Peter likes to joke that he owes his career in English Literature to the Anglican church deciding to ordain a woman bishop.
“Penny Jamieson was the first in the whole of the Anglican Church to be ordained as a bishop, and she was made Bishop of Dunedin. As a result, her husband, Associate Professor Ian Jamieson, moved to Dunedin and created a vacancy at Vic. I happened to be in the right place at the right time. So I'm very grateful to the Anglicans for that.”
After completing his Bachelor’s degree with Honours in English Literature at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, Peter taught secondary school and got married, then moved to the UK to study at Oxford. At Oxford he graduated with a Master of Literature (MLitt). By this time, he and his wife had their first child, and they decided to move back to Wellington to be near their families, where he worked in government “until the Anglicans came to the rescue” and he started as a lecturer at Victoria University of Wellington in 1991.
“I always enjoyed reading literature, and in terms of schooling, it was something I was reasonably good at,” Peter says of his decision to study, and then teach English Literature. “I wanted to find out more about how literature works, and I had some really inspiring teachers at Victoria University.
“It’s about understanding culture, understanding how people interact, and the ways of expressing those things.”
As a lecturer, Peter largely divided his time between medieval literature and New Zealand literature. As his career progressed, he was invited to join various committees and boards. “At one stage, my claim to fame was joining a committee and having it dissolve itself immediately,” Peter says. “I thought I could sweep through University administration getting rid of all committees, but that didn’t happen.”
During his tenure, Peter served as programme director for every programme in the School of English, Film, Theatre, Media and Communication, and Art History, except his own, for different periods, generally in an ad hoc capacity to address particular needs or concerns within the School.
He then became the Associate Dean (Research) in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences from 2004‒2007, and was then made Head of School between 2007‒2011. He was also the Acting Dean, and then Dean, of the Faculty of Graduate Research, between 2013‒2019.
The subject has changed a lot since his early days, but Peter says he would still certainly encourage students to study literature. “It’s still about exploring people’s interactions, relationships, and feelings. It’s still playing with words in all kinds of imaginative ways.
“The numbers who are able to pursue an academic career in literature are very small, which is true of most disciplines, so they should be studying it because they love it.”
Peter says the research itself was always a highlight for him. “That’s something I think most academic staff thoroughly enjoy. I really love the opportunity to create new knowledge. Exploring archives, exploring other libraries overseas, and writing about writers, writing about literature.”
Another highlight for him was creating new courses from scratch that hadn’t been taught before. “And I loved seeing students have these magic moments when they switch on to an author they hadn’t read before, or an author they had read before and hadn’t liked. That’s always really encouraging, and it just gives you a bit of a ‘bounce’ to see that.”
In keeping with his wide scholarly interests and deep commitment to the students at Victoria University of Wellington and their learning and wellbeing, Peter taught and supervised students at all levels of the curriculum and across topics that ranged from Middle English dream poetry to 21st-century writing.
He maintained a significant teaching workload alongside his administrative work and was a constant and committed contributor to every aspect of the undergraduate experience, as well as supervising many Honours, Masters, and PhD projects to completion.
As well as publishing widely, he served as editor of Kotare: New Zealand Notes and Queries from 1998 to 2021, and the Journal of New Zealand Studies between 2021 and 2024.
Now that he’s retired, Peter lives with his wife in Waimakariri, and enjoys gardening on his extensive section, and spending time with family. He also maintains an interest in research, working on a book on the Victorian poet Gerard Manley Hopkins.