NPM Researcher Associate Professor Melinda Webber from the University of Auckland was elected a general councillor onto the Royal Society Te Apārangi Council in late May.
Melinda is a former Fulbright-Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga Scholar who has published widely on the nature of Māori identity. Her research examines the ways race, ethnicity, culture and identity impact the lives of young people, particularly Māori students.
In 2016, Melinda was awarded a Marsden Fast-Start grant to undertake a research project examining the distinctive identity traits of Ngāpuhi, New Zealand’s largest iwi, and in 2017 Melinda recieved a Rutherford Discovery Fellowship to tackle an important question facing educators – ‘How can we foster cultural pride and academic aspiration among Māori students?’
She was previously a Co-Principal Investigator on the NPM project 'Ka Awatea' which examined the nature of teaching, learning and home socialisation patterns that support high-achieving Māori students in New Zealand.
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