China fellowship for NZSM Director
The Centre is a unique partnership between one of China’s most prestigious universities and academics and researchers at all eight New Zealand universities. It promotes the study of New Zealand in China and contributes to the China–New Zealand relationship by showcasing the research quality of Victoria and all New Zealand universities.
Professor Norman will be hosted for ten days at the National Center for Research into Intercultural Communications of Arts at Peking University where, among other things, she will deliver a seminar on Music and Intercultural Communication: Linking Histories and Geographies.
Professor Norman says she is excited to take up the opportunity.
“We share a mutual enthusiasm to strengthen relations, particularly given NZSM’s Confucius Institute ties, our strong ethnomusicology research and teaching and our steady engagement with Chinese performing artists.”
The Fellowship is offered annually to New Zealand academics to increase opportunities for research collaboration between China and New Zealand and advance the interdisciplinary role of the New Zealand Centre at Peking University.
Professor Norman said the Fellowship will enable her to transfer her relations with Chinese colleagues in the arts, ongoing since 2010, to her re-established New Zealand base after several decades in Europe.
“As Director of NZSM, a school with a strong Asia-Pacific identity and focus, I want to promote our commitment to international cultural engagement.
“Musical practices and their artefacts embody centuries of social and cultural traditions that can be reinvigorated as vibrantly contemporary resources, inspiring shareable cultural experiences, innovative interpretations and ambitious new digital developments.
“The unique value of the arts as vectors of cultural exchange, increasingly recognised by our Chinese partners, is one we vigorously promote,” she says.
Matthew O'Meagher, Acting Assistant Vice-Chancellor (International Engagement) and Victoria’s representative on the Advisory Board of the New Zealand Centre at Peking University, says Dr Norman’s Fellowship will lead to two very positive outcomes.
“First, it will connect the NZSM to the high personal esteem in which Professor Norman is already held at Peking University, thereby boosting the School’s profile. Second, it will strengthen the potential for musical connections to underpin cultural ties between New Zealand and China.
“As the Government’s China Strategy notes, we ‘need more Kiwis who are literate in China’s language and culture’, and ‘Building relationships based on the sharing of cultures has proved to be very effective at opening doors for commercial engagement.’”
Professor Norman will take up the Fellowship in May/June 2018.