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Rate My Professor Erica Newman

University of Otago

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5.04/23/2026

Always supportive and understanding.

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About Erica

Dr Erica Newman is a Senior Lecturer in Te Tumu School of Māori, Pacific and Indigenous Studies at the University of Otago, where she also serves as Programme Coordinator for the Master of Indigenous Studies (MIndS). A Ngāti Hine and Ngāpuhi affiliate, she earned her BA (Hons), MA, and PhD from the University of Otago. Her PhD thesis examined colonial interventions on guardianship and 'adoption' practices in Fiji from 1874 to 1970. Newman's research specializations encompass indigenous kinship structures, child circulation practices, whāngai, transracial adoption, and identity formation among Māori adoptees and their descendants. She received a Marsden Fast-Start Grant in 2020 for her project exploring the intergenerational impacts of the 1955 New Zealand Adoption Act on descendants seeking their tūrangawaewae. Additionally, she contributes to the Marsden-funded project Te Hau Kāinga: The Māori home front during the Second World War, led by Professors Angela Wanhalla and Lachy Paterson.