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Master's Scholarship 2021/2022

In 2021-2022, eleven students from across Aotearoa New Zealand received the He Whenua Taurikura Master's Scholarship.

Master's Scholarship Recipients 2021/2022
Shasha University of Auckland Shasha identifies as a 1.25 generation tau-iwi Muslim woman, with whakapapa across Java and Singapore. Her first experience of feeling displaced as a migrant youth was while living in Christchurch from 2002 to 2004. Since then, she has navigated through and engaged in decolonisation activism and supporting tino rangatiratanga movements, human rights advocacy, youth work and family violence prevention within ethnic communities in New Zealand and Australia. Shasha currently works in the public service while pursuing a Master’s in Public Policy at the University of Auckland. Her research aims to explore women’s experiences of faith-based extremist narratives in everyday life.
Sarah University of Auckland Sarah is currently completing a Master of Conflict and Terrorism Studies at the University of Auckland. Her dissertation analyses Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) programmes in Australia and the United Kingdom, and assesses whether they are feasible for New Zealand. Sarah is focusing on CVE in prisons, schools, and healthcare, and explaining the problematic targeting of social groups according to ethnic or religious identities. The main aim of her research is to provide CVE policy recommendations for best practice appropriate to New Zealand’s historical, social, political and economic context.
Renaye University of Canterbury Renaye is completing her Master’s degree in Psychology at the University of Canterbury, under the supervision of Dr Jacinta Cording and Associate Professor Kumar Yogeeswaran. Her postgraduate research will draw on insights from multiple areas to better understand factors that drive violent extremism as well as what can reduce it. Specifically, Renaye’s thesis will explore the role of uncertainty in anti-government extremist beliefs with a special focus on the role of social media.
Laura Victoria University of Wellington Laura is pursuing her Master’s degree in Criminology at Victoria University of Wellington, focusing on the online far-right subculture in Aotearoa. Right-wing extremism is on the rise around the world, and Aotearoa is no exception. Her thesis will focus on locating the importance of ideological narratives and the subcultural dynamics of the far-right. Laura will look at right-wing social media platforms and forums to analyse how language, disinformation, and social media networks are used to target and radicalise vulnerable individuals, and how we may use this knowledge to counter this twenty-first-century terrorist threat.
Nicole Massey University Nicole is completing a Master of International Security with a Counter-Terrorism endorsement at Massey University. After working in the Corrections environment for the last six years, Nicole has developed a passion and keen interest in rehabilitation and prevention. Through her career and studies, she has observed limited strategies and programmes available in New Zealand to assist in prevention and disengagement of violent extremist individuals. The purpose of Nicole’s research is to inform the debate around options and strategies for countering online radicalisation and utilising online platforms for prevention and disengagement opportunities, within the New Zealand domestic context.
Mahrukh University of Auckland Mahrukh graduated in 2020 with a Bachelor of Laws and Arts conjoint. Mahrukh recently completed a 12-month Policy Graduate Programme at the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) and is now a lawyer at MSD. Through the scholarship, Mahrukh will pursue a Master of Laws, specialising in Human Rights Law, at the University of Auckland. This will comprise of taught classes and a dissertation. For the dissertation, Mahrukh will explore whether New Zealand’s existing counter-terrorism legal framework is equipped to understand and prevent White Identity Extremism.
Jarrod Victoria University of Wellington Jarrod works as an analyst specialising in Open Source Intelligence. Having completed a Master’s degree in Strategic Studies, he looks forward to returning to Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington to pursue his research on violent extremism through a Master’s degree in Criminology. Jarrod’s research will focus on New Zealand’s identitarian extremist communities online. Specifically, the key narratives propagated by identitarian groups and the role disinformation and conspiracy theories play in contemporary pathways to radicalisation.
Heba University of Auckland Heba is studying at the University of Auckland and will explore the nature of effects of terrorist incidents and hate crimes, on the heterogenous Muslim community - working in its diverse experiences to build resilience and reconfigured solutions towards a cohesive, well-informed society. As a recognised priority in New Zealand specific research on countering-terrorism, it is important to facilitate minority perspectives to the discourse. Heba looks forward to the opportunity to contribute to academic work in building a bridge towards social cohesion in Aotearoa.
Sophia Massey University Sophia will be exploring the role of gender in Right Wing Extremism (RWE) at Massey University. This research will delve into the online movement of the ‘Trad Wife’ - a group of social media influencers who promote traditionalist views of feminism and support the nationalist culture of white supremacy. To date, women’s involvement in strengthening RWE movements has received far less media attention and scholarly research, however the ability of these women to engage an online community is a real risk to our efforts towards the prevention of RWE. On completion of this research, Sophia hopes appreciation for gendered differences in radicalisation and an understanding of how women are advancing RWE globally, and in Aotearoa.
Fahri Victoria University of Wellington Fahri is currently completing a Master’s degree in International Relations and an LLB at Victoria University, whilst working as a Policy Advisor at the Ministry of Justice. Fahri is passionate about fostering an inclusive and resilient Aotearoa. He seeks to empower the voices of diverse communities and believes mutual engagement is key to pushing forth an inclusive and resilient Aotearoa. Fahri aspires to embody this spirit of collaboration and partnership within his research, which focuses on an all-of-society approach towards counterterrorism. He wishes to provide insight on how the securitisation of communities can be avoided, and open engagement and partnership achieved.
Nick Massey University Nick has worked as an NZDF medic specialising in Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) medicine for twelve years. Nick’s research topic is an assessment of the violent extremist threat to New Zealand’s pre-hospital health sector and identification of contemporary strategies to avoid infrastructure collapse, in turn reducing the social terror from terrorism.

Last updated:

Friday, 3 June 2022