Disastrous Doctorates

25/09/2026

👩‍🎓 9 days to apply for Disastrous Doctorates 2027🧑‍🎓 And here's a DD from 2011! Check out who you could recognise 😄

In 2027, Disastrous Doctorates celebrates its 20th anniversary, bringing together the next generation of disaster, emergency management, resilience and natural hazards researchers from across Aotearoa New Zealand. And to mark 20 years, we’re bringing the event back to where it all began - Joint Centre for Disaster Research (JCDR New Group) in Wellington.

👉Apply here: https://forms.gle/2CSJco4ALJXFwyhu9
⏳Applications close: 4 October 2026

Please share this with doctoral students and supervisors across the New Zealand disaster, hazards, resilience and emergency management research community.

Disastrous Doctorates is a by-student, for-student event designed to create connections, build confidence and capability, and provide New Zealand-based doctoral researchers with the opportunity to share and discuss their work with others who understand the particular joys and challenges of doing a PhD in this space.

The 2027 programme will include:
- Connecting with peers and the wider research community from across New Zealand, building relationships that can make the PhD journey a little less solitary
- Presenting and discussing your doctoral research
- Development sessions, including science communication and mātauranga Māori
- Conversations with experienced people working across the natural hazards and emergency management sector
- A community dinner and panels exploring sector opportunities and challenges, leadership, and life beyond the PhD
Whether you are at the beginning of your doctorate or approaching the finish line, we would love to hear from you. Places are limited, so get your application in soon.

(Note: Domestic travel and accommodation are funded for confirmed participants.)

26/08/2026

👩‍🎓Applications are now open for Disastrous Doctorates 2027🧑‍🎓

In 2027, Disastrous Doctorates celebrates its 20th anniversary, bringing together the next generation of disaster, emergency management, resilience and natural hazards researchers from across Aotearoa New Zealand. And to mark 20 years, we’re bringing the event back to where it all began - Joint Centre for Disaster Research (JCDR New Group) in Wellington.

👉Apply here: https://forms.gle/2CSJco4ALJXFwyhu9
⏳Applications close: 4 October 2026

Please share this with doctoral students and supervisors across the New Zealand disaster, hazards, resilience and emergency management research community.

Disastrous Doctorates is a by-student, for-student event designed to create connections, build confidence and capability, and provide New Zealand-based doctoral researchers with the opportunity to share and discuss their work with others who understand the particular joys and challenges of doing a PhD in this space.

The 2027 programme will include:

- Connecting with peers and the wider research community from across New Zealand, building relationships that can make the PhD journey a little less solitary
- Presenting and discussing your doctoral research
- Development sessions, including science communication and mātauranga Māori
- Conversations with experienced people working across the natural hazards and emergency management sector
- A community dinner and panels exploring sector opportunities and challenges, leadership, and life beyond the PhD

Whether you are at the beginning of your doctorate or approaching the finish line, we would love to hear from you. Places are limited, so get your application in soon.

(Note: Domestic travel and accommodation are funded for confirmed participants.)

09/07/2026

Mānawatia a Matariki from the Disastrous Doctorates 2027 organising committee ✨

Disastrous Doctorates 2027 will be held in Pōneke Wellington in April next year, and we're excited to share that planning for this very special 20th anniversary event is well underway, with sponsors locked in, and a great programme under development 👩‍💻

We've taken on board feedback from previous years' events, and invited some of the OG DDers back to share insights from their research career journeys, so is definitely not one to miss! 🎯

Places will be limited though, so be sure to like and follow our page to keep up to date as we share more information in coming weeks, and ensure you catch the registration form when it goes live. 👍✅

Until then, keep up the great disaster-related mahi! 💪

30/04/2026

open for another week // Please submit by 8 May 2026

📢 It’s not too late to submit your interest for Disastrous Doctorates 2027! 📢

📍 Registration for is and open to students at all stages of their PhD research. We are also able to offer domestic travel and accommodation for NZ-based students thanks to our generous event sponsors. Most meals are also provided throughout the event.

📍 This annual in-person symposium is organised by students for students, and aims to bring together PhD students from a wide range of disciplines that are contributing to a more resilient Aotearoa New Zealand by building our understanding of:

👉 natural hazard risks and impacts, mitigation and adaptation options; and/or
👉 how we can support and empower people, communities, and society as a whole, to be more resilient to future natural hazard events and disasters.

2027 will mark of Disastrous Doctorates, and so the event is shaping up to be an extra special celebration.

📍 DD2027 will be hosted by the Joint Centre for Disaster Research (where DD began back in 2007) at Massey University - Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa from Sunday April 4 - Tuesday April 6, in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington.

📍 As it is a special occasion, and we are expecting our largest numbers ever, we are putting out a call for Expressions of Interest now, to help us with our event planning as we endeavour to make DD2027 as accessible to as many students as possible.

📍 EOIs from interested PhD students should be completed by 5pm on Friday 8 May.

🔗 Click the link below to complete the Initial Expression of Interest (EOI) form.

: We would also appreciate you sharing this DD2027 EOI information with your professional networks to help us get the word out. While we are also emailing this info to many people, we know there may be many more we are missing, and someone receiving the information twice is better than not at all.

AUT - Auckland University of Technology Lincoln University Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi University of Auckland - Waipapa Taumata Rau University of Canterbury University of Otago The University of Waikato Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington

Initial Expression of Interest (EOI) This initial EOI is to gauge interest in the event to get some initial numbers for event planning purposes. Please note that the deadline for submitting this initial Expression of Interest (EOI) is Friday 8 May 2026. The Disastrous Doctorates symposium is an annu...

20/04/2026

📢Calling all PhD students working in natural hazards and resilience in Aotearoa New Zealand! are now OPEN!

🎉Join us as we celebrate 20 years of Disastrous Doctorates, the only annual in-person symposium organised by students, for students, that includes people from ALL aspects of resilience research!

🎓Whether you're a PhD student working on natural hazard risks, impacts, mitigation, or adaptation options, disaster law, planning, indigenous approaches to resilience, emergency management, or finding ways to empower people, communities, and society as a whole to become more resilient to natural hazard events and disasters, DD is for YOU!

📅 DD2027 is *FREE* to attend and will be hosted by the Joint Centre for Disaster Research at Massey University - Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington from 4 - 6 April, 2027.

✈️ Funding support for domestic travel and accommodation is available thanks to our generous event sponsors, so register your interest in attending DD2027 *NOW* so you can be the first to receive event information news and updates!

Find out more and register your EOI now at:

➡️

Initial Expression of Interest (EOI) This initial EOI is to gauge interest in the event to get some initial numbers for event planning purposes. Please note that the deadline for submitting this initial Expression of Interest (EOI) is Friday 8 May 2026. The Disastrous Doctorates symposium is an annu...

20/04/2026

// Disastrous Doctorates 2027

We’re pleased to advise the dates for Disastrous Doctorates 2027.

This student-led 3-minute thesis (3MT) event will be held at the Joint Centre for Disaster Research (JCDR), Massey University - Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa in Wellington from 4 - 6 April 2027.

The 2027 event marks since Disastrous Doctorates began, and it’s fitting that we return to JCDR, where it all started, to celebrate this milestone.

Disastrous Doctorates continues to provide a unique platform for PhD Students to share their work in disaster risk and resilience in a way that is clear, engaging, and accessible. It also strengthens connections across the emergency management and hazard research community.

We’ll be releasing an Expression of Interest form soon for those keen to take part.

In the meantime, please - we’d love to see you there!