News & Events
We host a range of events (online and in-person) about issues of importance to Aotearoa New Zealand and the world.
Monday December 1st – Tuesday December 2nd 2025
Te Wānanga Aronui o Tāmaki Makau Rau |
Auckland University of Technology, Aotearoa | New Zealand
We live in a time of precarity, uncertainty and unrest: the climate
emergency is escalating, far-right ideologies are mainstream,
political and social systems and society is becoming increasingly
post-digital and artificially intelligent. How are we – as researchers, professionals, advocates, activists – responding to the challenges of our time? What innovations could enable a more equitable and sustainable society for younger generations? How might we imagine, foster, and enable social changes that are lasting, resilient, and sustainable? How might we share and collaborate to build what Pierre A. Lévy calls our collective intelligence, that is our capacity as human communities, to cooperate in creation, innovation, invention and we should add, interventions? And importantly, how might we communicate our creation, innovation, invention and interventions? Rethinking tomorrow: Emerging research for social change provides a platform to tackle these questions and have robust discussions.
Call for abstracts is now open. We invite submissions focusing on the following themes:
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Artificial Intelligence & Social Change
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Technologies & Everyday Life
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Gender, Sexual Diversity & Social In/tolerance
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Race, Racism & Cultural Differences
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Structural Inequalities
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Migrants, Refugees & Lived experiences
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Indigeneity in Aotearoa and the Pacific
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Climate emergency
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Social Policy & Governance
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Advocacy & Education
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Wicked problems in Aotearoa and beyond
Abstracts (between 300-350 words) and a 100-word bio can be submitted to cfsc@aut.ac.nz. Please also indicate which theme your abstract relates to. Successful applicants will be allocated 15 minutes for their presentations along with 5 minutes for Q&A.
Deadlines:
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Abstract submission: August 1st, 2025
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Notification of abstract acceptance/decline: September 1st, 2025.
Conference registration:
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The cost of attending in-person is $170. This includes registration for the event as well as food and refreshments throughout both days. Please note: the conference dinner (held Monday Dec 1st) is yet to be confirmed and will be an additional charge.
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Online attendees can register for $50 (inclusive of both days)
You can purchase either in-person or online registration through Humanitix once your abstract has been accepted via this link: https://events.humanitix.com/rethinking-tomorrow-emerging-research-for-social-change/tickets or by clicking onto the conference title above.
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Dr Gary Payinda
Dr Gary Payinda is a Whangārei emergency doctor with 3 crazy ideas for a decent society:
1) That government should be there to ensure that the people have food, housing, education, and healthcare: the building blocks of a happy, healthy, productive society. If a government won't do these things -- but can afford to give billions of taxpayer dollars to property investors and tobacco companies -- it has failed.
2) That we in New Zealand can have a corporate-backed government looking out for the interests of the wealthiest 1%, or we can have a democracy, but we can't have both.
3) That "Liking" and "Subscribing" cannot change the world. What can? Direct action that impacts the relentless flow of money to the very rich. Because a for-profit system which owns and funds the lawyers, accountants, and politicians will never ensure that the average person can see a GP, or gets looked after in their old age. We did not end up with this system by accident. Public suffering is good for privatisation.
Gary has been a public hospital ED doctor in Whangārei for 18 years. He's worked as the medical director for a rescue agency, served on medical councils and been elected to health boards, been a union leader, a medical educator, and increasingly been one of many voices against the dismantling of essential public services and the breakdown of the Common Good for private profit.
Emmy Rākete [Ngāpuhi]
Emmy Rākete [Ngāpuhi] is a communist and prison abolitionist from Tāmaki Makaurau. In 2015 she helped to found the community organisation People Against Prisons Aotearoa, and she is its press spokesperson today. As a lecturer in criminology at the University of Auckland, Emmy's research uses Marxist political economy to explain structural social problems and guide organised class struggle against them
Past Events
Education in Aotearoa
COMM819: Wicked Problems Panel
2025 Semester 1: Invited Speakers: Aidan Daly (High School Teacher, Hobsonville Point Secondary School), Dr. Jennie Watts (Living Literacy Aotearoa), & Dr. Alastair Wells (AUT Lecturer, Education)
Panel Theme: Education is often referred to as a wicked problem because it is deeply interconnected with social, economic, and cultural factors, and its challenges are shaped by diverse, often emotional, experiences. For educators, the wicked nature of education is felt acutely. Teachers are required to juggle a wide array of roles—acting as instructors, mentors, administrators, and emotional support figures—while simultaneously navigating conflicting policies and teaching strategies. They are under immense pressure to meet the diverse needs of students, including varying learning styles, socioeconomic backgrounds, and mental health challenges, often with limited resources and support. In New Zealand, these challenges are further compounded by the need to uphold the Te Tiri o Waitangi (Treaty of Waitangi) commitments, deliver culturally responsive education, and address longstanding educational inequities affecting Māori and Pasifika learners. How do the different stakeholders respond to this wicked problem? What are some of the challenges & opportunities they deal with? How do they envisage we can collectively address the issue confronting education?
The climate emergency challenges how we understand the relationship between our economy, environment, and society. It is framed in different ways by different people, and a journalist’s job is to cover all of the action and the angles. How can they do this and still be a part of the solution? This symposium will investigate climate journalism in Aotearoa New Zealand, discussing its current practices and challenges, and exploring different ways we can tell media stories about the climate emergency. We will hear from leading climate journalists about their work in a news media industry under extraordinary stress, and from prominent climate news sources striving for urgent political, economic, and social change. Each panel discussion will include an audience Q&A session.
Join us in conversation with some of Aotearoa’s leading climate journalists, climate activists and communication scholars for this free AUT live event brought to you by the Communication for Social Change research centre and the Journalism, Media and Democracy research centre.
Panel Discussion
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Eloise Gibson, RNZ
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Marc Daalder, Newsroom
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Miriama Kamo, (Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Mutunga) TVNZ
Panel Discussion
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Dr Russel Norman, Greenpeace
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Jessica Palairet, Lawyers for Climate Action
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Joe Nagera, Pacific Climate Warriors
This year in New Zealand, news about broadcasting, media, and political and social change shows that the fourth estate and capacity to hold powerful people to account is being threatened. The proposed theme of exploring powerful social and media changes in Aotearoa New Zealand in 2024 is the umbrella theme that we want participants to engage with.
Dannie Julian: “Leading in a Skirt: The Gendered Exceptionalism of Jacinda Ardern’s Political Leadership”, and Michael Bain: “Battling imposter syndrome: Conference presenting early on in your research journey”
Yulia Khan: "The nexus of identity and sustainability practices among migrants in Aotearoa NZ".
Vijay Devadas and Sarah Baker: "Disinformation & Social Media Platforms: The Covid-19 Pandemic in Aotearoa".