About us

The Stout Research Centre for New Zealand Studies encourages interdisciplinary, innovative approaches to research in New Zealand history, society and culture.

The centre was established in 1984 with the generous support of the Stout Trust. Our name honours a former Prime Minister and Chief Justice, Robert Stout, the founder of Victoria University of Wellington and its first Chancellor.

The Centre hosts the JD Stout Fellow, who is appointed annually. Recent fellows include Ben Schrader, heritage historian, Nick Bollinger, musicologist and author, and poet–artist Greg O’Brien.

The Centre is home to the Museum and Heritage Studies programme, the leading programme of its kind in New Zealand, taught in partnership with key national organisations such as the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Heritage New Zealand and the Ministry for Culture and Heritage.

The Treaty of Waitangi Research Unit, which carries out independent scholarly research on Treaty of Waitangi matters, also sits within the Stout Research Centre, along with Marsden-funded research projects Security and Surveillance (Prof Richard Hill) and The Missing Link: New Zealand European/Pākehā Intergenerational Memory (A/Prof Anna Green).