Jack Hitchcox
A future for tuna kuwharuwharu? Decolonisation, degrowth, and the NZ longfin eel.
Supervisor: Sara Belcher
Secondary supervisor: Mike Joy
Postgraduate students
Meet our postgraduate students working towards their degrees in the School of Science in Society.
Master of Science students
Jack tripped and fell into a career in primary healthcare after completing his undergraduate degree in History and Classics. His Masters thesis explores the relationships between capitalism, colonialism, and the decline of tuna kuwharuwharu (NZ longfin eel, Anguilla dieffenbachii), and how decolonisation and degrowth may tie into the future of the species.
PhD students
Rageshree Bhattacharyya
Fortified Foods in Urban India: The Social, The Scientific, and The Everyday Of Contemporary Indian Diets
Supervisor: Nayantara Sheoran Appleton
Secondary supervisor: Corinna Howland, Bryony James
Rageshree holds an undergraduate and a Master's degree in Sociology from India. Her doctoral project, which is funded through the Wellington Doctoral Scholarship, aims to study the growing techno-scientific developments in the domain of food and eating in India. Her primary research interests include gender, caste, labour, sociology of food, Science and Technology Studies and Discard Studies.
LinkedIn: Rageshree Bhattacharyya
April Boland
Don't Push Me, I'm Close to the Edge: Flat Earth Adherence in Aotearoa
Supervisor: Rebecca Priestley
Secondary supervisor: Richard Arnold
April Angela Boland has come to Science in Society from a Theatre and Religious Studies background. She is writing her PhD on Flat Earth adherence in Aotearoa, and is the recipient of both the Wellington Doctoral Scholarship and funding from Te Pūnaha Matatini.
LinkedIn: April Boland
Ciaran Doolin
Supervisor: James Beattie
Secondary supervisor: James Renwick
Ciaran is a historian of science. His thesis examines the development of meteorology and climatology in Aotearoa up until 1939 by following the career of Edward Kidson. Ciaran is also a meteorologist at MetService and has been a lecturer on the Master of Meteorology programme at Te Herenga Waka.
Dipayan Dutta
Creative Practices in Environmental Activism: Exploring Case Studies from the Aravalli Region, India
Supervisor: Tim Corballis
Secondary supervisor: Courtney Addison
Postgraduate Representative—2026
Dipayan is a Google-certified Project Manager with a background in Comparative Literature. His research interests include digital ethnography, cultural anthropology, environmental humanities and STS (Science and Technology Studies). He is a recipient of the Wellington Doctoral Scholarship and works at the Antarctic Research Centre at Victoria University of Wellington.
LinkedIn: Dipayan Dutta
Jia Ji
Supervisor: Rebecca Priestly
Secondary supervisor: Alex Beattie
Jia has a professional background in science communication, collaborating with biophysical scientists on outreach projects for diverse audiences. Her research explores the intersections of science, social media, and public engagement. She holds a Bachelor in Journalism from China and a Master in Communication from Sweden.
Andrea Milovan
Supervisor: Sara Belcher
Secondary supervisor: Arini Loader, Mike Joy
Postgraduate Representative—2026
Andrea completed a Master of Philosophy of Indigenous Studies from Tromsø, Norway, and is currently engaged in a collaborative PhD study with Te Whanaunui o Waiaua, who hold mana whenua over the Waiaua area in Te Tai Tokerau/Northland.
The focus of this research is to address and assess the environmental, cultural, spiritual, and archeological impacts of Waiaua Bay Farm Limited - the neighboring company’s developments, on Waiaua whenua and therefore, on mana whenua, seeing them as inseparable.
This transdisciplinary research engages with plural ways of knowing and doing, while holding space for the reclamation of Te Whanaunui o Waiaua tino rangatiratanga and kaitiakitanga.
Andrea is a recipient of Te Herenga Waka/Victoria University of Wellington Doctoral Scholarship, and a PG representative for the Faculty of Science and Society.
Andreja Phillips
Science and community in the web of Marlborough's podocarp forests
Supervisor: Courtney Addison
Secondary supervisor: Amanda Thomas
Andreja Phillips (MA Environmental anthropology, University of Zurich) is conducting interdisciplinary research located at the interface of environmental humanities and environmental anthropology. Her ethnographic research focuses on human-plant relations and practices of care in the context of podocarp forest restoration.
Submitted March 2026.
Vandana Singh
On a Rock and in a Hard Place: Women Scientists in Remote, Extreme, and Physically Challenging Spaces
Supervisor: Rebecca Priestley
Secondary supervisor: Nayantara Sheoran Appleton
Vandana is a forester by training, tree-hugger by instinct, policy-wonk, a novelist. Her thesis analyses women scientists working in extreme environments. She is interested in communicating science, feminist history of science and feminist STS. She holds an MSc from Oxford, and an MA from JNU. Her debut novel is So All Is Peace (Penguin, 2019).
Find out more
If you are interested in studing a PhD or Master of Science with the School of Science in Society, please contact:
Senior Lecturer
School of Science in Society