Interdisciplinary research

Many of our staff and postgraduate students work collaboratively on interdisciplinary research projects. They also network with external experts and professionals in New Zealand and abroad, and present their research in local and international settings including art galleries, professional conventions, dance stages and concert platforms.

Recent and current collaborative projects include:

• Transforming Auckland: Institutional, Technological and Cultural Innovations for Sustainable Cities – a thematic research initiative (TRI) that brings NICAI researchers together with with researchers across the University, to focus on innovations for sustainable cities.
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• Studio pedagogy: As NICAI's programmes are largely studio-based, and we offer a PhD with creative practice research, our academic staff share a strong focus on best practice studio pedagogy and related research.
• UN-HABITAT, a United Nations program that aims to promote socially and environmentally sustainable cities and towns around the world, supported by The University of Auckland through the Habitat Partner University Network (HPU).
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• Tuvalu: The Pacific Project, an international research partnership centred around Pacific themes, with a special focus on Tuvalu – 'the canary in the mine of global warming'.
• AMPED in the Park: Architecture, Music, Planning, Elam and Dance (AMPED) students have created installations and performances in Myers Park to entertain passers-by on Auckland City’s Fan Trail during the Rugby World Cup 2011. Students have re-worked a "Jack-in-a-Box" theme and given it a contemporary twist, creating sensory provocation and surprise. Large scale architectural box installations open to release movement and dance, sounds and sonic arts, art and visual events, coming alive three hours before kick-off on each of the 11 Eden Park match days.
  Read more about AMPED in the Park
• Tuia tui Tuia, a series of twelve workshops involving Dance Studies and Music students.
  View video clip
• Can urban areas be sustainable?
  Planning researcher Dr Marjorie van Roon is investigating how to construct and operate ecologically functional urban areas. By planning communities where water cycles operate naturally, ecological processes are accommodated, contaminant runoff and flooding are minimised, and habitats are protected or re-created, we can protect our nation's biodiversity while ensuring our lifestyle is more sustainable.
  View Dr Marjorie van Roon's research
• Success for All: Improving Māori and Pasifika Student Success in Degree-Level Studies: A partnership between researchers from NICAI (Dr Deidre Brown and Dr Te Oti Rakena), the Faculty of Education and the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences.
  Read more about Success for All

To read an overview of research at The University of Auckland, see our Research Works Wonders ebook