P-cubed Newsletters

Contents HeadsUp When I WFH (interesting how that abbreviation is suddenly a thing) my usual company is a quietly snoring dog. This week, campus didn’t seem much livelier. As I went in and out of my office I enjoyed some jolly laughter with the Group Services Team...

Contents HeadsUp Interviewing candidates for an academic position always feels momentous. One will ultimately be a new colleague, bringing new ideas and energy to the School. This week we have four shortlisted candidates for the GISCi Lectureship based in four...

Contents HeadsUp I’m always grateful when someone alerts me to an interesting angle on what we are doing or could be doing differently. This week, Mark Dickson sent me an extract from a commentary in The Listener. It spoke of the resignation of young people to a world...

Contents HeadsUp I was in the Bay of Plenty on the weekend hoping to get out to Moutohora Island. Unfortunately sea conditions did not comply. That’s the third thwarted island visit this year; earlier cancellations were due to Covid and that the vessel was Russian....

Contents HeadsUp I trust you are enjoying being back on campus more. Seeing many of you last Monday afternoon at the welcome back drinks reminded me of the first 3-D movie I saw as a child: it felt both real and unreal at the same time.  I’m sure the novelty may wear...

Contents HeadsUp I was supposed to be on Rakiura this week doing interviews for a project on community impacts of tourism. But with Covid still doing the rounds, it seemed only right to postpone visiting (for the second time). Here on another island, the virus is...

Contents HeadsUp “Seeing is believing”. That old proverb sums up the power of observation, a power that can be derived from both ‘real-world’ phenomena and data derived from the world.  “Look before you leap”. Another proverb that speaks to observation and lies behind...

Contents HeadsUp To quote the recipient of the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature, ‘the times they are a changin’. In our case, from after the mid semester break, “subject to any Government requirements in place at that time and with limited exceptions” activity will...

Contents HeadsUp Some of us feel like we’ve been here a while and have seen a fair few changes. This dinosaur was an undergraduate student here when geographic data analysis was taught using punch cards and a mainframe computer. Then when I returned as a postdoc,...

Contents HeadsUp Kia ora tatou As there’s sadly, no in-person all-School gathering I’d like to wish you all a relaxing, safe and enjoyable time of annual leave over Christmas/New Year and, for most of you, well into January. It’s a cliché to say it’s been a tough...