An Exploration of Literacy as a Key Contributor to Indigenous Self-Determination
Melissa Derby (Ngāti Ranginui) is a doctoral scholar at the University of Canterbury, in Christchurch, New Zealand, whose thesis is part of a government-funded National Science Challenge. Currently, Melissa is in the USA on a Fulbright scholarship, studying critical theories of race, ethnicity and indigeneity. Melissa is a member of the New Zealand Psychological Society, and the New Zealand Association for Research in Education. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Victoria University of Wellington. She graduated with a Master of Arts with first class honours from Auckland University of Technology, and her thesis made the Dean’s List for Exceptional Theses. Her scholarship has been recognised through a range of awards, including a Fulbright Graduate Award, a Doctoral Excellence Scholarship from the Māori Centre of Research Excellence, a SAGE Young Writer’s Award, and the Brownlie Scholarship, which is awarded to the highest ranked doctoral scholar at the University of Canterbury. In 2016, Melissa participated in the Indigenous Studies Summer Program at Columbia University, which she deems as one of the richest and most rewarding experiences in her life.
Amanda Earl is a doctoral student in International Educational Development at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her research centers on the dynamics of multi- and intercultural education for indigenous students in Latin America and Latinx and recent immigrant students in the US.
