| Karen Nairn | |
| Thesis1 Title: | Quiet students in geography classrooms |
| Thesis1 Url: | https://hdl.handle.net/10092/104862 |
| Thesis1 Year: | 1994 |
| Thesis2 Title: | Disciplining identities: gender, geography and the culture of fieldtrips |
| Thesis2 Url: | https://hdl.handle.net/10289/15389 |
| Thesis2 Year: | 1998 |
Karen Marie Nairn is a New Zealand academic, and is a full professor of education at the University of Otago, specialising in youth-centred research.
Nairn was a high school geography teacher interested in environmental issues, before entering academia.[1] Nairn completed a Master of Arts in geography at the University of Canterbury in 1994, and then went on to do a PhD titled Disciplining identities: gender, geography and the culture of fieldtrips at the University of Waikato.[2] [3] Nairn then joined the faculty of the University of Otago, rising to associate professor in 2014 and full professor in 2022.[4] [5]
Nairn's research focus is young people and social movements. Nairn was the lead researcher on a 2017 Marsden grant about young people's engagement in social movements, with collaborators Joanna Kidman, Judith Sligo, and Anita Lacey.[6] This work led to the publication of the book Fierce Hope: Youth Activism in Aotearoa in 2022, which covers youth-led groups working in areas such as indigenous land rights, sexual violence and social inequality.[7] This was the second Marsden grant Nairn has received, having published Children of Rogernomics: A Neoliberal Generation Leaves School in 2012 from an earlier Marsden-funded research project on the impact of neoliberal reform in New Zealand. Nairn has also research the impact of a Year 12 (last year of high school) leadership programme for young women.
Nairn spoke about youth activism and Ihumātao alongside Qiane Matata-Sipu at the 2023 Dunedin Writers and Readers Festival.[8]