Samantha is the Arts Scholars Coordinator and all round nice lady.
As an archaeologist, she explores the settlement and mobility of past peoples, their relationships with their social and physical environments, and how these histories articulate with descendant communities today. Her approach to exploring questions of change and continuity is strengthened by a research strategy that draws on theory and data from a range of other disciplines, sources, and traditionally marginalized voices. This culminates in novel approaches to old problems.
Alongside her research, she takes opportunities to create access to the educational opportunities that she has had for others within and outside of her campus community. She has researched strategies to increase minority student retention in her discipline, developed and delivered fun workshops for local schools in low socio-economic areas and, as a Tuākana mentor, literally “older sibling”, tutored undergraduate Māori, Pacific, refugee, and minority students in Anthropology. She also has a great time working with undergraduate Arts Scholars students to nurture and develop their own academic aspirations!
‘O le ala i le pule o le tautua - The path to leadership is through service’
