Ratuva is first Pacific Islander to receive top NZ academic award
Fijian academic, Professor Steven Ratuva has won the prestigious Metge Medal for Excellence, New Zealand’s highest academic honour in social science research.
The Royal Society of New Zealand, which awards medals to New Zealand’s elite scholars, cited Professor Ratuva’s research excellence, interdisciplinary leadership and world expertise and standing in his field.
Professor Ratuva becomes the first Pacific Islander to win the medal.
He was also awarded the 2019 Research Medal by the University of Canterbury, the university’s highest academic honour.
As Director of the Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies (University of Canterbury), Professor Ratuva’s scholarship spans the fields of sociology, anthropology, politics, history, cultural studies, post-colonial and development studies. His research innovation , writings and professional engagements have fostered interdisciplinary and collaborative projects across the globe. His research is inspired by the desire to create an equal, sustainable and humanitybased world and to give marginalised scholars a voice at every opportunity. Professor Ratuva, who was born on Kadavu Island, engages in interdisciplinary studies, policy research and a global authority on ethnicity, security and affirmative action with research proficiency in a range of other areas such as inequality, conflict and social protection. He leads a number of global, national and interuniversity research teams and networks including: a Palgrave project on global ethnicity, the largest ethnicity project in the world; a global project on security for the International Political Science Association; a project on social protection and health (including COVID-19) for the University of Canterbury and the University of Otago; a project on food security and wellbeing for the University of Canterbury; and an international project on risk and security.
To boost Pacific research to competitive global standards, he started Pacific Dynamics: Journal of Interdisciplinary Research, now in its fourth year.
He also founded and now runs the Global Research and Innovation Hub on the Pacific (GRIPac) at the University of Canterbury.