PHANZA Secretary
c/o Manatū Taonga/MCH
PO Box 5364
Wellington 6140
New Zealand
© PHANZA 2025
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Posted on October 28 2025
Guosheng Xie 谢国升 is from Guangdong, China. He studied ancient Chinese history in Chengdu and Shanghai for seven years. With a strong interest in Pacific history, he applied for the doctoral program at Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington. His doctoral research examines the historical development of Chinese labour and enterprise in Aotearoa New Zealand from the 1860s
Posted on September 27 2025
Alice Houston-Page completed her BA(Hons) at the University of Otago Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka in 2023. Her Honours dissertation focused on the anti-nuclear activism of an Ōtepoti women’s group in the 1960s. The group produced a petition protesting French nuclear testing in Oceania that ultimately received over 13,000 signatures from New Zealand women. Alice has a particular interest in post-war histories
Posted on September 27 2025
Mark Pacey completed a degree from Massey University in 2017 with a double major in History and Defence Studies. He has had an interest in military history since childhood and specialises in the Pacific theatre of World War Two. While studying at university, Pacey published his first book “Grand Pharmacies”, a history of pharmacies in the Hastings and Havelock North
Posted on January 6 2025
I currently work as a freelance historian. I have worked on private contracts including those utilising nineteenth century Native Land Court records to provide evidence in High Court cases, focusing on Tamaki Makaurau and the Manawatū region. I have also produced engaging accounts of genealogical research for an Auckland businessman and his family, leading to two privately produced volumes. I
Posted on May 28 2024
Samantha Owens is a freelance music historian based in Karori, Wellington. She has published widely on the performance cultures and practices of Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia, 1850–1950, as well as on the music history of early modern Europe, 1660–1760. Her monograph, The Well-Travelled Musician: John Sigismond Cousser and Musical Exchange in Baroque Europe (Boydell Press, 2017), was funded by an
Posted on March 15 2024
I am the Director of Arque Research, a specialist research consulting company that helps businesses, institutions and cultural organisations use history to connect with staff, customers, stakeholders and communities. I have skills, knowledge and experience gained over a 30-year career spanning academic and applied research, journalism and marketing, and university teaching and postgraduate supervision. My expertise includes legal history, urban
Posted on September 20 2023
I am Elizabeth (Libby). I’ve completed my MA and PhD in History at Te Herenga Waka Victoria – University of Wellington. In 2024 I received a Judith Binney Writing Award which I am using to adapt my PhD thesis, ‘Women Contracting in Law c. 1840–1920: Gender and Settler Colonialism in the Courts of Aotearoa New Zealand’, for publication. I have
Posted on July 26 2022
I am a graduate in history from Massey University, Palmerston North. My first professional role was researching Maori Anglican clergy for the Religion and Church People Working Party of the DNZB. In 1992, I joined the Manawatu Museum Te Whare Pupuri Taonga o Manawatu as Research Assistant, developing content on opening exhibitions for what is now Te Manawa. Between 2001-2019,
Posted on September 21 2021
Dr Vaughan Wood is an environmental historian with a longstanding interest in the environmental history of New Zealand during the 19th and early 20th centuries, and was a postdoctoral fellow on the Marsden Fund project Empires of Grass, as well as the Canterbury History Foundation Community Historian for 2008. He is the author of Akaroa Cocksfoot: King of Grasses (2014), and has
Posted on September 21 2021
I am an Auckland-based writer and researcher with a background in book writing and publishing, specialising in New Zealand history. I have a BA in History and a Master of Creative Writing with First Class Honours from Auckland University. Over the past 25 years, I have published a range of books for children and adults, many with a focus on
Posted on September 21 2021
I am passionate about recording the stories of people, families, local communities, businesses, and not-for-profit/community organisations. I am experienced in oral history interviewing, research, writing and publishing. I work with graphic designers, editors and publishers. I studied New Zealand, Australian and Pacific history at Victoria University as well as theatre, and women’s studies. I also have a post-graduate Diploma from
Posted on September 21 2021
Posted on September 21 2021
I grew up in Christchurch, Wellington, Auckland and New Plymouth, and studied English and Greek at the University of Auckland, graduating with an MA in Middle English. Later I worked at the Parliamentary Library, and as a law librarian in Wellington and London. I now live in Wellington. I write fiction, non-fiction, plays and poetry, primarily for children and young
Posted on September 21 2021
Queen’s Service Medal Qualifications: M.A. (Hons), Dip.Ed, Dip.Teaching, Dip. Recreation and Sport. Author of 37 books on the social and industrial history of the Buller and West Coast regions. Teacher for many years, now retired. Involved in many local institutions and Associations.
Posted on September 21 2021
Kia ora! I am a Pākehā New Zealander of English, German and Highland Scottish origin who has lived in 10 cities in 6 countries and worked in a wide range of occupations. I have a PhD in history from the Australian National University (2015) where I wrote a thesis in the National Centre of Biography about the Aotearoa New Zealand-born
Posted on September 21 2021
Having completed a BA (History and Education) in 1999 and a BA Honours (History) in 2005, at the University of Auckland, and worked in the disability sector for a number of years, I went back to university on a doctoral scholarship. In 2009, I completed my PhD, ‘Assessing Gender in the Construction of Scottish Identity c.1286-c.1586’, which was conferred in