P-cubed Newsletters

Contents HeadsUp It’s an old cliché that a week is a long time in politics. Perhaps a new one should be that a day is a long time in Covid. Within 24 hours we were gone from Symonds St. I sometimes think of that half-eaten apple I left on my desk in a distracted...

Contents HeadsUp Last week all New Zealanders were reminded of the ever-present possibility of a Delta-variant outbreak and the likely response: ‘short, sharp’ Level 4 lockdowns. ‘Be prepared’ is the imperative at all levels, Meanwhile I was having my own little...

Contents HeadsUp At least on Level 6, last week seemed consumed by conversations about a letter in that very unscientific but high-impact journal, The Listener. The best responses are invariably the most pithy. Rangi Mātāmua, a new Fellow of Te Apārangi / the Royal...

Contents HeadsUp I’m reminded of my islandnes here on Waiheke as I write these words while a storm rages outside and ferries are cancelled. It was 1624 that John Donne wrote the lines “No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part...

Contents HeadsUp Most of us are slow learners when it comes to mātauranga Māori. Research or ethics applications these days appear to demand otherwise. But I’m convinced that slowing down is the only way. We need to be slow learners. There is no quick fix. Where I...

Contents HeadSup At our recent School retreat day, I took a risk. Would it seem ridiculous? Would it not? A while back when I pondered aloud what to include in the day, Joe Fagan had said to me “ I’d love to know more about my colleagues and what they love to do...

Contents HeadSup There’s a poster I pass on the final few metres on my walk to Building 302 each morning that says “Welcome to the University of Auckland. Please bear with us while we are under construction”. Of course it refers in the first instance to the massive...

Contents HeadSup Two documents will increasingly loom large for us all in the School over the coming months: Taumata Teitei (the University’s Strategic Plan); and our own School Review document. The first is now published after various deliberations that occurred last...

Contents HeadSup Soon after JR asked me whether I would step ‘into her shoes’ for the rest of 2021, I found myself walking the Milford Track and pondering what I had agreed to. I began to wonder if I wouldn’t make a better Head of School of Acting than Acting Head of...

Contents HeadSup Kia ora koutou This is my last headsup for a while so I’m going to make the most of it 🙂 I’ve been writing the narrative for the ENV External Review and it has been a fascinating exeperience. The last time the School was reviewed was in...