December 2020 BRIGHT SPARKS Cover Story: Understanding Atmospheric Rivers with Hamish Prince Feature Story: the Dance of Life – an Interview with Jan Bolwell
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December 2020 BRIGHT SPARKS Cover Story: Understanding Atmospheric Rivers with Hamish Prince Feature Story: The Dance of Life – an interview with Jan Bolwell Also In This Issue: Fulbright in the News | Awards and Appointments of Note | Grantee Experience: A Year in the Life of a Māori Geneticist with Aneska Hoskin | Alumni Spotlight: Fulbright Teachers Return to their Classrooms with Expanded World Views | Kai and Korero | Fulbright NZ Scholar Shona Munro on Kiwi Policing | Fulbright Announcement: Introducing Fulbright Good Works – a New Alumni Seminar Series THE TEAM FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR This is our final issue of Bright Sparks for the Bright Sparks. Fulbright Science and Innovation PIP CLIMO JAMIE ROBERTSON year, and what a year it has been! Whereas 2019 was graduate Hamish Prince has been busy research- PROGRAMME MANAGER EXECUTIVE AND CORPORATE [email protected] SERVICES ASSISTANT full of firsts—the first ever Fulbright rebrand, the ing the vast storms known as “atmospheric rivers” [email protected] first global meeting of Fulbright Executive Direc- while he waits to take up his Fulbright scholar- tors in Washington DC, the first year our grantees ship next year. Geneticist Aneska Hoskin, also a were able to enjoy the benefits of increased fund- member of this year’s graduate cohort, outlines ing from MFAT—2020 has been characterised by some of the key lessons learnt during her year THERESE LLOYD JULIE WILLIAMS thwarted expectations and continual challenges. spent as a research assistant at Ngati Porou SENIOR COMMUNICATIONS ADVISOR CORPORATE SERVICES MANAGER [email protected] [email protected] But it has also been transformative. Hauora, the only Maori owned and run hospital Navigating the effects of Covid-19, both imme- in Aotearoa. We also catch up with dancer and diate and tangential, has been a constant battle for Fulbright alumna Jan Bolwell who tells us how her Fulbright grantees and staff alike. Despite the chal- heroic battle with cancer unearthed a passion for lenges posed by the different Covid alert levels— playwrighting. Jan was recently awarded an ONZM SARITA MAGAN MAGNOLIA WILSON EVENTS AND ALUMNI ADVISOR PROGRAMME MANAGER PENELOPE from the extremes of lockdown, to the day to day for her services to dance. [email protected] [email protected] BORLAND reality of scanning Q-codes, wearing masks, and We are also delighted to round off the year carrying hand sanitiser—the new norm is starting by announcing a new alumni seminar series. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR to feel less daunting and more manageable. Fulbright Good Works will showcase the research For Fulbright New Zealand, it may be too soon of our alumni in a programme of monthly semi- to say we have prevailed, however, now that we nars that covers an array of subjects. See our call have managed to secure deferments and delayed for expressions of interest on pages 22 and 23 for starts for all our 2020 cohort, a sense of positiv- more information. ity and vigour is beginning to return. The new As we wrap up this tumultuous year, I want to incoming US administration and the likelihood of take this opportunity to say a heartfelt thank you a vaccine being available in 2021 are contributing to the 2020 Fulbright cohort. Thank you for your to a renewed sense of hope going forward. patience and resilience as we have navigated these We began 2020 by welcoming the US Fulbright unchartered waters together. I also want to say grantees in February, only to farewell almost all of a special thank you to the Fulbright NZ staff and STAY IN TOUCH them a mere 6 weeks later when the pandemic was board for your hard work and support through declared. We all felt genuine sadness at their early multiple challenges to ensure that our grantees’ departure. While this was naturally a low point, health and welfare have been at the forefront of @fulbrightnz there have also been some wonderful high points. every decision made. One such highlight was the Fulbright NZ Awards Thank you also to our wonderfully engaged held on August 5. It was wonderful to be able to Fulbright alumni who continue to inspire us with celebrate the achievements of our New Zealand their good work. facebook.com/fulbrightnz grantees even though, at that time, the question From all of us here at Fulbright New Zealand, of when they would be able to travel to the US was we wish you all a safe and relaxing summer and a unanswerable. The atmosphere of the Fulbright very Merry Christmas! Awards was one of genuine gratitude and seemed to embody the “compassion, peace and friendship” @fulbrightnewzealand that is at the heart of the Fulbright mission. It is with that spirit that we celebrate the resil- ience of our grantees and alumni in this issue of PO Box 3465 Wellington 6140 New Zealand EDITOR’S NOTE www.fulbright.org.nz While every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of material in this SEND STORY IDEAS TO newsletter, Fulbright New Zealand does not accept liability for any [email protected] errors or omissions. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of Fulbright New Zealand. ISSN 2463-3917 (print), ISSN 2463-3925 (online) CONTENTS page 4 In the News page 6 In Publication page 7 Awards and Appointments of Note page 8 Cover Story: Understanding Atmospheric Rivers with Hamish Prince page 12 Grantee Experience: Shona Munro – Lessons from Level 4 page 14 Alumni Spotlight: Fulbright Distinguished Teachers Return to Their Classrooms with Expanded Worldview page 16 Grantee Experience: Anezka Hoskin – A Year in the Life of a Māori Geneticist page 18 Alumni Spotlight: The Dance of Life: An interview with Jan Bolwell page 20 Fulbright NZ Events page 22 Fulbright Announcement: Introducing Fulbright Good Works – a New Alumni Seminar Series page 24 Around the Office The crew at the top of the glacier preparing page 25 Kai and Korero for a big day on the ice 02 03 • Dr Gaurav Sharma made history in the recent election by being the first ever MP of Indian descent to win an electorate FULBRIGHT NZ seat in Hamilton West. Labour’s Dr Sharma defeated sitting MP National’s Tim Macindoe by a margin of 4425 votes. ALUMNI SEMINAR In 2015, Dr Sharma was a Fulbright NZ graduate at George Washington University GRANT where be completed a Master of Business in Public Health. The Fulbright New Zealand Alumni Seminar grant • It was great to see 2020 Axford Fellowship allows for Fulbright alumni based in NZ to apply for recipient Rachel Galanter on local news a grant of up to $1,150.00 towards the planning and back home in North Carolina. Rachel delivery of a seminar/presentation in New Zealand on is the Executive Director of Exchange a topic related to their specialist field. Family Center in Durham, NC and she’s This grant will support you to share your research, working hard to secure funding to help build and grow connections, and contribute to the families in her community struggling wider NZ community through your mahi. from the many effects of Covid. While she was on her Axford award earlier in the TO FIND OUT MORE, OR TO RECEIVE AN year Rachel worked at Oranga Tamariki. APPLICATION FORM, EMAIL You can read her Axford report on the [email protected] Fulbright website www.fulbright.org.nz or click here. • Congratulations to Professor Steven Ratuva on receiving the 2020 Royal Society Te Apārangi Metge Medal for excellence and building relationships in the social science research community. Professor Ratuva is the Director of the Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies at the University of Canterbury. In 2017 he received a Fulbright NZ Scholar Award and visited UCLA, Duke University and Georgetown University where he researched inequality, affirmative action, and Pacific Island minorities. To read a fascinating interview with Steven, go to the Korero tab at www.e-tangata.co.nz or click here. IN THE NEWS 04 05 • Fulbright alumnus Bill Manhire’s new AWARDS AND APPOINTMENTS OF NOTE collection of poems Wow (VUP, 2020) “begins with the song of an extinct bird and journeys on into troubling futures.” Carol Rumens from The Guardian says, “I hadn’t Rez Gardi (Fulbright General Grad 2018) has been making a huge impression overseas as an expected to be echoing the collection’s title international human rights lawyer and founder of Empower, a youth-led organisation aiming to quite so early in my reading, but the poem address the under-representation of refugees in higher education. She recently won the ‘Global’ insisted. It was a ‘wow’ of grief and shock, category of the Impact Awards for her outstanding advocacy work. She is currently living in Iraq however, as well as admiration.” working as a lawyer prosecuting ISIS. • Goddess Muscle (Huia, 2020), the highly anticipated new collection of poetry by Karlo Mila, was written over a decade and explores a wide range of themes including love and Congratulations to Te Puoho Katene who has recently been appointed as the new Kaihautū humanity, as well as the effects of racism and (Executive Director) at Te Pūtea Whakatupu Trust. Te Puoho was a Fulbright graduate in 2017 power on Pasifika peoples. Karlo Mila was where he attended Stanford University and was the Obama Foundation Leader for the Asia- awarded the Fulbright-Creative New Zealand Pacific region. This is a brilliant appointment, congratulations TP! Pacific Writers Residency in 2015. It was also wonderful to see Fulbright alumnus Professor Craig Rodger, Head of the University of Otago’s Department of Physics, recently receive NZ$15,038,728 over 5 years for research into Space-Weather prediction and risk mitigation for New Zealand energy infrastructure.