Postgraduate students

Meet our postgraduate students working towards their degrees in the School of Science in Society.

Master of Science students

Nikki Wright profile-picture photograph

Nikki Wright

The Art of Pollinator Paths

Supervisor: Tim Corballis

Secondary supervisor: Susan Ballard

Nikki Wright is a journalist and community engagement professional with a focus on collaborative art-nature initiatives. Her thesis uses a practice-based art approach to explore our relationships with insect pollinators in suburban life. Nikki is director of Nature Through Arts Collective and recipient of the Lydia Wevers Scholarship in New Zealand Studies, supported by The Stout Trust.

LinkedIn:  Nikki Wright


PhD students

Daniel is a lawyer from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana with an LLM in International Law and Politics from the University of Canterbury. His PhD investigates the jurisprudential imaginaries of Science Fiction to interrogate the juridical paradigms that inform the Western legal tradition.

LinkedIn: Daniel Chia


Dipayan Dutta profile-picture photograph

Dipayan Dutta

Activism Unbound: Exploring Creative Expressions in Environmental Advocacy

Supervisor: Tim Corballis

Secondary supervisor: Courtney Addison

Dipayan is a Google-certified Project Manager with a background in Comparative Literature. His research interests include digital ethnography, cultural anthropology, environmental humanities and STS (Science and Technology Studies). He is a recipient of the Wellington Doctoral Scholarship and works at the Antarctic Research Centre at Victoria University of Wellington.

LinkedIn:  Dipayan Dutta


Andreja Phillips profile-picture photograph

Andreja Phillips

Science and community in the web of Marlborough's podocarp forests

Supervisor: Courtney Addison

Secondary supervisor: Amanda Thomas

Andreja Phillips (MA Environmental anthropology, University of Zurich) is conducting interdisciplinary research located at the interface of environmental humanities and environmental anthropology. Her ethnographic research focuses on human-plant relations and practices of care in the context of podocarp forest restoration.


Jessica is researching how evaluation can be made more accessible, feasible, and practice-able for science communicators. Funded by the Wellington Doctoral Scholarship and Te Pūnaha Matatini. Communication Advisor for the Science Communication Trainers Network. M.S in Aquatic and Fishery Science from the University of Washington.

LinkedIn: Jessica Rohde


Vandana Singh profile-picture photograph

Vandana Singh

On a Rock and in a Hard Place: Women Scientists in Remote, Extreme, and Physically Challenging Spaces

Supervisor: Rebecca Priestley

Secondary supervisor: Nayantara Sheoran Appleton

Vandana is a forester by training, tree-hugger by instinct, policy-wonk, a novelist. Her thesis analyses women scientists working in extreme environments.  She is interested in communicating science, feminist history of science and feminist STS. She holds an MSc from Oxford, and an MA from JNU. Her debut novel is So All Is Peace (Penguin, 2019).


Max Soar profile-picture photograph

Max Soar

‘Following the Science’: Far-Right Knowledge, Postfascism, and Hegemony in Aotearoa New Zealand During COVID-19

Supervisor: Tim Corballis

Secondary supervisor: Courtney Addison

Submitted May 2024


Find out more

If you are interested in studing a PhD or Master of Science with the School of Science in Society, please contact:

Senior Lecturer

School of Science in Society