GWO November 2024 Guest Speakers and Award Winners

Our final GWO branch meeting was well attended and a huge success with four inspirational Award recipients sharing their research and conference experiences. Our special guest speakers were Louise Mearns, Joke Grans, Ahi Kaitai – Mullane and Hannah Martin.

Louise Mearns, poet and author publishes under the psuedonym of Louise Wallace.  Louise is the author of four collections of poems, the latest of which is This Is a Story About Your Mother (2023), and the novel Ash (2024). Completing her PhD in Creative Writing, our GWO funding helped support Louise’s participation in ASAP the conference of The Association for the Study of the Arts of the Present, in New York. Louise’s books can be purchased via the website https://teherengawakapress.co.nz/brands/Louise-Wallace.html

Joke Grans is completing her PhD in Biochemistry at Otago University. She is researching potential tumour suppressors in triple-negative breast cancer. She attended the A-RNA24 RNA Biology and; Biotechnology association meeting in Melbourne. Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) carries a worse prognosis compared to other breast cancer subtypes due to aggressive behavior and, most importantly, limited targeted therapies. Thus, identifying and validating new therapeutic targets for TNBC is essential for improving survival rates and overall prognosis. The emerging development of oligonucleotide-based therapies enables us to widen the scope of possible targets to include downregulated and silenced genes. Inactivation of tumor suppressors is as crucial for malignant transformation and tumor progression as activation of oncogenes, leaving many genes challenging to target directly thus far. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are exciting new therapeutic targets in cancer treatment due to their tissue-specific expression and dysregulation in cancer. Joke’s study aims to investigate lncRNAs as potential tumor suppressors in TNBC to identify new therapeutic target candidates. 

Ahi Kaitai-Mullane is completing her PhD at Victoria University of Wellington. She presented two papers at the 19th International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry Illinois, USA, on Seeing colonialism in pornography. Ahi’s research answers the question of the impact colonisation has had on representations of wāhine Māori bodies, identities and sex, tracking the extent to which this continues in contemporary pornography. This research project takes a decolonial and Mana Wahine approach, answering this question by evaluating early colonial depictions and descriptions of wāhine Māori, comparing them to those in contemporary pornography. The significance of this lies in identifying themes in how colonial ideas continue to be impacted on wāhine Māori bodies in pornography, influencing sexual scripts, discourses and treatment of wāhine Māori in broader society. This is carried out through qualitative thematic image and textual analysis of a sample of 50 video thumbnails and titles collected from PornHub. This project argues that colonisation has influenced social discourses and scripts of wāhine Māori bodies, selves, and sex, with this colonial impact continuing in contemporary pornography. This project is ultimately a challenge to the power colonisation holds over wāhine Māori and our representation. 

Hannah Martin is completing her PhD in Human Nutrition.  She attended the International Society of Behavioural Nutrition and Physical Activity at Omaha, Nebraska, USA.Her presentation was on Motivational Profiles for Eating and Their Association With Intuitive Eating, Maladaptive Eating, and Self-Reported Health. Why do we eat the way we do? That’s just part of what PhD candidate Hannah Martin, of the Department of Human Nutrition, is hoping to find out as part of her research examining the relationship between different qualities of motivation and intuitive eating. Martin says intuitive eating is taking an “anti-diet” approach to eating. The practise was developed by two dietitians, who wrote the first book on intuitive eating, in 1995. At the time, the pair were designing diet plans for their clients, who would frequently return saying they couldn’t stick to their plan. Martin’s research explores the relationship mid-life women aged between 40 and 50 years have with food and their motivation for eating. Her research has focused on four key aspects of the practise, the first being reliance on hunger and satiety cues, which sees people tuning into their physiological cues. The second aspect is unconditional permission to eat. Aspect three is body food choice congruence. Someone who practises intuitive eating will primarily choose foods that help their body to function well. The fourth and final aspect of intuitive eating Martin’s research has focused on is eating for physical rather than emotional reasons. (Content adjusted from Korero by Otago University Internal Communications Adviser, Koren Allpress)