3 March 2005 - Communications and Development Department ...

Canterbury welcomes new staffRoll growth strong4Dr William Chenghas joined the Schoolof Languages andCulture as a lecturerin the Spanishprogramme. DrCheng has an MA inSpanish language andliterature and a PhDin Latin Americanliterature fromthe University of Colorado at Boulder. Since2000 he has worked as assistant professor ofSpanish and interdisciplinary studies at DruryUniversity, USA.Dr Alex Evans hasjoined the School ofCulture, Literatureand Society as alecturer in the Englishprogramme. Dr Evanshas an MA (Universityof Edinburgh) and aDPhil (University ofSussex). His researchinterests includequeer cultural activism and cultural politicsin the age of AIDS, and relationships betweenthe avant-garde and the mainstream intheatre and performance from Modernism tothe present day. His dramatic work has beenperformed at the UK’s Traverse Theatre and theBristol Old Vic.Dr Maria Perez-Y-Perez has beenappointed a lecturerin Social Work. DrPerez-Y-Perez hasa PhD in sociology(University ofCanterbury). Herdissertation,Discipline, Autonomyand Ambiguity:Organisations and Markets in Sex Work inChristchurch, New Zealand, focused on thesocial organisation of sex work. She continuesto undertake research in the area of sex work,exploring the transition to decriminalisationand the implications for sex work industrypersonnel, human service providers andgovernment agencies.John Chrisstoffelshas been appointedlecturer in film inthe School of FineArts. He has a BAin religious studies(Canterbury) and lastyear completed hisBFA. In 2003-2004 MrChrisstoffels was avisiting lecture in the school and in 2002 wasacting head of the film department. He haswritten, directed and produced a number ofshort films, commercials and music videos. Hewon a Nokia New Zealand Film Award in 2001for the cinematography of a short film, Junk,by Gregory King and his video of SalmonellaDub’s Dance-Hall Girl was best dance video atthe 2003 Australasian Juice TV awards.Dr Tiina Vares hasbeen appointed alecturer in genderstudies in the Schoolof Culture, Literatureand Society. Sincecompleting herPhD in sociology atCanterbury in 2000,Dr Vares has held anumber of fixed termlecturing positions at the University, teachingin both the gender and cultural studiesprogrammes. From 2001 to 2003 she was aco-researcher studying the socio-culturalimplications of pro-sexual pharmaceuticalsfor men and women in a project funded by theNew Zealand Health Research Council.Claire Hero hasjoined the School ofCulture, Literatureand Society as anEnglish lecturer.Ms Hero has a BA(Hamline University,St Paul), and anMFA in poetry(WashingtonUniversity, StLouis). She is familiar with the Universityhaving taught as a guest lecturer for the firstsemester last year and as an instructor for theCentre of Continuing Education in the summerof 2003. She has taught creative writing atWashington University and Central MissouriState University and is senior editor of Pleiades:A Journal of New Writing.Dr ChristopherGallavin has beenappointed lecturerin the School ofLaw. Dr Gallavin hasan LLB with firstclass honours fromCanterbury and a PhDfrom the Universityof Hull where hehas lectured since2003. His area of expertise is internationalcriminal law, in particular the notion of stateresponsibility. He has worked previouslyas a national policy councillor for the NewZealand Public Service Association and asassistant deputy registrar for the Departmentof Courts.A smooth enrolment process this year looksset to deliver record enrolments in degreecourses.At the end of February, with four days of theenrolment period remaining, the studentheadcount was well up on the same time last year.First-year enrolments, predominantly schoolleavers, were up and there were significantincreases also in Mäori and Pacific numbers.International enrolments were also up andwere being bolstered by a strong stream of lateenrolments.Definitive figures will be available after theend of the enrolment period and equivalentfull-time student (EFTS) numbers from 31March. There will be a detailed report in thenext issue of Chronicle.Difficulties with NCEA entry standardsrequired a great deal of extra work fromliaison and enrolment staff. No studentswere enrolled who did not meet the entrancestandard and some who did not qualify havetaken up the opportunity to gain entrancethrough Foundation Studies and UniversityPreparation courses.Top achievers rewardedFour of Canterbury University’s top achievershave been awarded prestigious Governmentscholarships.Minister of Education Trevor Mallardannounced that 44 students have beenawarded Top Achiever Doctoral Scholarships,worth nearly $4.4 million over the next threeyears, by the Tertiary Education Commission.The successful Canterbury applicants inthe latest round were Hamish Greig, StevenThomas, Jason Wong and Richard Brown. Eachwill receive nearly $100,000 over three years.Richard Brown and Jason Wong will both studyfor PhDs in mechanical engineering. Richardwill research high speed 3D motion sensing fora digital image-based breast cancer screeningsystem and Jason will look at insulin infusioncontrol for critically ill patients.Hamish Greig will research the influenceof hydroperiod and ecosystem size on thecommunity structure of high country pondsfor his postdoctoral research in biologicalsciences and Steven Thomas will be based inthe National Centre for Research on Europe(NCRE) and will investigate New Zealand-Europe relations since 1982.“This Government is committed to developingworld-class research in this country and thesescholarships are designed to support researchat PhD level in all disciplines and increase thesupply of highly trained researchers and highlyskilled graduates, by supporting the top 10%of doctoral candidates,” Mr Mallard said.