Emma Powell
Information
Lecturer | Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka University of Otago
Areas of expertise:
Pacific Studies
Literary Studies
Public Policy
Public & Oral History
Archives & Curation
Languages:
English, Cook Islands Māori (conversational), Aotearoa Māori (conversational), French (limited)
Available for:
Masters & PhD supervision | Collaborative projects | Mentorship & career advice | Panelist/Speakerships | Advisory committees | Translation work | Project management | Contract work
“Taka’i koe ki te papa ‘enua, ‘akamou i te pito ‘enua, a’u i to’u rangi”
Emma finds this beautiful and rich passage to be powerful, metaphorical and symbolic. She considers that, in addition to providing good methodological advice for research practice, if there was ever a manual for how we go into the world, this would be it.
About
Emma was born and raised on Waiheke Island (NZ) with her grandparents and it is there at their family home that her ‘enua is buried. She now calls Wellington home and can be found there when she is not in the Cook Islands, on Waiheke, or working and travelling in other parts of the world. She has genealogical affiliations to Atiu through her mother and to Mangaia through her father. Her pito was given to the sea.
Emma is a dynamic researcher with experience in the New Zealand public sector (local and central government), private sector consultancy, and the tertiary sector in New Zealand and the Cook Islands. She has worked across many diverse fields as a researcher and professional including the Treaty sector, local government and communications, Pacific broadcasting, public history and education, and currently, tertiary education and research as a lecturer in the areas of Indigenous and Pacific Studies. She has a strong skill set for social science and humanities-focused research projects, particularly projects based in Aotearoa, the Cook Islands and the wider Pacific.
Emma's doctoral work in Pacific Studies explored the genealogical practices of Cook Islands Māori people. She took a comparative and interdisciplinary approach to that study and argued for the ways genealogical praxes can help shape indigenous historiography, and notions of nationhood and futurity.
Her current research work focuses on the political, social, cultural and genealogical imbrications of New Zealand's imperial Realm. She also undertakes oral history work with the various communities that she belongs to. Her latest project with Dr Jess Pasisi (Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka), Dr Melanie Bean (University of Utah), and Dr Eilorah Malifa documents and records the stories of Pacific Women ECRs in Aotearoa New Zealand which will be available on podcast platforms later in 2024.
Academic Qualifications
2021 | Doctor of Philosophy (Pacific Studies), Victoria University of Wellington
2013 | Master of Arts (English Language and Literature) with First Class Honours, University of Auckland
2011 | Bachelor of Arts (English Language & Literature) with Honours, Victoria University of Wellington
2010 | Bachelor of Commerce and Public Policy, Victoria University of Wellington
Professional Memberships & Affiliations
Co-Director, PacTNET, University of Otago
Pasifika Committee Member, National Oral History Association of New Zealand
Member, Australia Association of Pacific Studies
Member, Te Vairanga Kite Pakari Cook Islands Research Association
Member, New Zealand History Association
Accolades
Tofā Sāili Pacific Early Career Award for Distinction in Research, 2024
Otago Prestigious Writing Grant 2023
Tracey Banivanua Mar PhD Prize - Highly Commended Awardee, 2023
VUW Deans List - PhD, 2021
Moana Te Koha Prize, Roya Society 2020
Teresia Teaiwa Prize, International Studies Association 2020
Recent Publications
2023
Powell, E. (2023). Objects and material culture in memory: Coils inside coils. Oral History in New Zealand, 35, 44-45. [Commentary].
Powell, E., Pasisi, J., Bean, T. M. P., Dziedzic, A., Asafo, D., Bennett, J. L., Fortin, M., … Fa'avae, I. A. (2023). Mapping otherwise realms. Proceedings of the Australian Association for Pacific Studies (AAPS) Conference. (pp. 36-37).
Powell, E. (2023, July). These changing years: Imagining the Cook Islands. Verbal presentation at the 5th Pacific Islands Universities Research Network (PIURN) Conference, Rarotonga, Cook Islands.
Powell, E., Walter, I., & Kokaua, S. (2023, July). Kite pakari ē te ‘uki ‘ou: Cook Islands Māori knowledge making and the next generation. Verbal presentation at the 5th Pacific Islands Universities Research Network (PIURN) Conference, Rarotonga, Cook Islands.
2022
Powell, E. (2022). [Review of the book Polynesia, 900-1600: An overview of the history of Aotearoa, Rēkohu, and Rapa Nui]. New Zealand Journal of History, 56(2), 117-118. [Book Review].
Powell, E. (2022, November). Puka(puka): Books and the Pacific. Plenary presentation at the University of Otago Centre for the Book Symposium: Books and the Pacific, [Hybrid].
Powell, E. N. (2022). A subtle recipe. In T. L. Mangioni & K. Teaiwa (Eds.), Sustenance: Decolonial recipes for wellbeing, self and community care in the academy. (pp. 15). Canberra, Australia: Australian National University. [Guide].
2021
Powell, E., & Johnson, M. (2021, December). Empire, indigeneity and the archive in the New Zealand realm. Verbal presentation at the Museum as Archive Conference: Using the Past in the Present and Future, Dunedin, New Zealand.
Te Punga Somerville, A., Apiata, A. H., Powell, E. N., Wright, K. M., Henderson, N., Ieremia-Allan, W., & Kokaua, S. (2021, November). Off the map: New Zealand history beyond borders. Panel discussion at the New Zealand Historical Association (NZHA) Conference: Ako: Learning from History? [Online].
Powell, E., & Johnson, M. (2021, July). Inside (and outside) the bubble of empire: A dialogue on the New Zealand realm. Verbal presentation at the Empire and Ecologies Symposium: Transimperial, transhistorical and transregional natures from the 17th to the 21st century, Dublin, Ireland.
Powell, E. (2021, April). Tei te akau roa: Cook Islands Māori imaginaries in the time of COVID-19. Verbal presentation at the Australian Association for Pacific Studies (AAPS) Postgraduate & Early Career Researchers' Symposium, [Online].
2020
Powell, E. E. N. (2020). Naming the Cook Islands: Articulation theory and 'akapap'anga. Pacific Studies, 43(2), 119-141.
2019
Powell, E. N. (2019, June). "I'm sorry but I don't know/I'm not that kind of Māori": Māori articulations in the New Zealand Beyond Aotearoa. Verbal presentation at the Native American & Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA) Conference, Hamilton, New Zealand.
Greenhalgh, C., Johnson, M., Kluge, E., & Powell, E. (2019, November). Archive frictions: Ethics and politics of knowledge-making in Pacific contexts. Panel discussion at the New Zealand Historical Association (NZHA) Conference: Kanohi-ki-te-Kanohi: Histories for Our Time, Wellington, New Zealand.
Powell, E. E. N. (2019, May-June). "Ka 'apai mai au i tōku ngaru ki konei", I will carry my wave here: (Re)scaling Cook Islands migrations through discursive genealogies. Verbal presentation at the Transregional Academy: Histories of Migrant Knowledge in and across the Transpacific: Agencies, Scales, Translations, Berkeley, USA