Wendy Larner

Wendy Larner FRSNZ is a New Zealand social scientist who has focussed on the interdisciplinary areas of globalisation, governance and gender. She has been Vice-Chancellor and President of Cardiff University since September 2023,^[1] where she has presided over controversial job cuts.

Wendy Larner
Larner in 2016
Vice-Chancellor of Cardiff University
Incumbent
Assumed office September 2023
Preceded by	Colin Riordan
Personal details
Alma mater	University of Waikato University of Canterbury Carleton University
Academic work
Institutions	University of Bristol Royal Society Te Apārangi
Website	www.cardiff.ac.uk/about/organisation/university-executive-board/president-and-vice-chancellor

Career

Larner has a master's degree from the University of Canterbury, with a thesis titled Migration and female labour: Samoan women in New Zealand ^[2] and a PhD in Geography from Carleton University in Canada.

Larner was Professor of Human Geography and Sociology at the University of Bristol. In 2015, she was appointed provost at Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand, where she was part of a leadership team that oversaw two rounds of job cuts.^[3][4]

In September 2023, Larner became Vice-Chancellor and President of Cardiff University.^[5] On January 28 2025, the university announced plans to cut 400 full-time academic positions at the university (13% of total staff), to abolish the music, nursing, modern languages, ancient history, and religion and theology programmes, and to merge various subjects into larger 'schools'. Larner claimed that the university's financial position was "untenable" without these cuts.^[6][7] On 4 February, there were protests against the cuts outside the Welsh Senedd and Lerner was summoned before the Senedd's education committee to give evidence.^[8][7] In the same month, the Cardiff branch of the UCU voted to hold an all-staff motion of no confidence in Larner.^[9]

In March, it was reported that Larner had spent £20,000 on refurbishments to her grace and favour residence at Queen Anne Square in Cardiff.^[10]

Recognition

Larner is a Fellow of the Royal Society Te Apārangi, having transferred from an honorary fellowship in 2016,^[11][12] a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (United Kingdom)^[13] and a Fellow of the New Zealand Geographical Society. She has been a visiting fellow at universities in Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom. She was awarded the Victoria Medal in 2018 by the Royal Geographical Society. ^[14] In 2018, Larner was awarded the Innovation and Science award of the Women of Influence awards.^[15]

In 2017, Larner was selected as one of the Royal Society Te Apārangi's "150 women in 150 words", celebrating the contributions of women to knowledge in New Zealand.^[16] In July 2018 she became the President of the Royal Society Te Apārangi, taking over from Richard Bedford.^[17]

Selected publications

• Noel Castree; Paul Chatterton; Nik Heynen; Wendy Larner; Melissa W. Wright (16 May 2012), Introduction: The Point is to Change it, Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 1–9, doi:10.1002/9781444397352.CH, Wikidata Q57606985
• Wendy Larner (January 2000). "Neo-liberalismi Policy, Ideology, Governmentality". Studies in Political Economy. 63 (1): 5–25. doi:10.1080/19187033.2000.11675231. ISSN 0707-8552. Wikidata Q61012150.
• Richard G. Kyle; Christine Milligan; Robin A. Kearns; Wendy Larner; Nicholas R. Fyfe; Liz Bondi (30 November 2010). "The Tertiary Turn: Locating "The Academy" in Autobiographical Accounts of Activism in Manchester, UK and Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand". Antipode. 43 (4): 1181–1214. doi:10.1111/J.1467-8330.2010.00820.X. ISSN 0066-4812. Wikidata Q61465236.
• Molloy, Maureen; Larner, Wendy (2013). Fashioning globalisation: New Zealand design, working women and the cultural economy. Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 200 pages.