![]() Professor Paul MillarCo-directorPaul is Head of the School of Humanities and Creative Arts, and Director of the UC Arts Digital Lab. He is a professor of English with a particular interest in New Zealand literature and the poetry of James K. Baxter. |
![]() Dr Chris ThomsonCo-directorChris is a Lecturer in English and Digital Humanities. His research interests lie at the intersection of literary studies and digital humanities, particularly on the way digital media technologies shape and are shaped by cultural practices. He is also interested in the adaptations of literature in digital media; posthumanism in literature; and the application of text mining as a research method in the humanities. |
![]() Assoc. Professor Donald MathesonCo-directorDonald is Associate Professor in Media and Communications. His research interests lie in journalism studies, with a particular emphasis on discourse analysis of journalists’ writing practices. This interest has taken him towards researching journalism in new media, as well as historical and ethical aspects of newswriting. Donald is also interested in journalism sociology and in the study of alternative media. He is the current president of the Australia New Zealand Communication Association. |
![]() Assoc. Professor Clemency MontelleCo-directorClemency is Associate Professor in the School of Mathematics and Statistics. She has research interests in the mathematical history of several early cultures of inquiry including Mesopotamia, Greece, India, and the Islamic near east. Her first book “Chasing Shadows-Mathematics, Astronomy, and the Early History of Eclipse Reckoning” (Johns Hopkins University Press) focuses on the theoretical treatment of eclipse phenomena in the ancient world. She is currently immersed in a 5-year project on the history of mathematical astronomy in Sanskrit sources, supported by the Royal Society of New Zealand. |
![]() Kaspar MiddendorfManagerKaspar is the Lab’s Manager and has skills in website development and various programming languages, and qualifications in secondary teaching. They completed their MLING thesis in 2017, using statistical modelling to compare syntactic structures in the QuakeBox spoken language corpus with the written language of the Christchurch Press. |
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Adjuncts and Advisors
Researchers
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Interns and Research Assistants
Gia HurringGia is a PhD student with the Linguistics Department at UC and has been actively involved in the QB2 Discourse Project since 2021. Within this project, Gia is working on three sub-projects: macro-narrative structure, micro-structural change, and geolocational correlation. |
Karin StahelKarin completed the Master of Applied Data Science (MADS) programme at UC in 2021, returning to study after several years working in the field of marketing and communications. Her MADS summer project involved exploring machine learning algorithms for classifying the genre of articles in historical New Zealand newspapers. Karin joined the ADL as a research assistant in 2022, working on a text similarity project using the QuakeBox corpora. |
Robb CarpinterMy name is Robert Carpinter. You could say my background is varied – I have Certificate in Personal Training, a Bachelor of Science (Psychology), as well as a Master of Writing under my belt. Professor Paul Millar has recently given me the opportunity to flex my academic skills, working in the arts digital lab on his CTV archive project. My role has been to catalogue as much quality material relating to CTV’s collapse as I can find. |
Volunteers
Former Staff, Interns and Volunteers
Laura MoirLaura is a graduate from Otago with a BA in Linguistics. After moving to Christchurch to work in IT, she started towards a post-graduate diploma at UC, which introduced her to the work of NZILBB. Now working on QuakeBox: Take 2 as a research assistant, Laura divides the rest of her time between creative pursuits and freelance IT projects. |
Natalie LooyerNatalie joined the ADL as a Research Assistant in 2020, working on the QuakeBox Take 2 project. |
Maggie BlackwoodMaggie joined the ADL as a Research Assistant in 2020, working on the QuakeBox Take 2 project. |
Mengjun YuPhD student Mengjun began volunteering with the Arts Digital Lab in 2019, helping to interview participants for the QuakeBox Take 2 project. She was employed as a Research Assistant in 2020, preparing material for the QuakeStudies archive, and again in 2021, researching background material for the Christchurch Diaspora project. |
Sarah WoodfieldSarah joined the ADL as a Research Assistant in 2021, working on the QuakeBox Take 2 project. |
Lauren MillarLauren joined the ADL as a Research Assistant in 2021, working on the QuakeBox Take 2 project. |
Caleb MiddendorfCaleb joined the ADL as a Research Assistant in 2021, working on the QuakeBox Take 2 project. |
Sara ChristeySara is pursuing a double Arts major in both Linguistics and Classics, with plans to go into research and archive management. She is working as a Research Assistant for NZILBB and the ADL on the QuakeBox Take 2 Project while completing full-time study. |
Drew WilsonDrew joined the ADL as a Research Assistant in 2021, researching background material for the Christchurch Diaspora project. |
Wei ShaoShao Wei completed her PhD study in media management at the University of Canterbury. Her research focuses on managing journalistic change when going digital is inevitable in news organisations. She joined the ADL as a Research Assistant in 2021, researching background material for the Christchurch Diaspora project. |
Davide GarelloDavide Garello is an Honours Graduate in Media and Communications from the University of Canterbury. He is the former leader of a video gaming community of over 35,000 active members as well as an eSport player, contending in the international stage for the US Team Omnibus. Davide has been part of projects ranging from marketing and advertising to public diplomacy, focusing primarily on the creative use of social media and the organisation of themed events for promotional purposes. He is interested in studying how our personal experience, knowledge, and interests all together shape the way we interact in the digital sphere. Davide joined the ADL as a Research Assistant in 2021, interviewing participants in the “Canterbury Earthquake Narratives—The Experience of Re-Telling” project. |
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Dorian GhoshDorian joined the ADL as a Research Assistant in 2021, interviewing participants in the “Canterbury Earthquake Narratives—The Experience of Re-Telling” project. |
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Jenny ReesJenny completed a BA Hons in English in 2010, followed by a Graduate Diploma in ICT in 2012. After working for several years as a web developer, she joined the UC Arts Digital Lab in 2018 as a Digital Project specialist. As part of the Understanding Place project, she was a key member of the team developing the Red Zone Stories app and website. Jenny left the Lab in early 2019 to explore new directions for her career. |
Dr James SmithiesJames was a Senior Lecturer in Digital Humanities and Associate Director of CEISMIC Canterbury Earthquakes Digital Archive. James has experience in the government and commercial IT sectors as a technical writer and editor, business analyst, and project manager. He is now the Director of King’s Digital Lab (KDL) at King’s College London. |
Antoine LandrieuAntoine completed a Masters in Computer Sciences in 2015 at HE2B-ISIB in Brussels. His interest for Digital Arts grew from his personal background and opportunities available at the local digital lab, LARAS. He joined the Lab in 2017 as a Digital Projects Specialist, putting his computer skills and international connections to the benefit of our ongoing and upcoming projects. Antoine left the Lab at the end of 2017 to continue his travels around New Zealand and Australia. |
Rosalee JenkinRosalee is a UC graduate with a Fine Arts degree in Graphic Design and an Arts degree in Psychology. She is the co-founder of the Room Four art space, and carries out her own art projects in the form of socially engaging public events. Rosalee joined the CEISMIC team in 2013, and in early 2017 moved on to work as an advocate for the Anglican Social Justice Unit. |
Lucy-Jane WalshLucy-Jane is a graduate of the English Department at the University of Canterbury. She developed an interest in digital archiving in Paul Millar’s Honours course on Scholarly Editing, following this up with her own digital project on the memoirs of a Canterbury doctor. Lucy-Jane was the programme’s first Digital Content Analyst, and in early 2107 moved on to a software development role with Mish Guru. |
Alex KingAlex worked as a Digital Content Analyst for CEISMIC from September 2013 – May 2015. Alex’s previous experience was as an Assistant Law Librarian for the NZ Law Society Library in Auckland, and she is now travelling and working in Europe. |
Han LiHan started as an intern with CEISMIC in 2012, and then carried on to work as a Digital Content Analyst. She moved to New York to work for the Digital Media team at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), and now works at the British Museum. |
Andrew DeanAndrew was Digital Content Analyst for CEISMIC in the early days of the programme, and worked primarily on the Environment Canterbury collection. Andrew was awarded a Rhodes scholarship in 2012 and is completing a Doctorate in English Literature at the University of Oxford. |
Dr Kara KennedyFormerly a Postgraduate Research Associate for the UC Arts Digital Lab, Kara was employed in 2019 a Digital Projects Specialist working on the Kia Tōpū future food project. She recently completed her PhD in English at UC with a focus on twentieth-century science fiction, and also researches in the area of Digital Humanities pedagogy and digital literacy. |
Daniel BartlettDan returned to the Lab in 2019 as a Digital Projects Specialist contributing to the Kia Tōpū project. Dan has worked as an historian at the Office of Treaty Settlements, and was a contributing author to Tāngata Ngāi Tahu: People of Ngāi Tahu (Bridget Williams Books, 2017), winner of the 2018 Heritage Non-fiction Book Awards. Previously, Dan had been a Summer Scholar for the Voices Against War project over the summer of 2015/2016, writing and loading content about the pacifists, conscientious objectors and seditious Cantabrians of WWI. He completed a BA(Hons) in History at UC, and is the recipient of the 2019 Canterbury History Foundation Community Historian Award. |
Samuel HopeSam completed a BA at UC in 2015, followed by a BA Hons in 2016, studying Anthropology and English. He joined the UC Arts Digital Lab as a Digital Projects Specialist in 2018, coordinating outreach, assisting with research, and helping maintain a number of the Lab’s web projects, while also working towards a MA in Cultural Studies. Sam left the Lab in 2020 for a role at Statistics NZ. |
Julie-Ann BuickJulie-Ann is fourth-year Geography student at UC, studying towards a Masters in Urban Resilience and Renewal. She completed an internship with CEISMIC which involved identifying and gathering information on temporary, post-quake projects for the Transitional City archive. |
Tiana RatanaTiana was a Research Assistant for the UC Arts Digital Lab, working on Kōmako: a bibliography of writing by Māori in English, led by Dr Bridget Underhill and Dr Chris Thomson. |
Paula FriendPaula, a BA Hons student, completed her second internship with the Canterbury Roll digitisation project in 2018. In 2017 she researched the Anglo-Saxon period and in 2018 completed the TEI markup of individuals named on the Roll. Paula also co-developed a framework for future interns to research the Roll’s geographic locations. |
Simon PalenskiSimon volunteered with CEISMIC in 2015 and also worked in a paid role to digitise the Townsend Telescope Visitors Book, which has been added to the QuakeStudies archive and was displayed in an exhibition led by the UC Physics department. He is now working at the Christchurch Art Gallery. |
Matthew LattinMatt was a Research Assistant for CEISMIC, preparing a large collection of content from the All Right? mental wellbeing campaign for the archive. |
Toril OrleskyToril is a former CEISMIC volunteer. She has a background in film, so was able to put her skills to use by filming the 2016 Seismics in the City conference for us, and has helped us prepare videos for the archive |
Julian VestyJulian was a volunteer with the Lab and helped to mark up digitised Roy Bruce letters – a collection of correspondence sent back to New Zealand during World War 1 by Major Roy Bruce of 8th Squadron, Canterbury Mounted Rifles. |
Jane RossJane was one of our CEISMIC volunteers, helping with the describing of content for the archive. As an editor for many years, she is also an adept proofreader! She says that volunteering for CEISMIC made her feel more connected to the city and to all who have struggled since the quakes. |
Luyao YuLuyao is studying for her PhD in Cultural Studies, and became an Arts Digital Project Volunteer in 2018 in order to sharpen her communication skills and technical competence. She assisted us to prepare metadata for QuakeStudies content. |
Maree ShirotaMaree volunteered with CEISMIC in 2015. She helped with the describing of content for the archive and is now completing a PhD at Universität Heidelberg in Germany. |
Zhivannah ColeZhivannah joined the Lab on a PACE 495 internship, working on the Canterbury Roll project. Her contributions to the project included assisting with the TEI markup of the transcription and translation text, and coordinating the contributions of the students from Nottingham Trent University who were researching the historical figures mentioned in the Roll.
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Brooke MaslinBrooke was one of our CEISMIC volunteers and helped with the describing of content for the archive. She currently studying towards a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Media and Communications and minoring in English and Entrepreneurship, with plans to move into the world of media, news and public relations. |
Puimini BowattePuimini was one of our CEISMIC volunteers, helping us identify relevant content for the archive. Puimini recently graduated with a BCom from UC, majoring in Accounting and Finance. |
Saskia van der WalSaskia’s PACE 395 internship with the Lab was also part of the Canterbury Roll project. One of her main tasks was the compilation of a list of all of the historical figures mentioned in the Roll, and identifying where the same figure was mentioned in multiple places. |
Brad McNeurBrad’s background is in Computer Science. He began volunteering with CEISMIC in mid-2016 and helped the team to develop apps and scripts that automate parts of the archival process. Brad has now secured a position working with ICTS at UC.
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Tasha TanTasha was one of our CEISMIC volunteers and helped with describing and geo-locating content for the archive. She is a UC student, currently studying Engineering. |
Emlie GallaugherBCom student Emilie was a CEISMIC volunteer in 2017, and helped write descriptions for the Street Art collection.
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Aidan MillowAidan began volunteering with Friends of CEISMIC in mid-2016. Aidan has a background in IT, and along with |
Jayson BoonHistory Honours student Jayson worked as a Lab intern with Josh Kim to document the arcs on the Canterbury Roll. As well as researching the relationships between figures on the Roll, Jayson and Josh added entries into the biographical database, in preparation for the project’s second phase. |
Josh KimHistory Honours student Josh worked in the Lab as an intern alongside fellow student Jayson Boon to document arcs on the Canterbury Roll. This involved conducting research to identify relationships between figures on the manuscript (familial, political, or otherwise). |
Melissa BellitteMelissa joined the Arts Digital Lab team in early 2018 on an internship from Farmingdale State College in New York. She helped to develop new processes for preparing material for the QuakeStudies archive, and assisted with coordination of the Arts Digital Project volunteers. |
Pratik MehtaPratik is currently studying towards a Masters in Applied Data Science at UC. As a CEISMIC volunteer, he worked with Chris Thomson to develop maps based on CEISMIC data. Pratik says volunteering in the Lab helped him learn skills such as leadership, teamwork and dedication. |
Paul PinkPaul began volunteering in the Lab towards the end of 2016, helping out with the description and geo-referencing of items in the CEISMIC archive. Paul has a fantastic local knowledge, which contributed a level of depth and richness to the metadata associated with items in the archive. |
Erin BurgessErin joined the team as a CEISMIC volunteer in 2017, and worked on descriptions for the Street Art collection in QuakeStudies. She is currently studying towards a Bachelor of Arts at UC. Erin says volunteering with CEISMIC improved her writing skills, and helped her to be more aware of the effects the earthquakes have had on infrastructure and building in Christchurch. |
Rebeka MartinkaRebeka volunteered with the Arts Digital Lab in 2018, while majoring in English and History at UC. She helped prepare metadata for the QuakeStudies archive. |
Dana MageanuDana was a long-time volunteer in the Lab, having joined the Friends of CEISMIC program in 2015. Dana has an MA in Japanese from UC and had previously spent time working in Japan as an English teacher. In 2018 she returned to Japan to take up new work opportunities. |
Viknesh ElumalaiViknesh was an Arts Digital Project Volunteer in 2018. Along with fellow Master of Applied Data Science students Manoj and Tushar, he helped us to create a dataset for the Understanding Place project. |
Manoj SivakumarManoj was an Arts Digital Project Volunteer in 2018. Along with fellow Master of Applied Data Science students Viknesh and Tushar, he helped us to create a dataset for the Understanding Place project. |
Sarah SiddowaySarah completed a BA in English and History in 2017, and completed the BA(Hons) in History in 2018. She was an intern with the Canterbury Roll project in 2018, assisting in the digitisation of the Roll by marking up names and places from the commentary in TEI. Sarah also co-developed a framework for future interns to research the Roll’s geographic locations. |
Tushar MehtaTushar was an Arts Digital Project Volunteer in 2018. Along with fellow Master of Applied Data Science students Viknesh and Manoj, he helped us to create a dataset for the Understanding Place project. |
Eleanor HurtonMaster of Writing student Eleanor joined the Arts Digital Project Volunteer team in 2018. She helped us to clean data for the Understanding Place project. |
Unmesh NitinUnmesh was an Arts Digital Project Volunteer in 2018, while studying towards the Master in Applied Data Science. He became an Arts Digital Project Volunteer to gain some real world experience, helping us to clean data for the Understanding Place project. |
Varaarchita KathjuMasters of Applied Data Science student Varaarchita spent the summer of 2018/2019 in the Lab, applying her data science skills to the Understanding Place project. Teamed with Sowjanya Karri, Varaarchita investigated methods of applying automated transcription and sentiment analysis to stories collected by the project. |
Sowjanya KarriMasters of Applied Data Science student Sonu has spent the summer of 2018/2019 in the Lab, applying her data science skills to the Understanding Place project. Teamed with Varaarchita Kathju, Sonu investigated methods of applying automated transcription and sentiment analysis to stories collected by the project. |
James HurrenJames completed a summer internship with the Arts Digital Lab at the end of his 3rd year in a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Political Science and Media & Communications. Running from November 2018 to February 2019, the internship was the last part of his degree. While in the Lab, James worked on the Understanding Place project, assisting with communications such as explaining and promoting the Red Zone Stories app, liaising with interested groups and setting up workshops to collect data. |
Hannah TurnerHannah joined the UC Arts Digital Lab as an intern for the Understanding Place project in the summer of 2018/2019, while studying towards a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Political Science ad International Relations. In her spare time she works in administration and sales for a residential property developer. |
Arna McAvoyHistory student Arna completed an internship with the Arts Digital Lab in the summer of 2018/2019, working on the Voices Against War project. |
Daniel EllsworthDan is an undergraduate student studying Math and Computer Science at Tulane University. In 2019 he worked on the Canterbury Roll Arcs Project as a PACE 295 intern, while he was an exchange student at the University of Canterbury. His research interests include the study of human-computer interaction and the symbiotic relationship between humans and artificial intelligence. |
Matthew ThompsonHello! My name is Matthew Thompson, my pronouns are he/him, and I’m a study abroad student here for semester 2, 2019, from Boston, USA. I love working on complex programming problems like my project of creating a data visualization tool within the digital version of the Canterbury Roll, and when I’m not focused on my academics I’m a passionate skier and tramper. |
Natasha SomNatasha is currently working towards her BA Hons in History after completing her BA in History and Classics. In the summer of 2017/2018 she completed research on the Heptarchy period for the Canterbury Roll internship. She continued to contribute towards the Roll in 2019 by marking up the locations found on the Roll in TEI. |
Nathan GullNathan completed a BA in History and English in 2018, and is currently working to towards Honours in History. He worked on the Canterbury Roll digitisation project over the summer of 2017, focussing on researching the part of the Roll related to the heptarchy. Nathan, alongside Natasha Som, returned to the Lab in 2019 as an intern, researching ways to mark up locations that appear on the Roll in TEI. This involved furthering the work of Paula Friend and Sarah Siddoway, who set up a framework for how geographic locations are researched for the Roll. |
Tim GuyTim is a fourth year BA student who is double majoring in Communications and Media alongside Cinema Studies. He took up an internship at the Arts Digital Lab in 2019 as a part of the Understanding Place project in order to gain experience in the field of advertising through the Red Zone Stories app launch. |
Sean PeddieSean is currently working towards his BA in History at UC. He interned at the UC Digital Arts Lab in 2019 as part of the team involved in the Understanding Place project, working on the development of the Red Zone Stories app and website. |
Dan RichardsonDan completed a Bachelor of Arts in History in 2018, and is currently completing Honours . He worked as an Intern on the Voices Against War project in 2019, researching and writing biographies on prominent conscientious objectors from the Canterbury area. |
Sanjoy KumarApplied Data Science student Sanjoy volunteered in the Arts Digital Lab in 2019, helping to develop scripts and workflows for the Macdonald Dictionary project. |
Harsha ThallamApplied Data Science student Harsha volunteered in the Arts Digital Lab in 2019, helping to develop scripts and workflows for the Macdonald Dictionary project. |
Megha SinhaApplied Data Science student Megha volunteered in the Arts Digital Lab in 2019, helping to develop scripts and workflows for the Macdonald Dictionary project. |
Harmanjot SidhuHarmanjot is studying towards a PG Diploma in Applied Data Science, and is interested in using Text Mining to understand the concepts of humanity. She became an Arts Digital Project Volunteer in 2019, working on the Macdonald Dictionary crowdsourcing project, in order to get better insights in the field of text mining. |
Alice MatthewsBCom student Alice joined the Lab as an Arts Digital Project Volunteer in 2019, helping us to identify participants for the QuakeBox Take 2 project. |
Bojana RimbovskaBojana was a Research Assistant in the UC Arts Digital Lab in late 2017. She recently completed a BA (Hons) in Art History, and worked alongside Laura Dunham (UC Art History and Theory Department) and Samuel from the Lab correcting photographic images of Samuel Hurst Seager’s Lantern Slide collection for display in the Hurst Seager Digital Collection. |
Lucy DenhamLucy was a Research Assistant in the UC Arts Digital Lab in 2020/21, interviewing Māori participants in the QuakeBox Take 2 project. |
Joshua BlackJosh joined the Lab in 2020 as a Lead Research Assistant, working on the QuakeBox Take 2 project. He left in 2021 to take up a Postdoctoral position. |
Josie HepburnJosie worked in the ADL from 2020-21 as a Research Assistant for the QuakeBox Take 2 project. |
Jameela JamalJameela was a Research Assistant in the UC Arts Digital Lab in 2020, working on the Understanding Place project. |
Rose ShaylerRose was a Research Assistant in the UC Arts Digital Lab in 2020, working on the Understanding Place project. |
Emma GamblesEmma worked in the ADL in 2020 as a Research Assistant for the QuakeBox Take 2 project. |
Rebecca WilliamsRebecca volunteered with the UC Arts Digital Lab in 2020, helping to interview participants for the QuakeBox Take 2 project. |
Libby DuncanLibby volunteered in the UC Arts Digital Lab in 2019, helping to recruit participants for the QuakeBox: Take 2 project. She is studying Political Science and Media & Communication, and was interested in improving her researching ability and digital literacy skills. |
Riho KojimaClassics student Riho began volunteering with us in 2019, helping to interview participants for the QuakeBox Take 2 project. |
Sriparna SahaPhD student Sriparna began volunteering with us in 2019, helping to interview participants for the QuakeBox Take 2 project. |
Lesley GilderLesley was the first of our CEISMIC volunteers, joining us in early 2015 to help with the describing of content for the archive. Now retired, Lesley returned to the Arts Digital Lab as a volunteer in late 2019, helping to interview participants for the QuakeBox Take 2 project. |
Nicole AshbyNicole volunteered with the UC Arts Digital Lab in 2020, helping to interview participants for the QuakeBox Take 2 project. |
Emily PointonEmily volunteered with the UC Arts Digital Lab in 2020, helping to interview participants for the QuakeBox Take 2 project. |
Kimberley ThorntonKimberly volunteered with the UC Arts Digital Lab in 2020, helping to interview participants for the QuakeBox Take 2 project. |
Destiny WiringiDestiny was a Research Assistant in the UC Arts Digital Lab in 2019, interviewing Māori participants in the QuakeBox Take 2 project. |
Tanja SchwalmTanja was a Research Assistant in the UC Arts Digital Lab in 2019, recruiting participants for the QuakeBox Take 2 project. |
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