Aleisha Ward
Auckland
Dr Aleisha Ward is a Professional Teaching Fellow, Music, at the University of Auckland specialising in Aotearoa New Zealand music history. She is also a freelance historian, writer, editor/copyeditor, and public speaker.
Aleisha’s particular area of research is the history of jazz in Aotearoa. She is an award winning jazz historian and music writer who was a recipient of the 2016/2017 Auckland Libraries Sir George Grey Researcher in Residence, the 2017 Douglas Lilburn Fellow, and was awarded a 2018 Ministry of Culture and Heritage New Zealand History Research Trust award, all for her project researching Aotearoa’s jazz age. Additionally, she also researches and writes about Aotearoa’s popular music history and is particularly interested in the intersections between technology and the music industry in the mid- and late twentieth century.
Aleisha has extensive experience in archival and specialist library work having previously been the Research Librarian, Music at Alexander Turnbull Library and worked at the former creative arts libraries and Faculty of Education’s archive at Waipapa Taumata Rau, the University of Auckland,. Aleisha has also done contract work with the Auckland War Memorial Museum’s Online Cenotaph team.
