Programme Team
No programme can function without a governance board and the support of management, but IT programmes thrive on the hard work of a broad variety of people.
Our team is in one sense tiny, in one sense large. Our core programme team is assisted by a wide variety of collegial, commercial, and community supporters.
Associate Professor Paul Millar
Programme Director
Associate Professor Paul Millar coordinates the University of Canterbury's English, Cinema and Digital Humanities programmes. He researches and teaches in the areas of New Zealand Literature and Literary Biography, and has published extensively on the poetry of James K. Baxter. His most recent book is the co-authored study The Snake-Haired Muse: James K. Baxter and Classical Mythology (VUP, 2011), and his acclaimed literary biography No Fretful Sleeper: A Life of Bill Pearson (AUP, 2010) was a finalist in the New Zealand Post Book Awards. Millar has twice judged the New Zealand Book Awards, and in 2000 he was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to teach and research at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Millar's long association with digital humanities projects dates back to 2001 when he co-founded the New Zealand Electronic Text Centre (www.nzetc.org).
Dr James Smithies
Associate Programme Director
Senior Lecturer in Digital Humanities
James was the project manager for UC CEISMIC from inception through to go-live. Now the programme is operational he's Associate Director, and developing the UC Digital Humanities Programme. He completed a Ph.D. in the history of New Zealand literary-cultural criticism in 2002, and has worked as a technical writer, senior business analyst and IT project manager. His research focuses on the history of literature, technology and ideas. His current research project explores the literature, culture and technology of nineteenth century New Zealand. He is involved in several digital humanities initiatives, including the UC CEISMIC Digital Archive, http://humanitiesmachine.org.nz and academicami.org.
> View James Smithies' profile
Dr Christopher Thomson
Programme Office Manager
Research Associate, UC Digital Humanities Programme
Since completing a Ph.D in English at the University of Canterbury in 2008 Chris has taught there regularly as a fixed-term lecturer and teaching assistant, and has also worked in the fields of audio transcription and e-Learning. As a Research Associate in Digital Humanities he is working closely with the Macmillan Brown Library on projects involving the digitisation of archival collections, and is a collaborator on a digital edition of a bibliography of Māori writing in English. His interests include the use of XML-based tools for representing literary and historical texts, digital bibliographies, eLearning, and twentieth and twenty-first century fiction (particularly the English and Irish novel). For more see www.christopherthomson.co.nz.
Jennifer Middendorf
Production Coordinator
Jennifer has worked at the University of Canterbury since 1999 as administrator for the then English Department, later adding several other programmes from the School of Humanities to her portfolio, including Cultural Studies, Cinema Studies and Digital Humanities. She is currently on secondment to the UC CEISMIC programme as a production coordinator. She has a BSc in Mathematics and a BA in Linguistics from UC, and is currently completing a BA(Hons) in Linguistics.
> View Jennifer Middendorf's profile
Professor Jen Hay
Professor Jen Hay has research interests in New Zealand English, sociophonetics, laboratory phonology and morphology. She has published articles on morphology, language and gender, humour, phonotactics, and lexical semantics. She is also the principal investigator of the Origins of New Zealand English project (ONZE) and more recently the Director of the New Zealand Institute of Language, Brain and Behaviour. Visit nzilbb.canterbury.ac.nz
Derek Bent
New Zealand Institute for Language Brain and Behaviour 'UC Quake Box' Project Manager
Derek has been in the broadcasting industry for 32 years, starting with NZBC in 1980. He has performed a variety of roles in the industry, including camerawork, technical management, and creative director (commercials). He was Operations Manager for the local television station in Dunedin for several years after which he was the Film and Television Coordinator for the Dunedin campus of Aoraki Polytechnic. Since 1990 he has freelanced as a camera operator for the industry and more recently was the Technical Producer on a number of children's programmes made for TVNZ. Although he is now Project Manager for the UC QuakeBox he still manages to keep his hand in with some camerawork for Sky Sports every now and again.
Advice and support from:
- Guy Field, Christchurch City Libraries
- Vivienne Allan, Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority
Communications and Marketing:
- Tim Winfield, University of Canterbury
- Jayne Austin, University of Canterbury
- Kate Barnes, University of Canterbury
- Jacquie Walters, University of Canterbury
Collegial advice, services and goodwill from:
- Tim Bell, University of Canterbury
- Tim David, University of Canterbury
- Jill Durney, University of Canterbury
- Peter Kennedy, University of Canterbury
- Grant Barrie, University of Canterbury
- Greg Albertson, University of Canterbury
- Grant Bush, University of Canterbury
- Guy Field, Christchurch City Libraries
- Paul Sutherland, Christchurch City Libraries
- Jamie Mackay, Ministry for Culture and Heritage
- Matthew Oliver, Ministry for Culture and Heritage
- Steve Knight, National Digital Library
- Leigh Davis, National Digital Library
- Kate Rawlings, University of Canterbury
- Lynn McClelland, University of Canterbury
- Mark Billinghurst, University of Canterbury
- Jeff Palmer, University of Canterbury
- Jeanette King, University of Canterbury
Professional advice and services from:
- Tim McConnell, NV Interactive
- Jill Wilson, CWA Media
- Jason Darwin, CWA Media
- Grant Fife, NV Interactive
- Sam Langley, NV Interactive
- Felicity Price, Carter Price Rennie
- Amy Carter, Carter Price Rennie
The following people have generously offered after-hours advice:
- Peter Wilson, Ministry of Health
- Lesley Dokter, Ministry for Social Development
- Richard Hancock, Ministry for Social Development
