Political Science and International Relations Research Student Profiles
Current research students within the Political Science and International Relations Research Programme are listed below in alphabetical order. The title of their dissertation and supervisor[s] is included.
On this page:
- International Relations PhD Students
- Recently Submitted International Relations PhD Students
- Political Science PhD Students
- Recently Submitted Political Science PhD Students
- International Relations Master of Arts Students
- Recently Submitted International Relations MA Students
- Political Science Master of Arts Students
- Recently Submitted Political Science MA Students
International Relations PhD Students
David Belgrave
Thesis Title: 'New Zealand’s Strategic Understanding of the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China during the Cold War'. Supervisors: Rob Ayson and David Capie
David Belgrave is a graduate of the University of Auckland (BA Hons), Massey University Albany (MPhil) and the Australian National University (MSA).
David has six years’ experience working as a history researcher at Massey University Albany. He has co-authored and project managed several multi-disciplinary reports. His work included areas such as cross-cultural research; land alienation; public works takings; resource, environmental and historic place management; environmental law; oral history; the Treaty of Waitangi; and the Maori Land Court.
David has broad research interests, but is primarily interested in high-intensity conflict and the Cold War. He also has specific interests in nuclear strategy, intelligence collection and analysis, surveillance, and the politics of the environment.
Thi Binh Khong
Thesis Title: 'Vietnam in International Institutions'. Supervisors: David Capie and Ben Thirkell-White
Oliver Lah
Thesis Title: 'Continuity, change and the success of transport sector climate change mitigation strategies in OECD countries'. Supervisors: John Leslie, Martin Manning (School of Government) and Ralph Sims (Massey)
Listiana Operananta
Thesis Title: 'Indonesia's Environmental Diplomacy in ASEAN'.
Supervisor: David Capie and Ben Thirkell-White
Listiana Operananta was born in Bandung, West Java, a small town in Indonesia not too far away from the Capital of Jakarta. She went on her early education mostly in the Island of Java and finished her undergraduate from the Catholic University of Parahyangan in Bandung, majoring in International Relations with research emphasis on regional studies.
Shortly after graduated in 1993, she joined The Jakarta Post as one of their rookie’s journalist. Reading and writing are her past time interest, although after experiencing journalist life she got the knack of enjoying travelling to strange and different places.
Having International Relations as her background as well as writing quiet a lot of international and foreign affairs related articles for the news paper, she decided that working with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will be as adventurous as dodging interesting places for articles. She joined the Ministry in 1997 and proceeds to finish her Master Degree in International Relations from the University of Indonesia with Environmental Diplomacy as her dissertation theme.
Since working for the Ministry over 13 years ago, she has been involved in various issues, especially regional, bilateral, information and media as well as public diplomacy. Her first posting was with the Indonesian Embassy in London as Second Secretary and now Wellington is her second post as First Secretary. While assigning in Wellington as one of the official handling economic issues, she is also working part time on her proposal for her PhD at the Victoria University Wellington, majoring in International Relations. Listiana is married with two children.
Thomas Robinson
Thesis Title: 'New Zealand and Asian regionalism'. Supervisors: David Capie and Rob Ayson
Recently Submitted International Relations PhD Students
Nick Henry
Thesis Title: 'Global Civil Society and International Engagement of Non-state Organisations from Burma and the Philippines'. Supervisors: Robert Deuchars and David Capie
Political Science PhD Students
Mohamad Zaki Al Anshori
Thesis Topic: 'The Rise of Islam and Indonesian Contemporary Foreign Policy'. Supervisors: Rob Ayson and David Capie
Vernon Bennett
Thesis Title: 'Defence Planning in Small States'. Supervisors: David Capie and Rob Ayson
Xavier Forde
Thesis Title: 'Agnostic Insights and Contemporary Democratic Theory'. Supervisors: Robert Deuchars and Elizabeth McLeay
Andrew Ivory
Thesis Title: 'Ethical under anarchy: New Zealand's Official Development Assistance Programme'. Supervisors: Xavier Marquez and Ramon Das (Philosophy)
Jean-Christopher (JC) Somers
Thesis Title: 'Discourses of Male Yough and Deviance in New Zealand: 1950-1965 and 1990-2005'. Supervisors: Pat Moloney and Alison Kirkman (Sociology)
Recently Submitted Political Science PhD Students
Sosefo Havea
Thesis Title: 'An Examination of the Fisheries Treaty between Pacific States and the USA'. Supervisor: David Capie
International Relations Master of Arts Students
Justin Fris
Thesis Title: 'New Zealand's Defence Diplomacy in Asia'. Supervisor: David Capie
Recently Submitted International Relations MA Students
Pip Bennett
Thesis Title: 'Evaluating the Success of Gender Mainstreaming in New Zealand Official Development Assistance since 2000'. Supervisors:Megan MacKenzie and Ben Thirkell-White
Matthew Castle
Thesis Title: 'Forging Australasian regionalism? Between 'Ever Closer Union' and 'The ASEAN Way'. The Dynamics of interregionalism in the Asia-Pacific'. Supervisors: John Leslie and David Capie
Mark Chadwick
Thesis Title: 'Post-conflict reconstruction in Bosnia'. Supervisor: Megan MacKenzie
James Douglas
Thesis Title: 'Chinese naval modernization and strategy change following the 2009 Impecable incident'. Supervisor: Marc Lanteigne
Yang Gao
Thesis Title: 'China and the Politics of Energy Security'. Supervisor: Xiaoming Huang
Belinda Gardner
Thesis Title: 'The Arms Trade Treaty as an Emerging Global Norm'. Supervisor: David Capie
Bradley Gibbons
Thesis Title: 'Small Arms abd Armed Violence in Papua New Guinea: Developing a Demand-reduction Agenda'. Supervisor: David Capie
I completed my BA in political science and media and communication along with my BA (Hons) in diplomacy and international relations at the University of Canterbury. I have joined Victoria University to undertake my MA in international relations to take advantage of the resources available in my field of research.
Kristina Grabovska
Thesis Title: 'Labour migration in the Gulf Cooperation Council States: Comparative Analysis of the Labour Nationalization Policies'. Supervisor: Kate McMillan
Richard Jones
Thesis Title: 'Loose credit and low wages: a re-examination of US postwar economic history in light of the recent recession'. Supervisor: Ben Thirkell-White
Simon Le Quesne
Thesis Title: 'Mixing Business with Politics? The Role and Influence of the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum'. Supervisor: David Capie
Simon now works at the Australian High Commission.
Lucy Mitchell
Thesis Title: 'The Pride Project: Assessing the regional approach to basic education delivery'. Supervisor: Ben Thirkell-White
Dylan Page
Thesis Title: 'Women in the Bougainville peace process'. Supervisors: Kate McMillan and Megan MacKenzie
Gavin Romayne
Thesis Title: 'The Extent of Compliance with the NZ-China Free Trade Agreement by Local Authorities in China'. Supervisors: Xiaoming Huang and Ben Thirkell-White
Lucy Tyndall
Thesis Title: 'Energy Security in New Zealand Politics: Risk Perceptions and Political Agendas'. Supervisor: David Capie
Lucy is now working for the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (formerly Ministry of Economic Development) in the Resources Group. Her work invovles the hot topics petroleum and minerals exploration in NZ, such as gas fracking and off-shore drilling, and some climate change on the side through the Emission Trading Scheme. "Opportune because it is everything I studied in my masters at Vic."
Hannah Van Voorthuysen
Thesis Title: '"Just a Damned Nuisance?" New Zealand-Israel Relations 1948-2010'. Supervisor: David Capie
James Whibley
Thesis Title:'An Alternate Model of Bureaucratic Politics'. Supervisors: Marc Lanteigne and Xiaoming Huang
Li Zhang
Thesis Title: 'Cross-strait Economic Interdependence and the Prospects for Peace between Mainland China and Taiwan'. Supervisors: Xiaoming Huang and Marc Lanteigne
Political Science Master of Arts Students
Jessica Booker
Thesis Title: 'Life After Politics: New Zealand Prime Ministers Post-Leadership'. Supervisor: Jon Johansson
Seon Ah Choi
Thesis Title: 'The Politics of Presence: The selection and election of Asian MPs in NZ under MMP'. Supervisor: Stephen Levine
William (Bill) de la Mare
Thesis Title: 'An analysis of the issues confronting the developing Sino-New Zealand relationship from a Wellington perspective: balancing economic opportunity against popular opinion'. Supervisor: Marc Lanteigne
Inna Goff
Thesis Title: 'Islam and the Challenges of Integration'. Supervisor: Kate McMillan
Corin Higgs
Thesis Title: 'The political economy of New Zealand's consumer price index'. Supervisor: John Leslie
Miran Milosevic
Thesis Title: 'The politics of integration: The impact of political ideology on the integration of immigrants in New Zealand and Ireland'. Supervisor: Kate McMillan
Alex Thomas
Thesis Title: 'Balancing the Books: The New Zealand Parliament and the Control and Scrutiny of Government Expenditure'. Supervisor: Emeritus Professor Margaret Clark.
Recently Submitted Political Science MA Students
James Baigent
Thesis Title: 'Political Leadership After the British - A Study of Jomo Kenyatta, Robert Mugabe and Julius Nyerere'. Supervisor: Jon Johansson
James is a keen surfer from Porirua who completed his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science at Victoria in 2009. In 2010, James did Honours in Political Science, in which he included an International Relations course in international migration and as well as a course in Chinese history.
Steven Barnes
Thesis Title: 'Breathing Through their Noses? Candidate Experiences and Role Adaptation amongst First-Term MPs in the New Zealand Parliament'. Supervisors: Jon Johansson and Stephen Levine
Simon Beuse
Thesis Title: 'New Zealand's Green Party and Foreign Troop Deployments: Views, Values and Impacts'. Supervisors: John Leslie and David Capie
Andrew Bishop
Thesis Title: 'The Politics of Labour Migration and Demographic Change in Contemporary Japan'. Supervisors: Xiaoming Huang and Fiona Barker
Jordan Carter
Thesis Title: 'The Rise of the State: Broadband Policy in New Zealand, 2000-2011'. Supervisor: John Leslie
Hugh Eldred-Grigg
Thesis Title: 'Let them eat cake: gender, nationalism and tyranny in revolutionary France and Russia'. Supervisor: Jon Johansson
Regan Gibbons
Thesis Title: 'Valuing Education: The role of Soft Power in Chinese Engagement in the South Pacific'. Supervisor: Marc Lanteigne
Biography: I completed my BA at Victoria University of Wellington in Political Science and International Relations, before spending a year at Canterbury University completing a BA (Hons) in Political Science. I returned to Victoria to undertake an MA because of the resources and facilities available in Wellington and at Victoria University in my field of research.
Toni Grace
Thesis Title: 'Coordination of Immigration and Citizenship Policies in Regional Travel Arrangements'. Supervisor: Kate McMillan
Morgan Horwood
Thesis Title: 'Justice and Health Care'. Supervisor: Xavier Marquez
Jamie Kendrick
Thesis Title: 'Foucault and Internation Relations: A New Conceptualisation of Biopower'. Supervisor: Xavier Marquez
Sun A Ku
Thesis Title: Multiculturalism vs Patriarchy in South Korea'. Supervisors: Robbie Shilliam (Queen Mary University of London) and Stephen Epstein (Asian Studies Institute)
Stacey Kwant
Thesis Title: 'Temporary Migration as a Development Tool? The Potential of Pacific Seasonal Workers to meet New Zealand and Australia's development goals for the Pacific Islands?'. Supervisor: Kate McMillan
Stacey currently works as a Pacific analyst at the National Assessments Bureau, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and is also doing a post-graduate Development Studies course part-time through Massey University.
Ben McLachlan
Thesis Title: 'In Search of a New Zealand Populism: Heresthetics, Character, and Populist Political Leadership'. Supervisor: Jon Johansson
Ben completed his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and International Relations in 2009, before completing a Bachelor of Arts with First Class Honours in 2010. Ben began his Master of Arts in 2011, with a focus on populism and leadership in the New Zealand context.
Erina Okeroa
Thesis Title: 'Shifting landscapes of self-determination - the Black women's movement, Aotearoa, 1978 - 1984'. Supervisors: Robbie Shilliam (Queen Mary University of London) and Maria Bargh (Te Kawa a Maui)
Nicholas Ruane
Thesis Title: 'Collaboration in the Process of Legislative Lobbying: A Study of a Disable Peoples Organisation Lobbying for Change in New Zealand, 1989-1993'. Supervisor: John Leslie and David Capie
Michael Warren
Thesis Title: 'The Great Communicators and political reconstruction: A comparative study between President Ronald Reagan and President Barack Obama'. Supervisor: Jon Johansson
Jo-Anne Young
Thesis Title: 'From CentCom to Crisis Comm: The 2nd Iraq War as a Public Relations Crisis (USA and UK)'. Supervisors: Kate McMillan and David Capie