Across Oceania, many research journeys begin quietly in classrooms, communities, conference conversations, and late-night writing sessions. For many emerging scholars, finding a supportive scholarly community can make all the difference.
This spirit sits at the heart of the New and Emerging Researchers of OCIES (NERO), a space designed to support postgraduate students, early career academics, and emerging researchers across Oceania. Grounded in collaboration and connection, NERO aims to ensure that researchers do not navigate their journeys alone, but as part of a wider regional community.
This year, OCIES is delighted to welcome two new NERO Co-Leaders: Manal El Mazbouh from the University of Auckland and Yaqing Hou from Monash University.
Together, they reflect the increasingly international, interdisciplinary, and collaborative nature of the NERO community itself.
Manal El Mazbouh
Originally from Lebanon, Manal is currently a doctoral candidate in the Faculty of Arts and Education at the University of Auckland. Before beginning her PhD journey, she worked across a range of teaching and administrative roles in Lebanon and several Gulf nations, experiences that shaped her understanding of education across diverse cultural and political contexts.
Alongside her doctoral studies, Manal has contributed extensively to teaching and research through Graduate Teaching Assistant and research assistant roles across education and development projects.
Her current research focuses on educational technology and Educational Management Information Systems (EMIS) in development contexts. Using a critical realist lens, she explores the implications of increasingly data-driven approaches to education and the growing tendency to “quantify” educational systems.
For Manal, NERO represents an important space where emerging researchers can build confidence, exchange ideas, and navigate the challenges of research together within a supportive regional network.
Yaqing Hou
Joining Manal as NERO Co-Leader is Yaqing Hou, a doctoral candidate, Teaching Associate, and artist in the Faculty of Education at Monash University.
Yaqing’s research focuses on visual arts education, arts-based educational research (ABER), and a/r/tography within intercultural contexts. Drawing on both Chinese and Western philosophical traditions, her work explores how visual arts education can create “third spaces” for dialogue, creativity, and intercultural understanding.
Her work has involved collaborations with schools across China, Japan, and Australia, where she co-designs arts-based learning experiences that bridge Asian and Western cultural perspectives. Many within the OCIES community will also recognise Yaqing as the designer of the Society’s new logo.
Like Manal, Yaqing sees NERO as a collaborative and inclusive space where emerging researchers can connect across disciplines, cultures, and research traditions while building meaningful scholarly relationships.
Looking Ahead
The appointment of Manal and Yaqing comes at an exciting time for NERO as the network continues to grow across Oceania.
Importantly, NERO embraces the term “new and emerging researcher” in its broadest sense, welcoming postgraduate students, early career academics, practitioners, and anyone beginning to carve out a research pathway.
Together, Manal and Yaqing bring a shared commitment to collaboration, creativity, and building supportive scholarly communities. Their work reflects many of the conversations shaping education today: technology, intercultural understanding, creativity, equity, identity, and the future of learning across diverse contexts.
The OCIES community also acknowledges the incredible work of the previous NERO leadership team, whose vision and energy helped establish many of the foundations that continue to shape NERO today.
As NERO continues to evolve, Manal and Yaqing will no doubt help strengthen the supportive, relational, and regionally connected community that has become central to the network’s identity.