New Zealand
Dr Fiona Barker is Senior Lecturer in Comparative Politics at Te Herenga Waka - Victoria University of Wellington, where she also directs the Master of Political Science degree and was Associate Investigator on the New Zealand Election Study (NZES) in 2017 and 2020. She holds a PhD from Harvard University (2007), was Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute, and has been visiting researcher at the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin, CERI-Sciences Po Paris, University of Edinburgh, and the Australian National University. Fiona’s research interests span the comparative politics of representation, immigration and electoral politics, political participation, and nationalism. Recent publications examine diversity in political representation in mixed electoral systems (Parliamentary Affairs 71: 3, 2018), electoral participation of immigrants to New Zealand (Political Science 69: 2, 2017), and the role of ‘ethnic’ media in democratic politics (Australian Journal of Political Science 56: 2, 2021). Fiona has also published on the governance of migrant integration in multi-national societies (Nationalism, Identity and the Governance of Diversity, Palgrave Macmillan 2015)
Will Dreyer is a PhD Candidate in New Zealand politics at Te Herenga Waka | Victoria University of Wellington. His thesis examines the legislative scrutiny of parliamentary select committees and their responsiveness to public participation in the form of written submissions. He has published on the select committee deliberations of the Zero Carbon Bill with Prof. Lisa Ellis in Political Science (73: 2, 2021) and written on the democratic role of submissions in Public Sector (45: 1, 2022). Will is also a founding member and Treasurer of the Generation Vote Trust of Aotearoa, a youth-led, non-partisan charity that teaches civics education in high schools in Aotearoa New Zealand. Alongside his study and community engagement, he works for the New Zealand Political Studies Association | Te Kahui Tātai Tōrangapū o Aotearoa and serves as one of their Postgraduate Representatives