Robert Chapman (academic)
|
Robert Chapman CMG |
|
|---|---|
| Born |
30 October 1922 Takapuna, Auckland |
| Died | 26 May 2004 (aged 81) Auckland |
| Nationality | New Zealand |
| Alma mater | University of Auckland |
| Spouse(s) | Noeline Chapman |
| Children | 3 |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Political science |
| Institutions | University of Auckland |
| Notable students | Helen Clark, Phil Goff, Mike Moore |
Robert (Bob) McDonald Chapman CMG (30 October 1922 – 26 May 2004) was a New Zealand political scientist and historian.
Chapman was born in 1922 in Takapuna, Auckland. He attended Auckland Grammar. He later attended Auckland teacher's training college, and also studied at Auckland University College, where he received scholarships.
For his Master's research project in history, he analysed the 1928 general election in New Zealand.
He married Noeline Amy Chapman, a teacher, in 1948.
Chapman was first appointed to the History Department at the University of Auckland in 1948. He was interested in "New Zealand history as an expression of the nation's social development." According to the New Zealand Herald obituary of Chapman:
"He was one of a pioneer group of teachers at the university - among them historian Sir Keith Sinclair and poet Allen Curnow - who, in the 1960s, proudly asserted that New Zealand had its own history, its own politics, its own literature, which was every bit as important as that of Britain."
Chapman was interested in fields outside political science and history, and was involved in the development of New Zealand literature and poetry. He co-edited, with Jonathan Bennett, An Anthology of New Zealand Verse (1956). His interest in other areas was part of a wider pattern among New Zealand public intellectuals:
"Literary criticism sometimes functioned as cultural criticism for intellectuals whose formal expertise lay in other fields. Robert Chapman’s 1954 Landfall essay "Fiction and the social pattern" charted the ways recent novels had revealed Pākehā social mores – a subject at some remove from Chapman’s research as a lecturer in political science."
Chapman participated in the first television coverage of the New Zealand general election in 1966. He also helped with election coverage in the 1969 and 1972 elections.
Over his career Chapman had an interest in broadcasting issues, and was appointed in 1973 to a ministerial committee to look into restructuring broadcasting in New Zealand. Later, in 1984, he was appointed chairman of a Royal Commission into Broadcasting, which reported in 1986.
...
Wikipedia