Travel and Learning Award for Myra Williamson
Supporting Myra to participate in online professional development courses through the Advance HE Senior Fellowship programme and the Harvard University Women in Education Leadership programme.
Borrin Foundation Travel and Learning Award
Myra’s plan
The award is supporting Myra to achieve two goals. First, Myra is seeking a Fellowship with AdvanceHE which invites applicants to reflect on their professional practice as educators and those who succeed achieve international recognition of their excellence in teaching. Myra sees the importance in highlighting not only excellent research, but also excellent teaching in legal education. Through the process, Myra hopes to attain international recognition of her work in teaching, including impact and influence on others. Excellence in legal education will help future lawyers realise their personal potential and Myra is seeking to challenge herself to identify what it is that she can do to create excellent legal educational opportunities for her students.
Her second goal is to further develop her leadership skills by engaging with the global community of women leaders in higher education by participating in the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s “Women in Education Leadership Program”, to be held in November 2021. Amongst other things, the challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic have given women leaders in higher education the chance to demonstrate their leadership ability – their ability to navigate change, learn from others, adapt. Participation in the programme will allow her to network with, and learn from, women in the global education leadership community to ensure that she continues to grow, to seek out new opportunities, and to continue her own efforts to positively influence and challenge others to be the best they can be.
About Myra
Myra is a Senior Law Lecturer and Convenor of the BA in Law at the University of Waikato. Over the past 20 years, she has taught law in New Zealand, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait including lecturing, researching and publishing on a wide range of legal topics including public international law (including terrorism, the use of force and piracy), the history of the use of force in the Middle East, comparative law and the diffusion of Western norms, the laws of the Gulf States, gender equality and nationality laws, harmful digital communications and overseas investment law and policy. Myra holds a BA (major in Political Studies) and an LLB Hons (First) from the University of Otago as well as an LLM Hons (First) and a PhD from the University of Waikato. She has also recently completed a Post-Graduate Certificate in Tertiary Teaching and Learning, also from the University of Waikato.
Grant Amount
$3,260 in 2021
” ‘We want to invest in you,’ the words of the Borrin Foundation when explaining why I had been awarded this special grant. This phrase meant (and continues to mean) the world to me. Upon reflection, I realise that this is what I try to instil in each of my students – a feeling that I believe in them and I am hoping they won’t let me down. I am not usually on the receiving end of such encouragement, and when I heard it, I realised how powerful it is to tell someone that you want to invest your time and money in them because you believe that they can make a difference.”
– Myra Williamson