Growing Old in an Adopted Land
Meet the
Team
Get to know the team a bit more!
A/Prof Ágnes (Ági) Szabó, Principal Investigator
I moved to Aotearoa New Zealand from my home country, Hungary, to pursue a PhD in Cross-cultural Psychology. My doctoral work investigated how people develop a new sense of identity as migrants. Shortly after finishing my PhD, I joined the Health and Ageing Research Team at Massey University, where I worked on research exploring how life course experiences of inequalities, housing and social support influence health outcomes in older age. After working several years in both ageing and migration research, I was able to bring together my two passions in the Growing Old in an Adopted Land project, when I was awarded a Rutherford Discovery Fellowship by The Royal Society–Te Apārangi. I am passionate about working with communities and I want to do research that benefits people and society. My hope is that the findings of this project will not only influence our current policies but will also shape the future of coming generations to ensure we can all live a good life.
Vy Trần, PhD Candidate, Research Assistant
I was born and raised in Vietnam. My journey to Aotearoa New Zealand started with an undergraduate degree in Psychology, which was a discipline I was interested in at the time. I then did a research internship with Dr. (Ági) Szabó to enhance quantitative research skills. I had been developing an interest in contextualising my understanding of psychology, which led me to the Master of Health Psychology programme. For my thesis, I conducted a narrative inquiry into Vietnamese migrants' experiences of disaster risk reduction. While doing my master's, I became curious about the social relations of Māori people and Asian migrants in Aotearoa. As such, for my PhD in Health Psychology, I explored and contextualised the relationship between Asian GPs and nurses and Māori patients and their whānau.
Thilanthi Kaluarachchige Dona, PhD Candidate
Originally from Sri Lanka, I completed my undergraduate and postgraduate studies in health in Australia before moving to Aotearoa New Zealand. I then completed a Master of Health Research at Victoria University of Wellington, where I explored the factors influencing domestic and transnational healthcare use among Asian migrants in Aotearoa New Zealand. This work, along with my growing interest in the topic, led me to pursue a PhD in Public Health, where I am further exploring how Asian migrants navigate healthcare across borders and how healthcare professionals perceive and respond to transnational healthcare practices.
Alumni, Graduates, and Past Research Assistants
PhD Graduate:
Dr Tram Nguyen
Master's Graduates:
SockHwee Tan
Sandaru Hettiarachchi
Luke van Velzen
Thilanthi Kaluarachichige Dona
Research Assistants:
Rachel Goodin
Vanessa Sieng
Amy Du
Myra McFarland-Tautau
Dr Panchamee Dharmadasa
Summer Scholar:
Vy Tran
