August 18, 2016
Jacinta Ruru most excellent teacher
University of Otago law professor Jacinta Ruru is this year's winner of the Prime Minister’s Supreme Award for tertiary teaching.
Professor Ruru, from Raukawa and Ngati Ranginui was the first professor of law of Maori descent in New Zealand.
The award acknowledges her sustained excellence in tertiary teaching to create a place for Maori to stand and be heard within New Zealand’s legal system.
As well as emphasising to her students Maori experiences of the law, Maori relationships with land and Maori challenges for change in the classroom, she created a year-long programme to build leadership skills among Maori law students.
She has also completed two Fulbright Scholarships, produced 90 publications used as teaching material in law schools around New Zealand, chairs Otago’s Maori academic staff caucus, and is co-director of Nga Pae o te Maramatanga, New Zealand’s Maori Centre of Research Excellence.
Another award in the kaupapa Maori category went to Associate Professor Tracey McIntosh from the University of Auckland arts faculty.
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