New Books

At the University of Waikato we pride ourselves on teaching and research, and academic staff are benchmarked against the best in the world. Each year many of our academics contribute to or write books on their areas of expertise; this page is designed to highlight their achievements. These books are an extension of the academic excellence on offer at Waikato.


Conservation, Biodiversity and International Law

By Alexander Gillespie

Conservation, Biodiversity and International Law

This book provides a rigorous overview of the defining issues presently facing conservation at international level. The author provides detailed coverage of topics ranging from the classification of species right through to access and benefit sharing, drawing on his personal experience at intergovernmental level.

Each question is examined through the prism of dozens of treaties and hundreds of decisions and resolutions of the key multilateral regimes, and the law in each area is supplemented by the necessary considerations of science politics and philosophy - providing much-needed context for the reader. Combining expert scholarship and first-hand insight, Conservation, Biodiversity and International Law is a resource for researchers and practitioners in international environmental law, as well as providing an accessible guide for students.

Al Gillespie describes the work as a “nuts and bolts” book about understanding treaties conventions and resolutions – what to look for and how to apply the law in different environmental situations. “I’ve tried to make a hugely complex process understandable, explaining the whole process for creating international environmental laws. And I’ve also identified where policy and legal actions can be improved.”

Pro Vice-Chancellor research and Professor of Environmental Law at the University of Waikato in New Zealand, Professor Alexander Gillespie has provided extensive advice to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Conservation. He has also provided commissioned work for the United Nations, the Commonwealth Secretariat, and commercial and non-governmental organisations in New Zealand, Australia, United States, United Kingdom and Switzerland.

Published by Edward Elgar.


History of the Laws of War - History of the Laws of War Volumes 1-3

By Alexander Gillespie

History of the Laws of War - History of the Laws of War Volumes 1-3

These three volumes trace the origins of the modern laws of warfare from the earliest times to the present day. Relying on written records from as far back as 2400 BCE, and using sources ranging from the Bible to Security Council Resolutions, Al Gillespie pieces together the history of a subject which is almost as old as civilisation itself.

The author shows that as long as humanity has been waging wars it has also been trying to find ways of legitimising different forms of combatants and ascribing rules to them, protecting civilians who are either inadvertently or intentionally caught up between them, and controlling the use of particular classes of weapons that may be used in times of conflict. The work is divided into three substantial parts: Volume 1 on the laws affecting combatants and captives; Volume 2 on civilians; and Volume 3 on the law of arms control.

“We all have opinions about war, but it’s not always natural to think of the laws that surround it, and yet the law impacts on military operations at all levels. It should be an essential area of study."

Pro Vice-Chancellor research and Professor of Environmental Law at the University of Waikato in New Zealand, Professor Alexander Gillespie has provided extensive advice to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Conservation. He has also provided commissioned work for the United Nations, the Commonwealth Secretariat, and commercial and non-governmental organisations in New Zealand, Australia, United States, United Kingdom and Switzerland.

Published by Hart Publishing.


Letters of Frank Sargeson

Selected and edited by Sarah Shieff

Letters to Frank Sargeson

Letters to Frank Sargeson

Frank Sargeson (1903-1982) is one of New Zealand's best-loved and most significant authors, widely regarded as the father of modern New Zealand fiction. Although best known for his short stories, Sargeson was also a playwright and an acclaimed novelist, and his three-volume memoir is a classic of New Zealand literary non-fiction. Beyond that, however, Sargeson was a dedicated champion and mentor of other New Zealand writers - most notably of Maurice Duggan, Janet Frame, AP Gaskell, Kevin Ireland and CK Stead - and a careful and copious correspondent.

His letters document life at the epicentre of New Zealand literary culture, and also record the international literary associations which were instrumental in taking New Zealand writing to the world stage. Letters of Frank Sargeson (Auckland: Vintage, 2012) presents 500 of the surviving 6000 letters, carefully contextualised and annotated.

The earliest is a postcard from Paris written in 1927; the last is a letter to his dear friend Janet Frame, written shortly before his death. This scholarly edition also explains the selection process and sources, and gives biographical notes on Sargeson’s key correspondents, examples of his typescript and manuscript, and a full bibliography.

Dr Sarah Shieff is a senior lecturer in English in the School of Arts at the University of Waikato.


Making the Transformational Moment in Film

By Dan Fleming

Professor Dan Fleming's book Making the Transformational Moment in Film

Making the Transformational Moment in Film

This book by Professor Dan Fleming (Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences), is an exploration of the transformational process that turns film's raw material into moving experiences. It takes key moments in films as examples of this process and examines how the moment is staged, how visual composition is used, how narrative is structured, how colour, light and music are handled, and how to get inside what it is like to be a fictional character that we care about.

In 240 densely illustrated pages with "widescreen" format, "Making" demonstrates that the best theoretical ideas have the power to revitalize our most practical understandings of what film-making is. With in-depth analysis of films from director Vincent Ward and others (including Werner Herzog and Phillip Noyce), the book explores filmic affect and the puzzle of the creative process. New Zealand born international director Vincent Ward has been described by critic Roger Ebert as "one of film's great image-makers."

The book looks into the deep sources of this ability, and by doing so provides new insights into the nature of creativity in film. Selected by the Kraszna-Krausz Foundation for its exhibition of the year’s best photography and moving image books held at London’s Somerset House, 2012. Chinese translation published by PHEI, Beijing, and launched at the 19th Beijing International Book Fair, 2012.

Published by MWP, Los Angeles.


Media, Masculinities,and the Machine

By Dan Fleming & Damion Sturm

Professor Dan Fleming's book Media, Masculinites and the Machine

Media, Masculinities,and the Machine

This book by Professor Dan Fleming (Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences), and Dr Damion Sturm (Faculty of Education) identifies a distinctive phenomenon in today's media culture: the contemporary male fantasy of pushing technology to its limits.

The authors offer two in-depth studies: the social imagining of hi-tech in the long-running Transformers franchise and global Formula One motorsport, with links to numerous other areas of contemporary culture. By drawing on non-representational theory and the latest theories of affect while employing the method of autoethnography to explore what boys and men “want,” the book offers a timely contribution to our understanding of contemporary cultural attachments.

Tracing these through TV, cinema, toys, magazines, merchandising, and the culture of the gadget, the authors raise important questions about mediated masculinities today and propose a new theoretical framework for uncovering what is going on. Concerned with the “staging of affect,” the book offers its own staging through its innovative form.

Published by Continuum, New York.


Walks to Waterfalls - 100 New Zealand Waterfalls

By Russell Kirkpatrick

Walks to Waterfalls

Walks to Waterfalls
100 New Zealand Waterfalls

You can find waterfalls almost everywhere in New Zealand, ranging from the smallest mountain freshet to stunning multiple cascades 500 metres or more in height. They are the perfect destination for those wanting to experience nature, whether it be a few minutes' strolling or a half-day tramp.

If you are going to take any book with you when you travel around New Zealand, take this one! It highlights a hundred of the best and most accessible waterfalls in New Zealand and includes those close to urban areas, those high in the mountains and deep in the forests. Each walk is accompanied by photographs, maps and information and all material has been compiled by Dr Russell Kirkpatrick, one of New Zealand's foremost cartographers.

It includes walks for all ages, states of fitness and each waterfall is rated, the access is described in detail, and the routes are graded according to ease of use. Walks to Waterfalls is ideal to take on journeys and to use when planning holidays, but just as lovely to just sit and browse.

Dr Russell Kirkpatrick, a part time lecturer in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, fell in love with waterfalls as a teenager, and remembers running the track to Devil's Punchbowl Falls in Arthur's Pass, still one of his favourite New Zealand waterfalls. After completing a Ph.D. in Geography he worked as Deputy Editor of the New Zealand Historical Atlas, then authored Contemporary Atlas New Zealand and a number of other atlas projects.

Published by David Bateman Ltd.


New Books from previous years

Listings of new books from previous years are available for:

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