Anne Smith Wins NZ-UK Link Visiting Professorship

Childrens’rights Specialist Anne Smith Wins NZ-UK Link Visiting Professorship for 2013

Sir Graeme Davies, Chairman of the NZ-UK Link Foundation, has announced the first of two Visiting Professors who will be visiting the UK from New Zealand in 2013 in association with The School of Advanced Study (SAS), University of London.

Emeritus Professor Anne Smith from the University of Otago’s College of Education, is a highly respected specialist in childhood studies and children’s rights. She has been involved in research, advocacy, and policy-making on childhood issues in New Zealand for almost 40 years. Professor Smith will be based at the School of Advanced Study between April and June 2013 and give a public lecture series on children’s rights with special emphasis on the links between research on children ‘s issues and government policy.

Anne Smith said of her appointment “I am honoured to have been awarded a Visiting Professorship by the NZ-UK Link Foundation, to help document and strengthen the relationship between research, policy and the implementation of children’s rights in New Zealand and the UK. I have been inspired by world leading UK scholars and advocates, such as Alison James, Michael Freeman, Berry Mayall, Ted Melhuish, Peter Newell, Wendy Stainton-Rogers and Martin Woodhead, in my own research and advocacy. Children in both New Zealand and the United Kingdom have lacked voice and visibility, and have faced poverty, violence, and lack of access to quality early childhood education, so we have much to learn from each others’ research and achievements to help improve children’s lives. ”

Sir Graeme Davies said “The power of the NZ-UK Link Foundation lies in its ability to link specialists from our two nations in common areas where we can share excellence in research, current theory and policy. We were thrilled with Professor Anne Smith’s application and the panel immediately grasped the important links and relationships that Anne would forge while on secondment here in the UK.

Visiting Professors are chosen not only for the thoughtful proposals but also because their approaches and work have limitless possibilities of linking New Zealand and the UK on many levels and for years to come. A very important part of the Visiting Professor scheme is the location of the visitors in the School of Advanced Study in the University of London where they will benefit enormously from the excellent research environment of SAS, a national resource of outstanding reputation in the humanities and social sciences. ”

Photograph of Professor Smith attached

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For further information please call

• Professor Anne Smith on 021 2468 209
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• Mark Horton, Chairman, NZ-UK Link NZ Committee on 021 820 844
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Notes for editors:

The Visiting Professors were chosen by a selection panel comprising NZ-UK Link Foundation Trustees and Professors at the University of London. Professor Arthur Grimes of Auckland University is the other NZ-UK Link Visiting Professor for 2013

The NZ-UK Link Foundation is a registered charity whose primary objective is to make “an ongoing substantial contribution to the intellectual, educational, vocational and academic underpinning of the bilateral relationship in a changing world” www.nzuklinkfoundation.org

The School of Advanced Study (SAS), University of London is the UK’s national centre for the promotion and facilitation of research in the humanities and social sciences. The School brings together 10 research institutes to offer academic opportunities, facilities and stimulation across a wide range of subject areas for the benefit of the national and international scholarly community. The member institutes of the School are the Institutes of Advanced Legal Studies, Classical Studies, Commonwealth Studies, English Studies, Germanic & Romance Studies, Historical Research, Musical Research, Philosophy, Study of the Americas, and the Warburg Institute. The School also hosts a cross-disciplinary centre, the Human Rights Consortium, dedicated to the facilitation, promotion and dissemination of academic and policy work on human rights. www.sas.ac.uk

For further information please contact Dee Burn¬ at the School of Advanced Study, University of London at dee.burn@sas.ac.uk / 020 7862 8670 / 07808 102 735. Images available on request

Each year the School welcomes around 170 visiting research fellows who benefit from its unique research resources and multidisciplinary scholarly community. In addition to visiting fellowship programmes, the School offers professorial, honorary and senior research fellowships. Through the hosting of these fellowships, the School fulfils its overall aims of enriching the research infrastructure of its national and international subject communities and other stakeholders. www.sas.ac.uk/support-research/fellowships/visiting-fellowships

Professor Anne Smith has worked as an academic at the University of Otago, first in the Education Department and later as Director of the Children’s Issues Centre. Professor Smith has been called on for advice by various governments, departments and ministries in her career. She has had personal contacts with ministers, and government officials, and has taught and collaborated on research with many colleagues. She has also participated in a range of advisory groups, working parties and committees. Her career has been devoted to making New Zealand a better place for families and their children, and to advancing children’s well-being, rights in early childhood education, the family, schools, and in social welfare and legal systems. www.otago.ac.nz/education/staff/annesmith.html

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