Project Team
Dr Valerie Wallace - Principal Investigator
Senior Lecturer, Te Herenga Waka - Victoria University of Wellington
Valerie first developed an interest in parliamentary history whilst studying at the University of Glasgow under the tutelage of Dr Lionel Glassey, a self-professed Namierite. She began examining the demographic make-up of New Zealand’s historical parliaments whilst conducting research for her RSNZ Marsden-funded project on the contribution of Scottish law to New Zealand’s law and governance in the colonial period. Her prize-winning first book, Scottish Presbyterianism and Settler Colonial Politics: Empire of Dissent (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), examined the influence of Scottish religious ideas on radical politics in six regions of the British Empire.
Senior Lecturer, Te Herenga Waka - Victoria University of Wellington
Valerie first developed an interest in parliamentary history whilst studying at the University of Glasgow under the tutelage of Dr Lionel Glassey, a self-professed Namierite. She began examining the demographic make-up of New Zealand’s historical parliaments whilst conducting research for her RSNZ Marsden-funded project on the contribution of Scottish law to New Zealand’s law and governance in the colonial period. Her prize-winning first book, Scottish Presbyterianism and Settler Colonial Politics: Empire of Dissent (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), examined the influence of Scottish religious ideas on radical politics in six regions of the British Empire.
Dr Rebecca Lenihan - Research Assistant
Historian/Teaching Fellow/Research Assistant
Rebecca’s research background is in 19th and early 20th Century New Zealand and Scottish history, with a focus on migration. She is the author of From Alba to Aotearoa: Profiling New Zealand’s Scottish Migrants, 1840-1920 (Otago University Press, 2015) and co-author of Unpacking the Kists: the Scots in New Zealand (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2013). Her most recent research is examining British soldiers in New Zealand in the 1860s with Professor Charlotte Macdonald - see Soldiers of Empire.
Her role in the People of Parliament project is building the technical framework to present this data to the world and maintaining this website. If you have any issues accessing the data or if you find any typos on the website, you can contact Rebecca directly at: [email protected]
Historian/Teaching Fellow/Research Assistant
Rebecca’s research background is in 19th and early 20th Century New Zealand and Scottish history, with a focus on migration. She is the author of From Alba to Aotearoa: Profiling New Zealand’s Scottish Migrants, 1840-1920 (Otago University Press, 2015) and co-author of Unpacking the Kists: the Scots in New Zealand (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2013). Her most recent research is examining British soldiers in New Zealand in the 1860s with Professor Charlotte Macdonald - see Soldiers of Empire.
Her role in the People of Parliament project is building the technical framework to present this data to the world and maintaining this website. If you have any issues accessing the data or if you find any typos on the website, you can contact Rebecca directly at: [email protected]
Hayden Thorne - Research Assistant
PhD Candidate, Te Herenga Waka - Victoria University of Wellington
Hayden is a PhD Candidate at Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington. His own research is focussed on American legal history – specifically examining the influence of lawyers on the outcome of U.S. Supreme Court decisions. Hayden also has a broad interest in the use of databases as a tool for historical research and came to this project via a similar role for Valerie Wallace’s Marsden Funded Scottish Law project. Hayden developed the spreadsheet that sits behind the web explorer and has done a lot of the data gathering for this project.
PhD Candidate, Te Herenga Waka - Victoria University of Wellington
Hayden is a PhD Candidate at Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington. His own research is focussed on American legal history – specifically examining the influence of lawyers on the outcome of U.S. Supreme Court decisions. Hayden also has a broad interest in the use of databases as a tool for historical research and came to this project via a similar role for Valerie Wallace’s Marsden Funded Scottish Law project. Hayden developed the spreadsheet that sits behind the web explorer and has done a lot of the data gathering for this project.
Tommy Boyd - Research Assistant
Tommy is a Research Assistant in the History Programme at Victoria University of Wellington, where he completed a Master of Arts in History in 2021 and a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in History in 2019. He is currently working with Dr Valerie Wallace on a Marsden-funded project titled ‘Scots Law and British Colonialism’, which aims to uncover the hidden influence of Scots law on the settler societies of Australia and New Zealand. His research interests include scandal, crime, sensationalism, popular culture, identity, and the workings of the newspaper press across the British Empire in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Tommy is a Research Assistant in the History Programme at Victoria University of Wellington, where he completed a Master of Arts in History in 2021 and a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in History in 2019. He is currently working with Dr Valerie Wallace on a Marsden-funded project titled ‘Scots Law and British Colonialism’, which aims to uncover the hidden influence of Scots law on the settler societies of Australia and New Zealand. His research interests include scandal, crime, sensationalism, popular culture, identity, and the workings of the newspaper press across the British Empire in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Professor Jim McAloon - Advisor
Professor, History, Te Herenga Waka - Victoria University of Wellington
Jim has a wide range of interests in the economic and social history of New Zealand and other places, including settler societies, colonial development, class and history, labour history, migration, and twentieth century political history.
Professor, History, Te Herenga Waka - Victoria University of Wellington
Jim has a wide range of interests in the economic and social history of New Zealand and other places, including settler societies, colonial development, class and history, labour history, migration, and twentieth century political history.
Dr Fiona Barker - Advisor
Senior Lecturer, Political Science and International Relations, Te Herenga Waka - Victoria University of Wellington
Fiona is Senior Lecturer in the Political Science and International Relations Programme at Te Herenga Waka-Victoria University of Wellington, and an Associate Investigator on the New Zealand Election Study. Fiona researches the comparative politics of political representation, immigration and electoral politics, political participation and nationalism. Recent publications examine the parliamentary representation of diversity in mixed electoral systems (Parliamentary Affairs 71: 3, 2018), electoral participation of immigrants, and the role of ethnic media in democracy in Aotearoa. She is also author of a monograph on the governance of immigrant integration in multi-national societies (Nationalism, Identity and the Governance of Diversity, Palgrave Macmillan 2015).
Senior Lecturer, Political Science and International Relations, Te Herenga Waka - Victoria University of Wellington
Fiona is Senior Lecturer in the Political Science and International Relations Programme at Te Herenga Waka-Victoria University of Wellington, and an Associate Investigator on the New Zealand Election Study. Fiona researches the comparative politics of political representation, immigration and electoral politics, political participation and nationalism. Recent publications examine the parliamentary representation of diversity in mixed electoral systems (Parliamentary Affairs 71: 3, 2018), electoral participation of immigrants, and the role of ethnic media in democracy in Aotearoa. She is also author of a monograph on the governance of immigrant integration in multi-national societies (Nationalism, Identity and the Governance of Diversity, Palgrave Macmillan 2015).