The New Zealand Election Study Team

Investigators

Jack Vowles

Jack Vowles

Professor of Comparative Politics — Victoria University of Wellington


Jack Vowles (Pākehā) is Professor of Comparative Politics at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington. He has led the New Zealand Election Study since 1996, and was one of the principal investigators (with Peter Aimer) in 1990 and 1993.

Supported by the Marsden Fund, he is currently completing a study of electoral turnout in New Zealand, using a ‘big sample’ from the master rolls between 2014 and 2020. He was co-editor of A Populist Exception? The New Zealand General Election of 2017 (ANU Press, 2020) and co-author (with Tim Hellwig and Yesola Kwan) of Democracy Under Siege? Parties, Voters and Elections After the Great Recession (OUP, 2020).

Jennifer Curtin

Jennifer Curtin

Professor of Politics — University of Auckland


Jennifer Curtin (PhD, ANU) is Professor of Politics and Director of the Public Policy Institute at Waipapa Taumata Rau, the University of Auckland. She is an expert on gender politics and policy, as well as Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand politics and elections.

Jennifer has published eight books and more than 80 articles on these topics including two volumes drawing from New Zealand Election Study data – A Bark but no Bite: The 2014 New Zealand General Election (ANU Press, 2017), with Jack Vowles and Hilde Coffé, and A Populist Exception? The New Zealand General Election of 2017 (ANU Press, 2020), co-edited with Jack Vowles. Jennifer is involved in several externally funded projects related to the representation of women political leaders at the subnational level (SSHRC, Canada); the concept of the ‘Fair Go’ in Australia and New Zealand (ARC, Australia); and progressing gender inclusive policy making (HRC and MBIE).

 

Lara Greaves

Lara Greaves

Senior Lecturer in Politics — University of Auckland


Dr. Lara Greaves (Ngāpuhi, Pākehā, Tararā) is a lecturer in New Zealand / Māori Politics at the University of Auckland. Lara is Associate Director at the Public Policy Institute, and is part of several large survey teams. 

She currently leads: “The Māori in-between? Identity, health, and social service access needs” which is a Health Research Council Emerging Researcher-funded project that explores Māori identity in the Integrated Data Infrastructure; and “Repression or Rangatiratanga? Investigating why Māori choose the General or Māori Electoral Roll” a Marsden Fast Start project which surveys Māori about their roll choices. She was one of the editors of Government and Politics in Aotearoa and New Zealand (Seventh Edition; Oxford University Press)

Lara’s research interests relate to Māori politics and identity, participation, and survey research methods, alongside public opinion research and New Zealand politics more generally. 

Mona Krewel

Mona Krewel

Lecturer in Comparative Politics — Victoria University of Wellington


Dr. Mona Krewel is a lecturer in Comparative Politics with a specialization in the study of elections, political parties, and public opinion at Victoria University of Wellington, as well as an External Fellow of the Mannheim Center for European Social Research (MZES) at the University of Mannheim. She is a member of the board of the German Society for Electoral Research (DGfW) and in this capacity part of the team which conducts the German Longitudinal Election Study (GLES). She is also the lead editor of the Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties (JEPOP). Dr Krewel’s research focuses on the relation between media and politics and in particular on the role of the media in election campaigns.

Janine Hayward

Janine Hayward

Professor of Politics — University of Otago


Professor Janine Hayward teaches New Zealand politics at the University of Otago. Her research interests include te Tiriti o Waitangi, local government, electoral systems and politics, and the constitution. She has co-edited the last two editions of the Aotearoa New Zealand Politics Textbook, published by the Oxford University Press.

Fiona Barker

Fiona Barker

Senior Lecturer in Comparative Politics — Victoria University of Wellington


Dr Fiona Barker is Senior Lecturer in Comparative Politics at Victoria University of Wellington. She is Director of the Master of Political Science degree at VUW and a member of the Board of the European Union Centres Network of NZ.

Fiona’s research interests span the comparative politics of representation, immigration and electoral politics, political participation, and nationalism. Recent publications examine diversity in political representation in mixed electoral systems (Parliamentary Affairs 71: 3, 2018), electoral participation of immigrants to New Zealand (Political Science 69: 2, 2017), and the role of ‘ethnic’ media in democratic politics (Australian Journal of Political Science 56: 2, 2021). Fiona has also published on the governance of migrant integration in multi-national societies (Nationalism, Identity and the Governance of Diversity, Palgrave Macmillan 2015).

Kate McMillan

Kate McMillan

Associate Professor in Comparative Politics — Victoria University of Wellington


Kate McMillan is an Associate Professor in Comparative Politics and the Head of Programme for Political Science and International Relations. Kate is immediate past President of the New Zealand Political Studies Association.

Researchers

Luke Oldfield


Luke is a Doctoral Scholar at the University of Auckland and was a Senior Research Assistant on the 2020 iteration of the NZES. He has also worked as a Research Assistant on Vote Compass in 2017 and various other election-related projects in Aotearoa. Luke’s research interests are interdisciplinary, contributing to the fields of Political Science, Sociology, Critical Higher Education and Criminology.

Sam Bigwood


Sam Bigwood is a PhD candidate in Political Science at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington. His thesis is looking at how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected attitudes towards the role of the state in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Celestyna Galicki


 

Sam Crawley


Sam Crawley is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Political Science and International Relations Programme, Victoria University of Wellington. His research focuses on public opinion on climate change and the environment and how it relates to policy. He is also interested in broader aspects of public opinion, political behaviour and comparative politics.

Ella Morgan


Ella Morgan (Ngāti Raukawa ki te Tonga) is a Masters student in Politics and International Relations at the University of Auckland. Her research interests include Mana Wahine and justice policy.

V. K. G. Woodman


Is a PhD candidate, research analyst, and teacher in Politics and International Relations and the PPI at the University of Auckland. Her research interests include New Zealand and Australian political history and institutions, electoral and party politics, women’s political representation, and gender and public policy.

Josh Van Veen


Josh is a Research Associate with the Public Policy Institute at the University of Auckland. His research interests are in electoral politics and policy, voter behaviour and attitudes to social policy. 

Research Assistants

Frank Gore 


Frank Gore (Pākehā) is an undergraduate student in Law, Politics and International Relations and Economics at the University of Auckland. Since 2019 he has assisted the New Zealand Election Study with survey delivery, data collection, and editing.

Matt Waymouth


Matt Waymouth is an undergraduate student in Sociology and Psychology at the University of Auckland. Matt has worked with NZES as a Summer Scholar in 2021 and 2022.