Professor Richard Bedford QSO, FRSNZ

Qualifications: BA MA Auck, PhD ANU

Research Interests

Professor Bedford is a specialist in migration studies and, since the mid-1960s, he has been researching processes of population movement in the Asia-Pacific region.

About Me

Richard is currently Professor of Population Geography at the University of Waikato and Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research) at AUT University in Auckland. His undergraduate and graduate degrees are from the University of Auckland and his PhD was completed in 1971 in the Research School of Pacific Studies at the Australian National University.

During the 1980s Professor Bedford was the Convenor of the Population Monitoring Group of the former New Zealand Planning Council. In 1990 he was awarded the NZ 1990 Medal for services to New Zealand. In 2000 he was elected to Fellowship of the Royal Society of New Zealand. At the Annual General Meeting of the New Zealand Geographical Society in Christchurch in 2007 Professor Bedford was awarded the Distinguished New Zealand Geographer Medal in recognition of his contribution to the discipline and its professional society since the early 1970s, and in 2008 was made Companion of the Queen’s Service Order for services to geography. In 2010 he was awarded the Royal Society of New Zealand's Dame Joan Metge medal in recognition of his research on migration in the Asia-Pacific region and his contributions to institution-building in the social sciences.

Professor Bedford is currently a member of the International Metropolis Project's Steering Committee, and UNESCO's Management of Social Transformation (MOST) Council. In New Zealand he is a member of the Ministerial Advisory Group on Official Statistics and is a mentor to the Ministry of Science and Innovation's early and mid-career leadership group for the social sciences, He Waka Tangaga.  He is on several editorial advisory boards including Population, Society and Place (UK), The Journal of Migration and Ethnic Studies (UK), the Journal of International Migration and Integration (Canada), Geographical Research (Australia), The Journal of Population Research (Australia), and Asia Pacific Viewpoint (New Zealand).

Expertise

Population change; migration; Pacific Islands.

Recent Publications

• Bedford, R., Bedford, C. (2010) International migration and climate change: A post-Copenhagen perspective on options for Kiribati and Tuvalu
  Book Chapters - Climate Change and Migration: South Pacific Perspectives
• Bedford, C., Bedford, R., Ho, E. (2010) Engaging with New Zealand's recognized seasonal employer work policy: The case of Tuvalu
  Refereed Journal Articles - Asian and Pacific Migration Journal
• Bedford, R., Poot, J. (2010) New Zealand - Changing tides in the south pacific: Immigration to Aotearoa New Zealand
  Book Chapters - Immigration Worldwide: Policies, Practices, and Trends
• Bedford, R. (2010) Issues and approaches in international migration research
  Conference - Oral Presentation - Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA) Workshop: Rethinking Australian Research on Migra

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