Political Science and International Relations research students

See current research students within the Political Science and International Relations Programme.

Students are listed alphabetically under their respective programmes and degrees.

International Relations PhD candidates

Sean Ainsworth

Thesis title: '"War Will No Longer Be What It Was Originally" - Cyberspace and the Theory of War in 21st Century Conflict'

Supervisors: Cathy Downes and David Capie

About: Sean’s research focuses on cyberwarfare and the theory of war, exploring the ways in which technological advances and strategic shifts including the rise of 'non-lethal' or 'non-violent' forms of warfare have affected and/or changed our understand of what constitutes ‘war’ in contemporary international conflict. Drawing on Carl von Clausewitz’s theory of war, Sean’s research is particularly focused on examining the effects that cyberwarfare, disruptive emerging technologies, and strategic shifts in military affairs may have on the dominant understanding of war’s enduring nature.

In his spare time, Sean volunteers for the Wellington SPCA and Good Bitches Baking.

External link:

Claire Fitzpatrick

Thesis title: 'Humanity's Gone Viral: A critical analysis of the role of social media and its influence on the precariousness of human life'

Supervisors: Kate Schick and Michael Daubs (Media Studies)

Christian Gomez

Supervisor: Cathy Downes

Eric Jeunot

Thesis title: 'Challenging Putnam's 2 Level game theory under leadership of Statist Tribesmen'

Supervisors: Alex Bukh and Manjeet Pardesi

David Hongik Kim

Supervisor: Rob Ayson

Ge Lai

Thesis Title: ‘Distribution of value chains: structure and institutions of regional economic integration in East Asia’

Supervisors: Xiaoming Huang

About: Ge Lai received her MA in economics in 2014, from University of International Business and Economics (Beijing). Her thesis is that market driven industrial and productional forces are driving regionalism in East Asia. These productional networks from East Asia are global as well as regional. The structure of the East Asian economy explains the weakness of regionalism.

Areas of Interest: East Asia as a region of international political economy; global value chains; production network; the structure of regional economy.

Dylan Stent

Thesis title: 'Fractured Nationalism in South Korea: How does it Inform policy making toward North Korea?'

Supervisors: Van Jackson and Stephen Epstein (Asian Studies)

Mengdi Zhang

Thesis title: 'New Zealand-China Economics-Security Nexuses in Game Perspective'

Supervisors: Rob Ayson and Matthew Castle

Political Science PhD candidates

Ronny Basista

Thesis title: 'Elections, party system and governability: The case of Indonesia (1999-2019)'

Supervisors: Jack Vowles and Jon Fraenkel

About: The study explores the motivations behind the electoral reforms process and the identification of those who are controlling Indonesia’s new politics and their role in the reforms. It will also discover the consequences of electoral reform and assess whether or not the outcomes were as expected. In addition, it will explore government and parliamentary relationships, the party system, and party institutionalisation.

Before commencing the PhD, I was a lecturer at the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Universitas Terbuka / Indonesia Open University (www.ut.ac.id)

External links:

Sam Bigwood

Supervisor: Jack Vowles

Sam Crawley

Thesis title: 'Public will and the political response to climate change in developed, liberal democracies'

Supervisors: Hilde Coffe (University of Bath) and Ralph Chapman (Environmental Science)

About: Sam Crawley’s thesis examines the relationship between public will and the political response to climate change in developed, liberal democracies. In many countries, including those that have inadequate climate change policy, the public broadly supports robust action on climate change. However, a closer examination of public opinion shows that many who support action rank climate change as a low priority issue, with issues such as the economy typically ranked higher. The thesis, then, investigates the nature of public will, and the extent to which it is a factor in the political response to climate change in different countries, comparing its influence to other factors such as that of economic elites.

Areas of Interest: Public opinion, political behaviour, environmental politics, climate change politics, political representation

Diogo Duarte Valverde e França

Thesis title: 'The diffusion of Populism: An analysis of the Diffusion of Populist Politics'

Supervisors: Xavier Marquez and Fiona Barker

Jie Huang

Thesis Title: ‘Chinese New Zealanders' Political Participation’

Supervisors: Jack Vowles and Kate McMillan

About: Jie Huang’s has a special interest in the process of immigrants’ political integration. His research probes the electoral participation levels and patterns of Chinese New Zealanders, as well as various factors that influence them to pursue political engagement in the receiving country.

Areas of Interest: Electoral Behaviour, Public Opinion, Overseas Chinese Study

Pavithra Jayawardena

Thesis title: 'Citizenship and Belonging of Sri Lankan Diaspora in New Zealand’

Supervisors: Kate McMillan and Ayca Arkilic

About: The concept of citizenship has traditionally been looked through the state’s point of view. In this research, Pavithra intends to look at citizenship through the lens of diasporic communities as to how they perceive it, while negotiating the sense of belonging with their home countries.

Prior to commencing the PhD, Pavithra was a lecturer in International Relations in the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Areas of Interest: Migration, Citizenship, Diaspora Studies

Kaitlin Martin-Feek

Thesis title: 'Sport as a "Terrain of Resistance": Counternarratives of National Identity within the New Zealand All Blacks'

Supervisors: Fiona Barker and Claire Timperley

Nguyen Khac Giang

Thesis title: 'Political accountability, state capacity, and authoritarian resilience in Vietnam and China'

Supervisors: Xavier Marquez and Xiaoming Huang

About: The project aims to explain why state capacity varies in authoritarian regimes, and the impacts of this variation for their prospects of resilience and political change. Using the comparative case study of two within-typology authoritarian regimes (Vietnam and China), I argue that their different level of political accountability plays a dominant role in explaining this variation. In the long run, regimes with low accountability face the risk of internal factionalization, while regimes with high accountability are more exposed to the risk of elite-mass tensions.

In addition to his research, Giang writes regularly for major Vietnamese news media outlets, the East Asia Forum, and the Diplomat.

External links:

Yue Sun

Thesis title: 'Poverty alleviation in China'

Supervisor: Jason Young

Anne-Mette Sundahl

Thesis title: 'Cults of personalities - a totalitarian concept or system of dispersion of power? A discussion of the concept and comparative analysis of visual leader representations in Russia and the US.'

Supervisor: Xavier Marquez

David Wilson

Thesis title: 'Influences on New Zealand parliamentary procedure between 1935 and 2015'

Supervisors: Elizabeth McLeay and Jon Fraenkel

Political Science Master of Arts students

Nashie Shamoon

Thesis title: 'Shadows of the Past: The Role of Persecution in the Self-identification of the Young Assyrian Diaspora in New Zealand and Australia'

Supervisor: Caroline Bennett (Anthropology)