School of Humanities, Media and Creative Communication

The School of Humanities, Media and Creative Communication explores cultures, society, theories and ideas – and the arts – with a rich variety of specialisations.

Overview

The School of Humanities, Media, and Creative Communication asks fundamental questions about how we live now in Aotearoa New Zealand and globally.

  • What does it mean to be human?
  • How and why do we connect with others?
  • How did we get here, and where to from here?

Our teaching and research within culture, society and the arts contributes to an increasingly complex and interconnected world. We contribute to people's lives and tackle challenges as diverse as climate change and its impacts, social justice, and wellbeing.

Research and teaching within the School spans multiple areas and methodologies, including:

  • classical studies
  • creative writing
  • English literature
  • expressive arts
  • history
  • languages including Chinese, French, Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish
  • linguistics and applied linguistics
  • media studies
  • philosophy
  • theatre studies.

Te Tiriti o Waitangi at Massey

We are deeply committed to being a Tiriti-led university, demonstrating authentic leadership in contemporary Aotearoa New Zealand as we uphold te Tiriti o Waitangi, the founding document of our nation, and its principles through our practice. We embrace this not just as an obligation but as a real opportunity for the nation and its people.

Te Tiriti o Waitangi ki Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa – The Treaty of Waitangi at Massey

Study with us

Choose from a range of qualifications. All our specialisations (majors) can be minors, plus minor-only subjects such as French, Portuguese and theatre studies.

Explore by area of interest

Explore a selection of qualifications relating to your interests.

Study English, writing & theatre

Explore the incredible world of literature and creative writing with our range of qualifications. Make your passion a career path, starting today.

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Study history, philosophy & culture

Learn about anthropology, classics, history, museum studies, philosophy and much more from some of New Zealand's finest cultural educators.

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Study languages & linguistics

Studying language helps us understand the world and each other. Graduates can also turn a language qualification into a successful career.

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Study media & communication

The complex and exciting world of media, mass communication and journalism provides rewarding study and promising career paths. Learn more now.

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Who we are

Our people make us who we are. Meet some of the team in the School of Humanities, Media and Creative Communication.

Dr Eleanor Ridge

Dr Eleanor Ridge

Lecturer in Linguistics

Eleanor Ridge works on the documentation and description of Vatlongos language of highly multilingual Vanuatu. Eleanor focuses on variation in morphology and syntax, and how best to support language maintenance efforts across the speaker community as an outsider linguist.

Dr Kyra Clark

Dr Kyra Clark

Lecturer in Media Studies

Kyra Clarke’s research prioritises representations of girls, as well as the media girls and gender-diverse youth access, create and share. It intersects popular culture, media creation and distribution, mediated intimacies, feminism, queer theory and affect.

Research

Our staff have internationally recognised expertise and are award-winning writers, communicators, film-makers and theatre-makers. From the history and culture of past societies to international languages, the creative arts to the impact of digital technologies, our research is diverse in form and approach.

Research projects

Explore a selection of our research projects recently awarded grants from the Marsden Fund Te Pūtea Rangahau.

Massey researchers awarded Te Pūtea Rangahau Marsden funding

Learn about the Marsden Fund

Do endangered languages get simpler under threat?

Dr Eleanor Ridge

Research into young people’s language use in urban and rural communities in Vanuatu.

As endangered languages are used less often and by smaller speaker populations, grammatical features and irregularities might be lost, leaving a simpler language overall.

By working with young speakers today, as well as newly available data recorded between the 1960s and 2000s, this project analyses changes to linguistic structure in different Vatlongos speaker communities, and how those changes are connected to risk factors in language endangerment.

Understanding the media girls consume, create, and share in New Zealand

Dr Kyra Clarke

In the media today, girls are presented with stark contrasts. The visibility and agency of high-profile celebrities, alongside harassment and abuse. How do girls navigate such tensions?

This project uses an innovative methodology to listen to 14 to 15-year-old girls and gender diverse youth, and centre their perspectives.

The project aims to understand how girls participate in their media worlds, how they experience belonging, and how we might understand these practices as cultural citizenship in an increasingly global mediascape.

Research teams

Examples of how our people create and share new knowledge.

Classical World New Zealand

Dr Anastasia Bakogianni

Classical World New Zealand demonstrates the modern world’s ongoing dialogue with ancient Greece, Rome and Egypt and highlights New Zealand’s contribution to this conversation.

Classical World New Zealand

Digital Culture Laboratory (DigiLab)

Dr Nicholas Holm

DigiLab's research aims to help us:

  • better understand our digital environment
  • develop responses and resources to improve social and cultural outcomes.

Contact Nicholas Holm

Research centres

Our research centres seek innovative solutions to contemporary issues.

Joint Research Centre in Applied Linguistics

Professor Cynthia White

The Centre contributes new knowledge via online language learning innovations such as pairing students with native Mandarin speakers via video. It's a partnership between Massey University and Beijing Language and Culture University.

W.H. Oliver Humanities Research Academy

The Academy fosters a vibrant, creative and responsive research culture among humanities scholars, to anticipate and addresses current and future research challenges.

Rankings

QS Ranking - Communication and Media

Massey is ranked by QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) as one of the top 100 universities for communication and media studies. QS is an organisation that ranks universities worldwide in various topics.

Learn more

ShanghaiRanking - Communication

Communication at Massey is ranked #1 in New Zealand, and among the top 100 in the world, by ShanghaiRanking.

Learn more

R. G. Frean Prize

Our school offers the R. G. Frean Prize. The prize is awarded for excellent critical, expository or creative writing in an undergraduate course in English or expressive arts.

Contact the School of Humanities, Media and Creative Communication

School of Humanities, Media and Creative Communication – Auckland campus

Phone

+64 9 414 0800 extension 84421

Location

Physical address
School of Humanities, Media and Creative Communication
Massey University
Level 2 Atrium Building
Gate 1, 473 State Highway 17
Albany
Auckland 0632

Postal address
School of Humanities, Media and Creative Communication
AL206
Massey University
Private Bag 102904
North Shore
Auckland 0745

Use our Auckland campus maps or find us on Google Maps.

School of Humanities, Media and Creative Communication – Manawatū campus

Phone

+64 6 356 9099 extension 84421

Location

Physical address
School of Humanities, Media and Creative Communication
Level 4, Room 4.04 or 4.64
Sir Geoffrey Peren Building
Tiritea Road
Manawatū campus
Tennent Drive
Palmerston North 4410

Postal address
School of Humanities, Media and Creative Communication
PN241 or PN242
Massey University
Private Bag 11222
Palmerston North 4442

Use our Manawatū campus maps or find us on Google Maps.

School of Humanities, Media and Creative Communication – Wellington campus

Phone

+64 4 801 5799 extension 84421

Location

Physical address
School of Humanities, Media and Creative Communication
Massey University
Level C, Block 7, Gate F
Tasman Street
Wellington 6021

Postal address
School of Humanities, Media and Creative Communication
Massey University
Private Box 756
Wellington 6140

Use our Wellington campus maps or find us on Google Maps.

Social media

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Looking for a staff member? Visit our staff directory or use Expertise search.