Issue addressed
Anthony John Ballantyne (born Dunedin, 1972) is a New Zealand historian at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. After completing his schooling at King's High School, Dunedin, he graduated BA at the University of Otago, Dunedin and obtained a PhD at the University of Cambridge. [1] After brief stints abroad, he returned to the University of Otago, Dunedin, where his career advanced. [2]
Ballantyne was Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Humanities at Otago's Dunedin campus from 2015 to 2020, a time characterised by controversy. He initiated a process that resulted in sixteen full-time equivalent academic staff being made redundant, with other academics impelled to take early retirement. [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] He also advocated eliminating the Art History program and it was subsequently disestablished. [9] [10] Through a series of articles and editorials, the Otago Daily Times reported on these and other changes. The series exposed a 'negative, top-down, management culture that undermined trust, productivity and mental health' and that created a 'climate of suppression…and fear of repercussions'. This produced 'demoralised teachers and researchers' who were 'locked in pain and anger at what their institution had become'. [6] [8] [11] [12] '[E]ven the brightest and best academics secure in their status and position' felt 'acute discontent'. [8] Concerns about Otago's top-down management style and its deleterious effect on morale were widely expressed, including by Sir David Skegg, in an unusual intervention by a previous Vice-Chancellor of the university itself. Refuting the university's claims that redundancies were necessary because of declining enrolments, Skegg also emphasized that '[a]ny financial crisis at Otago cannot be attributed to falling student numbers'. [13] [14] [15]
In October 2020 the University of Otago stated that, as of 2021, Ballantyne would no longer serve as PVC and would instead lead the Division of External Engagement [16] [17] [18] to attend to alumni relations and liaising with secondary schools, among other matters. [19] He led the creation of a new university logo, with the effort criticised for costing about $700,000 whilst large numbers of academic staff were made redundant on the grounds of budgetary shortfalls. [20] [21] In early 2024 it was announced Ballantyne would be stepped down from External Engagement, as part of 'major' 'almost wholesale' replacement of university leadership apparently sought by new incoming Vice-Chancellor Grant Robertson. [22] Recruitment to replace Ballantyne was under way as of March 2024. [23]
Ballantyne has established a scholarly reputation within New Zealand academic circles primarily, including being elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 2012. [24] In 2016 he was awarded the Humanities Aronui Medal from the Royal Society of New Zealand. [25]
Ballantyne’s work examines the development of imperial intellectual and cultural life in New Zealand, Ireland, India, and Britain. The work is derived from the tradition of scholarship that sees colonialism as a cultural undertaking as well as a political and economic project. [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33]
He has analysed the British empire as a 'web,' with 'vertical' connections developing between Britain and its colonies and 'horizontal' connections linking various colonies directly. He has helped shed light on how these 'webs of empire' incorporated new lands and peoples. [34] More specifically, Orientalism and Race (2001) analysed the 'orientalizing' texts of British officials in colonial India and their attempts to decode both Hinduism and Sikhism more broadly in terms of their understandings of Aryanism and race; at the same time it examined similar discourses directed toward understandings of Māori as, first, 'Semitic', then Indo-Aryan, and ultimately, Māori reconfigurations of Christianity on their own terms. Ballantyne's work has received its share of criticism. For example, some scholars have criticised Ballantyne’s analyses as informed by an ‘egregious understanding of race’. [35]
With regard to Sikh studies, Ballantyne has been among those who have critiqued scholarship that focuses too much on Sikh textual traditions, arguing that the experiences of colonialism and migration have been crucial in making Sikh identities. [36] [37] [38] [39] [40]
More recently Ballantyne has returned to focus on New Zealand's colonial history. This work has sought to connect New Zealand's colonial culture by noting the links with China and India. Along the lines of Benedict Anderson's formulation of 'print capitalism', Ballantyne has, in turn, addressed the place of print culture and literacy in the encounters between Māori and the Pākehā colonists. He has also addressed the place of race and religion in cross-cultural history [41] [42] His most recent work, Entanglements of Empire (2014), focuses on early New Zealand history and the foundations of relationship between Māori and Pākehā. [43] [44] It was awarded the W.H. Oliver prize for the best book on New Zealand history between 2013 and 2015 by the New Zealand Historical Association. [45]
With Antoinette Burton he has also written about world history, highlighting the importance of race and gender in cross-cultural encounters. [46] [47]
The University of Otago is a public research collegiate university based in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand. Founded in 1869, Otago is New Zealand's oldest university and one of the oldest universities in Oceania.
The University of Waikato, established in 1964, is a public research university located in Hamilton, New Zealand. An additional campus is located in Tauranga. The university performs research in numerous disciplines such as education, social sciences, and management and is an innovator in environmental science, marine and freshwater ecology, engineering and computer science. It offers degrees in health, engineering, computer science, management, Māori and Indigenous Studies, the arts, psychology, social sciences and education.
Dunedin is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from Dùn Èideann, the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. The city has a rich Māori, Scottish, and Chinese heritage.
The Otago Daily Times (ODT) is a newspaper published by Allied Press Ltd in Dunedin, New Zealand. The ODT is one of the country's four main daily newspapers, serving the southern South Island with a circulation of around 26,000 and a combined print and digital annual audience of 304,000. Founded in 1861 it is New Zealand's oldest surviving daily newspaper – Christchurch's The Press, six months older, was a weekly paper until March 1863.
Otakou is a settlement within the boundaries of the city of Dunedin, New Zealand. It is located 25 kilometres from the city centre at the eastern end of Otago Peninsula, close to the entrance of Otago Harbour. Though a small fishing village, Otakou is important in the history of Otago for several reasons. The settlement is the modern centre and traditional home of the Ōtākou rūnanga (assembly) of Ngāi Tahu. In 1946 Otakou Fisheries was founded in the township; this was later to become a major part of the Otago fishing industry.
Otago Polytechnic was a public New Zealand tertiary education institute, centred in Dunedin with additional campuses in Cromwell and Auckland. Otago Polytechnic provided career-focused education and training, offering a range of New Zealand accredited postgraduate qualifications, degrees, diplomas and certificates at levels 2–10. In November 2022, it was formally merged into the new national mega polytechnic Te Pūkenga, ending its existence as an independent entity.
The villages and then city that lay at the head of Otago Harbor never existed in isolation, but have always been a staging ground between inland Otago and the wider world. While Dunedin's current official city limits extend north to Waikouaiti, inland to Middlemarch and south to the Taieri River mouth, this articles focus is the history of the Dunedin urban area, only mentioning Mosgiel, the Otago Peninsula, Port Chalmers and inland Otago for context.
Tūhura Otago Museum is located near the city centre of Dunedin, New Zealand, adjacent to the University of Otago campus. The museum has one of the largest collections in New Zealand, and is one of the city's leading attractions. Natural science specimens and humanities artefacts from the Otago region and around the world form the basis for long-term gallery displays. An interactive science centre within the museum includes a large, immersive tropical rainforest butterfly house.
Lee Vandervis is a local-body politician who was first elected to the Dunedin City Council in the 2004 local elections. Vandervis has run for mayor in 2004, 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019 and 2022; finishing second in 2007 and 2019. Vandervis failed to win mayor again in 2022, but he was re-elected to the Council.
Henry Devenish Skinner, known as Harry Skinner or H.D. Skinner, was a notable New Zealand soldier, ethnologist, university lecturer, museum curator and director, and librarian.
Vada Harlene Hayne is an American-born academic administrator who was the vice-chancellor and a professor of psychology at the University of Otago in New Zealand, before moving to Western Australia to take up the position of vice-chancellor at Curtin University in April 2021.
Marilynn Lois Webb was a New Zealand artist, noted for her contributions to Māori art and her work as an educator. She was best known for her work in printmaking and pastels, and her works are held in art collections in New Zealand, the United States, and Norway. She lectured at the Dunedin School of Art, and was made an emeritus principal lecturer in 2004.
Aaron Garth Hawkins is a New Zealand politician who served as the 58th mayor of Dunedin, New Zealand from 2019 to 2022. He was elected as Mayor on 12 October 2019 with 54.54% of the vote, after two prior terms as councillor. He is endorsed by the Green Party. He unsuccessfully stood for re-election as mayor in 2022.
Ingrid Marieke Leary is a New Zealand politician. In 2020 she was elected as a Member of Parliament in the House of Representatives for the Labour Party.
Shortly after protests seeking justice for George Floyd, an African-American who was murdered during a police arrest, began in the United States, people in New Zealand protested to show support for similar protests in the United States and to demonstrate against perceived issues with police brutality and structural discrimination in New Zealand. Vigils and protests of thousands of participants took place in June 2020 throughout the nation.
Rachel Jane Brooking is a New Zealand Labour Party politician and Member of Parliament who served as the Minister for Oceans and Fisheries and Minister for Food Safety in the Sixth Labour Government. She first became an MP at the 2020 New Zealand general election. She is a lawyer by profession.
Atholl John Anderson is a New Zealand archaeologist who has worked extensively in New Zealand and the Pacific. His work is notable for its syntheses of history, biology, ethnography and archaeological evidence. He made a major contribution to the evidence given by the iwi (tribe) Ngāi Tahu to the Waitangi Tribunal.
Angela Cheryl Wanhalla is a professor of history at the University of Otago in New Zealand. Her book about interracial marriage in New Zealand won the 2014 Ernest Scott Prize. Wanhalla was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society Te Apārangi in 2022.
Erik Newland Olssen is a New Zealand historian whose research focuses on the linkages between social structures, politics, and the world of ideas at four spatial domains – the local, provincial, national and global. His early research examined labour history, especially the working-class mobilisation in New Zealand from 1880 to 1940 and included a study of Caversham, regarded as one of the most industrialised areas of New Zealand at that time. He has published several articles and monographs, including a biography of John A. Lee, and a history of Otago. Olssen was an academic in the Department of History at the University of Otago from 1969 until his retirement in 2002, when he was conferred with the title of emeritus professor.
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