Kia ora koutou, my name is Kathryn Oxborrow, and I will be temporarily editing Thesislink over the next few months. I will be covering the role of Portfolio Leader: Researcher Development while Anaise Irvine is on parental leave. This is just a short post to introduce myself and tell you a bit about my background.
I am originally from the UK and moved to New Zealand in 2010. I completed my own PhD late last year at Victoria University of Wellington and moved to Tāmaki Makaurau last Spring after ten years in Wellington. My topic was how non-Māori librarians learn about and engage with Māori knowledge in their lives and work. It was a qualitative study involving interviews and focus groups. I used Dervin’s Sense-Making as a framework to investigate my question and I ended up with some interesting methodological insights as well as insights into the subject (but I’ll tell you more about that in a future post). I studied part-time, starting in 2014.
I have a background in libraries, but also in academic support more broadly. In a previous role I supported students and staff of the Information Studies and Information Management programmes at Victoria University of Wellington. This involved everything from pastoral support, to organising student placements, to running tutorials, to troubleshooting technology. I am excited to have the opportunity to use some of these skills to support research students at AUT.
I’m looking forward to meeting many of you over the next few months, either in person or virtually. If you have any suggestions for topics you would like to see covered in Thesislink or would like to contribute your own post to the blog, feel free to contact me via grs@aut.ac.nz.
