معرفی
Kirsty Dunn is a Lecturer at the Aotahi School of Maori and Indigenous Studies within the Faculty of Arts at the University of Canterbury. She has held this position since February 21, 2022, and is actively engaged in teaching and research in the field of Māori and Indigenous studies.
Her primary research interests include:
- Māori and Indigenous literatures
- Māori and Indigenous media
- Māori and Indigenous art and curation
- Taonga tuku iho and museum studies
- Māori and Indigenous research methodologies
Dunn's research is deeply informed by Kaupapa Māori research approaches and Indigenous literary scholarship. Her PhD thesis, "'Into the Dark, We are Moths': Reading Animal Whanaunga in Māori Writing in English," explores Māori writing through frameworks of whakapapa (genealogy) and pūrākau (traditional narratives). Her scholarly output demonstrates a consistent engagement with themes of Indigenous storytelling, environmental connections, and the relationship between traditional knowledge and contemporary expression, with particular attention to non-human perspectives in Māori literature.
Dunn has received the Judith Binney Writing Award (2021-2022), which supported her in preparing her doctoral thesis for publication. She serves as a peer reviewer for journals including the Journal of Commonwealth Literature and Anthrozoos, and is a member of The Physics Room and Te Hā o Ngā Pou Kaituhi Māori.
As an educator, Dunn teaches courses such as "Indigilit: Indigenous Literature in Aotearoa and Beyond," "Tuakiri: Culture and Identity," and "Māori Storytelling." She supervises graduate research on diverse topics including Māori writing in English, Indigenous climate conversations, and queer academic writing, maintaining an active presence in both academic and artistic communities through conference presentations and exhibition contributions.
