Stage Direction And Hate Speech Detection Feature In Diverse Cohort Of 2024 Fulbright NZ Graduates

Fulbright New Zealand has today announced the 15 recipients of this year’s New Zealand Graduate Awards. These prestigious awards enable New Zealand graduate students to undertake postgraduate study or research at US institutions.

Subjects covered by this year’s cohort form a particularly diverse collection, including film directing, stage direction, organisational behaviour, indigenous law, respiratory healthcare, and hate speech detection.

Fulbright New Zealand Executive Director Penelope Borland says the variety of disciplines on show in this year’s awards is an inspiration.

“Each and every year I am amazed by the array of research interests represented by our latest crop of Fulbright Graduates. This is both a testament to the strength of the programme, but also to the high standard of postgraduate students and scholars across Aotearoa. These impressive individuals have so much to offer the world, and we are thrilled to be helping them on their way,” said Penelope.

The full list of 2024 Graduate Award recipients is as follows.

Fulbright Science and Innovation Graduate Awards

Sainimere Boladuadua (Somosomo, Cakaudrove; Levuka-i-Yale Kadavu) from Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland will research healthcare experiences of families of Native American children with respiratory infections at Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Indigenous Health in Baltimore, Maryland. She is studying for a PhD at Waipapa Taumata Rau, The University of Auckland.

Jackson Cate (Te Atiawa) from Kirikiriroa Hamilton will research the extent to which attaching memories to objects—creating mementos or monuments—inflates the objects’ monetary value at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, California. He is studying toward at PhD at The University of Waikato.

Ryan Meachen (Ngāti Te Wehi, Ngāti Huia ki Poroutawhao) from Heretaunga Hastings, will research organisational behaviour, leadership theory and wellbeing science at the Leadership and Happiness Laboratory at the Harvard Kennedy School, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Felicity Powell from Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland will complete an Ed.M. in Education Leadership, Organizations, and Entrepreneurship at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Michelle Meaclem from Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington will complete a Master in Public Policy at Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts.

Sidney Wong (Lliyip , Samsui , Tungkwoon ) from Te Awakairangi ki Tai Lower Hutt will research automatic hate speech detection on social media at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois toward a PhD in Linguistics at the University of Canterbury.

Alexander Young from Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland will complete a Master of Laws specialising in Environmental Law at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.

Fulbright Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga Graduate Award

Finley Ngarangi Johnson (Rongomaiwahine, Ngāti Kahungunu) will travel from Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington to Hawai’i, Duluth, and Baltimore as a Visiting Student Researcher. He will work alongside Indigenous scholars and communities affiliated with the University of Hawai’i at Manoa Office of Public Health Studies, and the Johns Hopkins University Centre for Indigenous Health.

Fulbright New Zealand General Graduate Awards

Luke Elborough from Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland will complete a Master of Laws specialising in trial and appellate advocacy, with a focus on criminal law, international law and human rights, at New York University in New York City, New York.

Wiliame Gucake (Vusaratu, Utuali’i) from Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington will complete a Master of Laws focused on transitional justice and indigenous rights at Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Amelia Kendall (Te Rarawa) from Mitimiti, Northland, will complete a Master of Laws at Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Matthew Kereama (Ngāti Manoano) from Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland will complete a Masters of Fine Arts specialising in Stage Directing at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Meg Porteous, (Ngāti Maniapoto/Pakeha) from Taranaki will undertake an MFA in Film Directing at the University of California, Los Angeles, in Los Angeles, California.

Pita Roycroft (Ngāti Tuwharetoa, Ngāti Kahungunu) from Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland will complete a Master of Laws with a focus on the synergies between indigenous law and private law at Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Chelsea Wong, (Teo Chew , Shun Tak ) from Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland will complete a Master of Arts in American Studies – Public Humanities focusing on Asian diaspora experiences in the arts at Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey.

Fulbright New Zealand General Graduate Awards are for promising New Zealand graduate students to undertake postgraduate study or research at US institutions in any field.

Approximately seven awards are granted annually, valued at up to US$50,000 (plus NZ$4,000 travel funding) for up to one year of study or research in the US. Students undertaking multi-year Masters or PhD degrees have the opportunity to apply for additional funding of up to US$40,000 towards their second year of study.

Applications for the 2025 Fulbright New Zealand General Graduate Awards are now open and close on 1 August.

The Fulbright Programme of educational exchange is one of the largest and most significant educational exchanges of scholars in the world.

New Zealand was only the fifth Fulbright Commission in the world, signing up to the programme in 1948. Since then, it has awarded more than 1900 scholarships to New Zealand graduate students, artists, academics and professionals to undertake further research in the US, and welcomed more than 1,600 Americans on exchanges to New Zealand.

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