Dr Kathryn Sutherland
Kathryn has a BA(Hons) in English and New Zealand Studies from Waikato University, and a Masters in English from the University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. In the early nineties, she had brief stints working in Canada and Malaysia, as well as teaching English, Art, History and Drama at an Auckland secondary school.
While in Canada, completing her Masters, she changed her focus from post-colonial literature to pedagogy, and came back to New Zealand to undertake a PhD in English and Education at Massey University. Her PhD thesis, completed in 1999, called for a reconceptualisation of teaching, scholarship, and the PhD programme in New Zealand university English departments.
This research focus, and her experience in teaching English literature
and written communication to undergraduate students at various universities,
led to her current employment as a lecturer in the University Teaching
Development Centre (UTDC) at Victoria University of Wellington. She works
primarily with new academics and her main research interests lie in the
professional development of new university teaching staff, the reconceptualisation
of the PhD programme in NZ universities, and looking into new ways for
framing the work that academic developers.