AHI Summer Research Scholarships
One of the key goals of the AHI is student engagement. The Summer Research Scholarship programme run at the University of Auckland recruits high achieving student scholars and aims to give recipients research experience, an opportunity to work with leading researchers at the University of Auckland and contribute to the wider research community. It also allows students to explore the potential of postgraduate study.
The Auckland History Initiative views Summer Research Scholarships as an integral way to engage students in Auckland history and to strengthen relationships with the Auckland GLAM (galleries, libraries, archives and museums) sector. To continue this successful programme, the AHI is seeking potential private sponsorship, please contact: ahi@auckland.ac.nz

News:
New scholarship helps Arts students uncover Auckland’s history
A passion for history, along with a desire to give back led to the establishment of the Jonathan and Mary Mason Summer Scholarship in Auckland History. Read more
Summer Research Scholarships
The AHI is pleased to be a part of the University of Auckland Summer Scholarship programme which has in 2019 and 2020 been supplemented by philanthropic donation. Each student selected a case study based on an aspect of Auckland’s past for which there was a set of archival records to draw on. They spent the ten weeks of the Scholarship in a full-time capacity exploring these records to develop that case study and produced three to five 1000-1500 word, illustrated articles that have been published on this website and the Auckland Libraries’ Heritage et AL blog. Special thanks goes to the private funding that sponsored two of these scholarships. Read the Summer Scholarship articles.

2020 Summer Research Scholars
Hanna Lu
Hanna Lu attended Epsom Girls Grammar School, where she enrolled in History on impulse and found herself unable to leave. She continued into the University of Auckland with a Bachelor of Arts in History and Politics, which she due to graduate from in the latter half of 2020.
Hanna was one of four students awarded a 2020 Summer Scholarship out of a highly competitive field. Her project focused on a group of Chinese families in Auckland in the twentieth century and she describes this topic as a timely one. As we grapple with the urgent need for ethnic diversity in history, this research highlights moments of grace in Auckland’s past, and suggests a reorientation in the way we write about ethnicity and what Auckland has been to its people.
Hanna would like to acknowledge her supervisors Dr Jessica Parr and Professor Linda Bryder from the University of Auckland; David Wong and Lisa Truttman from the Chinese New Zealand Oral History Foundation; staff from the Auckland Libraries’ research centres and the Sir George Grey Special Collections, Sue Berman and Natasha Barrett in particular; summer scholarship alumnus Nicholas Jones; and of course her fellow scholars, friends and family — sincerest thanks for their trust, support and wisdom.

Isabella Wensley
Isabella is in her third year of a conjoint Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Laws, majoring in History and Politics at The University of Auckland. Prior to university, she attended Epsom Girls Grammar School.
Out of a highly competitive field, Isabella was one of four students awarded a 2020 Summer Scholarship at the University of Auckland. Her research project centred on one of Auckland’s most iconic spaces; Maungakiekie/One Tree Hill. Isabella used this space to examine the different meanings and uses that have been applied to this iconic green space throughout the twentieth century. This wide topic allowed for the exploration of a range of themes including Māori activism, the relationship between residents and their local greenspaces and the tensions this creates. The history of this area reflects how external events, changing social attitudes and beliefs, and changing political influences have shaped Auckland and its people.
Isabella would especially like to thank Philippa Price and the Cornwall Park Trust Board, the Auckland Council Archives, the Auckland History Initiative and her supervisors Dr Jessica Parr and Professor Linda Bryder for their assistance in accessing resources and their expansive knowledge.

Tom Wilkinson
Tom is currently completing a Master of Arts in History at the University of Auckland. For his undergraduate study he completed a conjoint Bachelor of Arts (honours) and Bachelor of Science in History, Anthropology, and Geography. Out of a highly competitive field, Tom was one of four students awarded a 2020 Summer Scholarship at the University of Auckland.
Before moving to Auckland for tertiary study, Tom grew up in Christchurch, where the earthquakes of 2010 and 2011 radically altered the city’s built environment and stripped the city of some of its heritage. It was with this in mind that he chose to look at Parnell over the course of his summer research project. His project examined the history of the suburb of Parnell during the post-war period and explored the social and physical changes which occurred over the latter half of the twentieth century.
Tom extends his warmest thanks to staff at Auckland Central City Library, Auckland Council Archives, and the Parnell Heritage Society for their assistance over the summer. He would also like to acknowledge the incredible assistance granted by the Auckland History Initiative, Professor Linda Bryder and Dr Jessica Parr over the course of the Summer Scholarship.

Brooke Stevenson
Brooke is currently completing her final year of a Law and Arts conjoint degree at the University of Auckland, double majoring in History and Ancient History.
Brooke was one of four students that was awarded a 2020 Summer Scholarship at the University of Auckland and her award was funded by a Jonathon and Mary Mason Scholarship in Auckland history. Her research project explored women in Auckland politics. She focused her efforts on two women, studying the motivations, methods and achievements of Mary Dreaver and Mere Newton.
Brooke would like to acknowledge the generosity of Jonathon and Mary Mason for funding her scholarship. She would also like to extend a special thanks to Vicky Spalding and the team at Auckland Council Archives, and her supervisors Professor Linda Bryder and Dr Jessica Parr.
2019 Summer Research Scholars
Nathan McLeay
Nathan McLeay is currently completing his honours year in History at the University of Auckland, having completed a Bachelor of Arts majoring in History and Geography in 2018. Before moving to Auckland for study, he attended Hillcrest High School in Hamilton.
Nathan was one of four students awarded a 2019 Summer Scholarship at The University of Auckland out of a highly competitive field and his award was funded by a Jonathan and Mary Mason Scholarship in Auckland history. His research project explored the history of the Auckland Harbour Bridge. It followed the development of the bridge since its earliest imaginings, discussing how the bridge was received by the public and it reflected on some of the lessons that we in the present can learn from the bridge’s history.
Nathan would like to extend his warmest thanks to staff at Takapuna Library, Central City Library, and Auckland Council Archives, as well as to his supervisor, Linda Bryder (Professor at the University of Auckland), and to Bill McKay (Senior Lecturer at the University of Auckland), for their generous assistance throughout the project.

Nicolas Jones
Kia ora, I whakapapa to Tuhoe and Nga Puhi.
Nicholas attended Trident High School in Whakatane. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Auckland with a major in History and a minor in Art History, graduating in 2018. Nicolas went on to complete Honours in History, graduating with first class honours. He is now beginning Masters in Asian Studies at the University of Auckland.
During his summer scholarship, Nicolas was fortunate enough to partake in the Mana Whenua project, supervised by Professor Linda Bryder. His project was focused upon fleshing out the social history of Auckland’s Maori Community Centre.
This research benefited greatly from the guidance and help from the Auckland Libraries staff. Nicolas would like to extend special thanks to Rob Eruera, Jane Wild, and the staff from the Sir George Grey Special Collections.

Nancy Mitchelson
Nancy is currently completing her honours year in History at The University of Auckland, having completed a Bachelor of Arts. She attended Epsom Girls Grammar, where her interest in history was fostered.
Nancy was one of four students awarded a 2019 Summer Scholarship at The University of Auckland out of a highly competitive field and her award was funded by a Jonathan and Mary Mason Scholarship in Auckland history. Her research project focused on the efforts to Pedestrianise Queen Street in May of 1979. Nancy describes this area of study as a niche topic, but one that is interesting as it allowed the examination of council planning and bureaucracy, the impact of urban sprawl, and the process of establishing purpose for Auckland’s central area. With multiple streets in Auckland’s CBD soon to be closed to cars, these lessons from 1979 are becoming increasingly relevant.
Nancy would like to extend special thanks to Vicky Spalding and the team at Auckland Council Archives, the team at Sir George Grey Special Collections, her supervisor, Linda Bryder (Professor at the University of Auckland) and to Bill McKay (Senior Lecturer at The University of Auckland) for their help and expansive expertise.
The Borders of Identity: Illusions in Auckland’s Chinese History
by Hanna Lu* Let’s start with an end. ‘Chinatown’, located in what is now the city centre’s Greys Avenue, faded out of existence in the 1960s. As its buildings were demolished and its residents moved out, the 1966 Auckland Star published an article in which the author...
Auckland’s Chinese: Home, Youth and Joy in Turbulence
by Hanna Lu* you have to understand,that no one puts their children in a boatunless the water is safer than the land … no one leaves home until home is a sweaty voice in your earsaying-leave,run away from me nowi don’t know what i’ve becomebut i know that anywhereis...
The Standing Point: Studying the History of Auckland’s Chinese People
by Hanna Lu* History is not about us. I mean, the people involved are usually not us. But the stories we tell are about ourselves, and who we’ve been, and what we mean when we say ‘ourselves’. Are there concepts of who we are that rest on the exclusion of certain...
Two Powerful Voices in Diverse Communities
by Brooke Stevenson* Mere Newton and Mary Dreaver were two women in politics in the 1930s that commanded an influential were voice within their respective communities. On the 28th August 1939, Mere Newton suspended standing orders of the Onehunga Borough Council...
Female Perspectives and Female Issues: Different approaches to politics
by Brooke Stevenson* Mere Newton, local Māori politician and social worker, and Mary Dreaver, a daughter of Scottish immigrants and a national politician, operated within their vastly different spheres of influence in 1937. However, Newton and Dreaver’s...
Women Emerging from the Auckland Political Scene: Introducing Mere Newton and Mary Dreaver
by Brooke Stevenson* Auckland’s female political history has been more vibrant and diverse than one might assume. After trail blazers such as Elizabeth Yates and Ellen Melville, we see the emergence of women who become experts in mastering the art of networking...