Professor Tracey McIntosh. Source: University of Auckland
Professor Tracey McIntosh will be honoured today as a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her services to education and the social sciences.
McIntosh, of Ngāi Tūhoe, is the co-head of Te Wānanga o Waipapa, the School of Māori and Pacific Studies at the University of Auckland.
As a sociology and criminology academic, she has a commitment to addressing issues that concern Māori.
"My two main interest areas are firstly all things Māori and my own research areas around process marginalisation and identity issues with Māori, " she said in a statement.
Her second interest is in systematic suffering and state crime, with a more international focus.
Her research has focused on social inequality and the experience of prisoners, particularly of wahine Māori, within New Zealand. She visits prisons weekly and teaches creative writing at Auckland Regional Women’s Corrections Facility.
She says tackling the number of Māori in prison is critical.
"The mass incarceration we have in New Zealand is largely Māori incarceration. This is devastating for Māori whānau, communities and the broader nation. The inter-generational reach of the prison is long and, as I have noted elsewhere, colonises our future," she recently wrote in an opinion piece at for newsroom.co.nz.
In previous years McIntosh was Associate Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Deputy Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Equity).
She was also the head of the Department of Sociology and Joint-Director of Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga: Māori Centre for Research Excellence.
"Working with Ngā Pae Co-Director Michael Walker was an incredible experience, says McIntosh, “We worked in a transformative way to bring together Māori and indigenous research and researchers.”
She is a member of the Welfare Expert Advisory Group and Te Uepū i Te Ora and a Board Director of te Ira, a service collaboration between People at Risk Solutions and Tūruki Health Care.
McIntosh will be received at the investitures ceremony at Government House in Auckland.