Tuesday 6 October 2020

Road to PhD Part 3: 2019

My PhD confirmation of candidature was completed successfully in early January. But with that now finished, and it being the only formal milestone, apart from six-monthly progress reports, the remaining time and thesis writing is essentially self-directed. With this in mind, I once again endeavoured to find academic avenues to present research but also prep material that could find its way into the larger thesis document. Since the thesis is huge and covers a range of diverse topics and areas, each of those aspects presents the opportunity to target specific conferences or journals, and develop those in smaller formats, for later use as thesis material.

These included: A poster outlining an indigenous approach to creative methodology for the AUT Postgraduate Research Symposium 2019, an animated storytelling presentation for Mai Ki Te Ao (Pre Doctoral conference to NAISA), a keynote for the WaiPRU conference - Taniwha, Gods and Monsters, the inaugural Toroa Conference discussing the intersection of Research, Teaching and Creative Practice, and finally a presentation for Ngā Pae o te Maramatanga MAI Doctoral Conference 2019, hosted in Karitane.



In addition there were a range of creative projects and childrens book activities - Comic Workshop for AUT Zine Club, a giant format book for Huia Publishers called E Ngē, Pekepeke E!, a Live Drawing session with Miriama Kamo reading for Storylines (in conjunction with What Now), NZ Book Awards FinalistStorylines Notable Book Award Winner for The Stolen Stars of Matariki, the TVNZ Goodnight Kiwi version of Stolen Stars read by Stacey Morrison (Māori & English), and the adaptation of Stolen Stars into a bilingual audio book, using new Alexa software.