Professor Karen Nairn’s research is youth-focused. The book Fierce hope. Youth activism in Aotearoa (Bridget Williams Books) reports her recent research about what inspires young people to join others to create social change. The book is about six youth-led groups working on a range of fronts: honouring indigenous land rights, progressing policies for a zero carbon future, challenging sexual violence and gender-based harassment, rethinking gender and sexuality and what counts as ‘justice’, and addressing social inequalities in Aotearoa (New Zealand). https://www.bwb.co.nz/books/fierce-hope/

An earlier Marsden-funded project culminated in the book Children of Rogernomics: A neoliberal generation leaves school. That book was about young people coming to adulthood in the wake of New Zealand’s neoliberal reforms, connecting their accounts with the wider social and economic story.https://www.otago.ac.nz/press/books/otago066097.html

Karen is based at the University of Otago College of Education in Dunedin, Aotearoa (New Zealand) https://www.otago.ac.nz/education/staff/karennairn.html