Te Pokapū Aronui ā-Matihiko | Arts Digital Lab

I am interested in how information-rich computational systems can better support human discovery and learning, particularly through tools that enable more interpretable and collaborative forms of understanding and communication. Focus areas include:

• Intelligent systems for environmental and social challenges
• GIScience and spatial data science
• Representation across machine learning models, natural language, and domain-specific data
• Dynamic and automated scientific workflow systems
• Decentralized knowledge systems

Donald studies journalism practice and public communication, including news discourse, social media and science communication. He has written on conflict reporting, communication ethics and discourse analysis. He has expertise in discourse analysis, including corpus-based discourse analysis. He writes on communication ethics and also co-edits Ethical Space, an international communication ethics journal. He is a co-director of UC's Media Innovation Lab, a lab that supports journalists to develop innovartion in factual storytelling.

Paul Millar is a Professor of English Literature and Digital Humanities in the School of Humanities. His research interests include the literature of Aotearoa New Zealand, Life Writing, and Cultural Heritage Digital Archiving. His literary biography of novelist and cultural commentator Bill Pearson was a finalist in the New Zealand Book Awards. He is currently writing the biography of influential poet, philanthropist and editor, Charles Brasch.  Millar has been involved in Digital Humanities projects and research since 1996. In 2001 he co-founded Victoria University of Wellington’s New Zealand Electronic Text Collection, and at UC he led the establishment of New Zealand's first Digital Humanities teaching programme. Following the 2010/2011 Canterbury earthquakes he founded the CEISMIC Canterbury Earthquakes Digital Archive (www.ceismic.org.nz), a cultural heritage database that collects stories, images and media about the earthquakes' impacts for the purposes of commemoration, teaching and research. His recent Marsden-funded project, ‘Kōrero mai. Tell us your earthquake story’ was a longitudinal study of post-disaster narratives to better understand how retellings of dramatic experience years later crystallize narrative structure, provide multi-faceted perspectives of people’s experiences of recovery, and reveal more of how narratives of traumatic events change over time. Millar was president of the Australasian Association of Digital Humanities (aaDH) and co-director of the UC Arts Digital Lab.

Professor Clemency Montelle is Head of the School of Mathematics and Statistics at Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha | University of Canterbury and an internationally recognised scholar in the history and philosophy of mathematics. In 2026 she became the first person outside the United Kingdom to receive the prestigious Agnes Mary Clerke Medal from the Royal Astronomical Society, recognising her outstanding contributions to the history of astronomy and its mathematical traditions.

With expertise in several ancient languages, she studies how early cultures developed sophisticated mathematical and astronomical knowledge, revealing the global foundations of modern science. Her work combines mathematical insight with innovative digital tools to analyse historical data, bringing new life to centuries-old scientific texts and highlighting the enduring relevance of mathematical thinking across time and cultures. As a research leader, she champions interdisciplinary collaboration and is committed to strengthening research excellence while broadening public understanding of the role mathematics plays in shaping contemporary data-driven disciplines and societal impact.

Tara Ross’s research interests lie in journalism practice, including science and climate journalism, and the relationship between journalists and their communities, Pacific media and audiences, and Pacific health. Her work spans media framing and representation, Indigenous Knowledge and decolonising practice, as well as various methods, including in-depth interviews, focus groups, content analysis, social network analysis and surveys. She has published in high impact journals such as Communication Theory, Journalism Practice, Journalism Studies, the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, Journal of Intercultural Studies, and the Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand. She is a research fellow with UC’s Macmillan Brown Centre of Pacific Studies, and sits on the editorial boards of Communication Research and Practice and the interdisciplinary journal Pacific Dynamics.

Chia-rong Wu holds the position of Associate Professor (Reader) in the School of Languages, Social and Political Sciences. Dr. Wu earned his PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA. His expertise lies in Sinophone literature, film, and video games through the lens of postcolonial theories, Indigenous studies, diaspora, and ecocriticism. He is currently supervising PhD students in related areas. Dr. Wu is the author of two monographs: Supernatural Sinophone Taiwan and Beyond (Cambria Press, 2016) and Remapping the Contested Sinosphere: The Cross-cultural Landscape and Ethnoscape of Taiwan (Cambria Press, 2020). Also, he co-edited Taiwan Literature in the 21st Century: A Critical Reader (Springer, 2023) and The Southern Discourse in Sinophone Literature: Moving Borders (Routledge, 2025). Dr. Wu is working on a new monograph focused on video gaming and interactive storytelling. Moreover, his professional service includes but is not limited to his roles as the executive editor and Advisory Board member of Taiwan Lit and the Global Sinosphere (ISSN: 2994-6816), the Advisory Board member of the International Journal of Taiwan Studies (ISSN: 2468-8800), the Board member of the American Association for Chinese Studies, and the International Advisory Board of Interdisciplinary and Transcultural Approaches to Chinese Literature (Routledge Book Series).