Melinda Webber is a New Zealand academic, and is a full professor at the

University of Auckland The University of Auckland (; Māori: ''Waipapa Taumata Rau'') is a public research university based in Auckland, New Zealand. The institution was established in 1883 as a constituent college of the University of New Zealand. Initially loc ...

, specialising in Māori identity and ways in which race, ethnicity, identity and culture impact on young people and their success. She is of

Ngāti Hau Ngāti Hau are the Māori people, Māori ''iwi'' (tribes) of the Whanganui River area in New Zealand. There are two stories of where the name ''Ngāti Hau'' comes from. One is that it comes from Haupipi, who arrived in New Zealand on the ''Aotea ...

Ngāti Kahu Ngāti Kahu is a Māori iwi of Northland, New Zealand. The iwi is one of the six Muriwhenua iwi of the far north of the North Island. Ngāti Kahu take their name from their founding ancestress, Kahutianui, and link their ancestry back to the wa ...

Ngāpuhi Ngāpuhi (also known as Ngāpuhi-Nui-Tonu or Ngā Puhi) is a Māori iwi associated with the Northland regions of New Zealand centred in the Hokianga, the Bay of Islands, and Whangārei. According to the 2023 New Zealand census, the estimate ...

and

Ngāti Whakaue Ngāti Whakaue is a Māori iwi, of the Te Arawa confederation of New Zealand, tracing its descent from Whakaue Kaipapa, son of Uenuku-kopakō, and grandson of Tūhourangi. The tribe lives in the Rotorua district and descends from the Arawa w ...

descent.

Academic career

Webber completed a master's thesis titled ''Hybrid Māori/Pākeha: Explorations of identity for people of mixed Māori/Pākeha descent'' in 2007, and a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

titled ''Identity matters: Racial-ethnic representations among adolescents attending multi-ethnic high schools'' in 2011, both at the University of Auckland. Her doctoral advisors were Elizabeth McKinley and John Hattie. In 2017, Webber received a Rutherford Discovery Fellowship to explore identity and success from an

iwi Iwi () are the largest social units in New Zealand Māori society. In Māori, roughly means or , and is often translated as "tribe". The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language, and is typically pluralised as such in English. ...

perspective. She has also received a Marsden Fast Start grant, and in 2013 was a Fulbright Scholar. For her Fulbright award, Webber travelled to

University of Wisconsin–Green Bay The University of Wisconsin–Green Bay (UW–Green Bay, UWGB, or Green Bay) is a public university in Green Bay, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1965, it is part of the University of Wisconsin System. As of fall 2024, student enrollment h ...

to share knowledge with their First Nations Studies programme. Webber then joined the faculty at the university, rising to full professor in 2022. Webber is part of the Ngā Pae o te Maramatanga

Centre of Research Excellence The Centres of Research Excellence (CoREs) are interorganisational research networks in New Zealand funded through the Centres of Research Excellence scheme, which is administered by the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC). History The scheme w ...

, and associate director of the Woolf Fisher Research Centre. Webber is on the editorial board of a number of journals, including the ''Australian Journal of Gifted Education'', ''

Contemporary Educational Psychology ''Contemporary Educational Psychology'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal on the topic of educational psychology. Its editor-in-chief is P. Karen Murphy (Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) ...

'', and ''MAI Journal: A New Zealand Journal of Indigenous Scholarship''. Webber's research on reversing negative stereotypes has resulted in the publication of two books published by Auckland University Press, ''A Fire in the Belly of Hineāmaru'', also available in te reo as ''Ka Ngangana Tonu a Hineāmaru, He Kōrero Tuku Iho nō Te Tai Tokerau''. The books contain 24 biographies of Māori tūpuna.

Selected works

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References

New Zealand academics New Zealand women academics University of Auckland alumni Academic staff of the University of Auckland New Zealand Māori women academics New Zealand Māori academics Ngāti Whakaue people Ngāpuhi people Ngāti Kahu people Ngāti Hau people Year of birth missing (living people) Living people {{NewZealand-academic-bio-stub