Rowan Thom

Rowan (Ngāti Rakaipaaka, Ngāti Kahungunu and Ngāi Tūhoe) joined Motu as an intern Research Assistant in November 2018, after finishing his Bachelor of Commerce degree at Victoria University of Wellington, majoring in Economics and Finance with a minor in Public Policy. In 2018, Rowan received the Te Tini a Rehua Excellence Award for being the Top Māori Undergraduate student at Victoria Business School.

He is excited to gain experience as a researcher within the area of social science and eager to get a taste of what ‘Research as a Career’ is like. He also relishes the opportunity to work in an academic environment alongside other like-minded individuals who are passionate about economics.

At Motu, he works with Arthur Grimes on a project relating to Maori wellbeing. The overall aim of the project is to analyse whether Maori wellbeing varies across iwi and whether such variation can be explained by historical experiences. It has a particular focus on analysing the potential lingering effects that 19^th century and early 20^th century land losses have had on Maori wellbeing. Rowan is turning this project into a Masters degree at Victoria University, where he is supervised by Arthur.