Professor Larner is currently Research Director for the Faculty of Social Sciences and Law. Her research covers the interdisciplinary fields of globalisation, governance and gender and links insights from critical social theory with a strong commitment to empirical research. She has a long-standing interest in theorising neo-liberalism and ‘post-welfarist’ governance.

Professor Larner has accrued a number of national and international awards. These include an Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences (AcSS), British and Canadian Commonwealth Scholarships, a Fulbright New Zealand Senior Fellowship, and a Queen Mary Distinguished Visiting Fellowship.  She has also been an invited visiting professor at the University of Madison-Wisconsin, University of Kentucky and the University of Frankfurt, and in 2009 was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand.

Professor Larner, said: “I am honoured to have been appointed as Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Law. The faculty has an already excellent reputation as one of the country’s leading sources of innovative research and teaching covering some of the biggest challenges affecting society today. I look forward to working with so many talented staff and students.”