A scholarship for a postgraduate student working on New Zealand research has been set up in the name of the late historian, scholar and writer Dr Lydia Wevers.
Wevers, who died last year, was one of Aotearoa’s pre-eminent public intellectuals, being director of the Stout Research Centre for New Zealand Studies, based at Victoria University, from 2001 to 2017 – a position which her friend and current director Brigitte Bönisch-Brednich said helped put the centre on the map.
Wevers’ family, former colleagues, her close friend and author Witi Ihimaera, and Bret McKenzie from Flight of the Conchords, were at the scholarship launch on Wednesday night. McKenzie led a musical tribute with members of the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra.
The $33,000 Lydia Wevers Scholarship in New Zealand Studies will go to one student each year. Wevers’ family had committed $100,000 already, but they and the university were hoping to raise a further $600,000 to ensure it could continue in perpetuity. “It was really her family. They wanted to … leave that as a legacy,” Bönisch-Brednich said in an interview.
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The scholarship would be offered annually to a postgraduate student from any discipline whose research relates to New Zealand. The recipient would be supervised by academics from their discipline, but would have access to space in the Stout Centre to work and be supported there.
The Stout Research Centre was established in 1984 with an aim to encourage, facilitate and coordinate academic learning and research into Kiwi society, history and culture. New Zealand studies could encompass any research connected to New Zealand society.
Bönisch-Brednich said when Wevers was growing up, there was a lack of published written histories about New Zealand in both schools and universities.
She was told when studying at the University of Oxford that a New Zealand-themed research topic was probably not worth pursuing, Bönisch-Brednich said.
Her “lifelong quest” after then was to build up a treasure trove of scholarly work about Aotearoa.
Bönisch-Brednich said there were very few scholarships available to Master’s students, and postgraduate students were not able to access student allowance funding. Wevers’ family hoped the scholarship would fill those gaps, she said.
Wednesday’s event was the finale in a seminar series hosted at Victoria University which addressed themes and activities that were central to Wevers’ research and working life. It was emceed by deputy vice-chancellor professor Rawinia Higgins.
Wevers’ academic speciality was literature. Bönisch-Brednich said Wevers was a compulsive reader, and always carried a book with her wherever she went. She read “during every free minute”, and was humorous, witty, and passionate about politics.
Wevers was also a role-model feminist who always pushed younger women scholars, mentored them and encouraged them to believe in themselves. In academia, a significant gender pay gap still existed, and there was a lack of women professors, Bönisch-Brednich said.
“She said, ‘you have to take yourself seriously’. … I think we all carry that with us.”
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