Christine Kenney

Christine M. Kenney is a New Zealand sociologist, and is a Distinguished Professor of Disaster Risk Reduction at Massey University. She is the first Māori woman to lead a UN international science caucus. In 2024 Kenney was elected to the Council of the Royal Society Te Apārangi.

Academic career

Kenney affiliates to Te Āti Awa, Ngāti Mutunga, Ngāti Toarangatira, and Ngāi Tahu iwi. Kenney completed a PhD titled Me aro ki te ha o hineahuone: women, miscarriage stories, and midwifery: towards a contextually relevant research methodology at Massey University in 2009. Her research was supervised by Cheryl Benn, Suzanne Phibbs and Taiarahia Black. In July 2024 Kenney was one of two Massey professors newly appointed as Distinguished Professors, with the citation acknowledging her "exceptional work in indigenous disaster risk reduction created a new research field".

In 2021 Kenney was invited to lead the United Nations international Indigenous Disaster Science caucus. Her appointment was requested by the International Science Council and 'key United Nations agencies'. She is the first Māori woman to lead an international science caucus at the UN. She works with the Whorld Health Organisation, and several United Nations agencies, including UNDRR, UNESCO and UNOCHA. Kenney was an associate investigator on a 2016 Marsden grant led by Professor Steve Matthewman at the University of Auckland, titled Power Politics: Electricity and Sustainability in Post-Disaster Ōtautahi (Christchurch). She was the sole investigator on a 2017 grant Māori, Catastrophic Events, and Collective Development of Culture-based Disaster Management Theory and Practice. In 2022, she was one of three principal investigators on the Marsden grant Kia whakatōmuri te haere whakamua: Translating Mātauranga Māori, usefully applied in the past, to enhance recovery trajectories in the future, alongside Suzanne Phibbs and Professor Te Kani Kingi of Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi.

In July 2024 Kenney was elected by the Māori Electoral College to serve on the Council of the Royal Society Te Apārangi.

Selected works