The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), which advances geography and supports geographers in the United Kingdom (UK) and across the world, has announced that Professor Larner is to be presented with one of its annual medals and awards. These are given to people who have made an outstanding contribution to geography in research, fieldwork and teaching, policy work, photography, and public engagement.
The medals and awards will be presented at the Society’s annual general meeting in London in early June. Professor Larner receives the Victoria Medal for her internationally leading research on globalisation and political economy. She is among an elite group of 2018 medal and award recipients that includes explorer and broadcaster Paul Rose and ecosystem scientist Professor Yadvinder Malhi—who have received the Society’s highest recognition, its Royal Medals—along with sculptor Andy Goldsworthy and 17 others.
Professor Larner describes being recognised by the Society as a career highlight.
“It is a great honour for my geography colleagues to recognise me for my research contribution. The Victoria Medal has been awarded every year since 1902 and when I look at the list of recipients I have to say all my disciplinary heroes and heroines are on it. I am privileged to be in such amazing company.”
Victoria University of Wellington Vice-Chancellor Professor Grant Guilford says the medal is a much-warranted accolade for Professor Larner.
“Like other academics at Victoria University of Wellington, Professor Larner shares our commitment as a global-civic university to conducting research of the highest order that tackles the major issues confronting the world today.
“It is wonderful to see her work and leadership being recognised in this way by such an eminent and influential institution.”
Professor Larner, who is President-elect of the Royal Society Te Apārangi, a role she takes up in July, joined Victoria University of Wellington as Provost in 2015.
She came to Victoria University of Wellington from the University of Bristol in the UK, where she was the Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Law and Professor of Human Geography and Sociology.
Professor Larner is an internationally respected social scientist whose research sits in the interdisciplinary fields of globalisation, governance and gender.
She completed her Bachelor of Social Science at the University of Waikato, Master of Arts (First Class Honours) at the University of Canterbury and her PhD as a Canadian Commonwealth Scholar at Carleton University in Ottawa. She has held academic positions at the University of Waikato and the University of Auckland, and Visiting Fellowships at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the United States, Queen Mary University in the UK and the University of Frankfurt in Germany.
Professor Larner’s research has been recognised with a range of scholarships and awards, including a Fulbright Senior Fellowship, Fellow of the New Zealand Geographical Society, Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand and Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (UK).
She was recently appointed to the social sciences panel for the latest round of the UK’s Research Excellence Framework—the system for assessing the quality of research in the country’s higher education institutions.