We’re delighted to announce that former Social Practice lecturer Sue Bradford has been appointed as a Unitec research fellow, where she will be offering support and advice to researchers in Social Practice for the next three years (effective immediately).
Sue has a substantial background in academic and community-based research. Her university studies have included an MA (first class hons) in Chinese at the University of Auckland (1984) and a PhD in public policy with Marilyn Waring at AUT (2014). Her thesis ‘A major left wing think tank in Aotearoa: An impossible dream or a call to action?’ has been downloaded more than 3,000 times since it went online.
As well as working as a Green Party MP for 10 years, Sue has researched and written widely on issues including welfare, housing, employment and community economic development, and has a particular interest in participatory and activist methodologies. She collaborated with Garth Nowland-Foreman and Te Korowai Aroha on the NZ section of the 1999 Commonwealth-wide participatory research project ‘Civil Society in the New Millennium’, and recently undertook a qualitative research project with the Union Network of Migrants (UNEMIG) in Auckland, ‘Filipino dairy farm workers in New Zealand: a divided labour market or solidarity forever?’ (2017).
Sue currently works part time for Kotare Research and Education for Social Change in Aotearoa Charitable Trust, supervises several doctoral students at AUT’s Institute of Public Policy, and maintains an active relationship with the Unitec School of Social Practice, where she is a sought-after guest lecturer.
