverse range of research topics and backgrounds. I know they will all make exceptional ambassadors of New Zealand scholarship and culture during their time in the United States.”
The Fulbright Programme of educational exchange is one of the largest and most significant educational exchanges of scholars in the world.
New Zealand was only the fifth Fulbright Commission in the world, signing up to the programme in 1948. Since then, it has awarded more than 1900 scholarships to New Zealand graduate students, artists, academics and professionals to undertake further research in the US, and welcomed more than 1,600 Americans on exchanges to New Zealand.