Rate My Professor Anna Petersen

Dr Anna Petersen serves as the Curator of Photographs at Uare Taoka o Hākena, the Hocken Collections, University of Otago Library. She earned her PhD in history from the University of Otago in 1998, with her thesis 'Signs of Higher Life: A Cultural History of Domestic Interiors in New Zealand c.1814–1914' published as New Zealanders at Home: A Cultural History of Domestic Interiors, 1814–1914 (Otago University Press, 2001). Petersen also holds an MA in art history from the University of Canterbury. Her publication record includes R. N. Field: The Dunedin Years, 1925–1945 (Manawatu Art Gallery, 1989) and a chapter in the edited volume Indigenous Identity and Resistance: Researching the Diversity of Knowledge (Otago University Press, 2010).

Previously serving as Assistant Curator of Photographs at Hocken since at least 2001, Petersen has held her full-time curatorial position since 2017. She co-curated A Different Light: First Photographs of Aotearoa (2025–2026, Hocken Collections), which toured to Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery and includes an accompanying publication by Auckland University Press with her contribution. Additional works encompass Hand in Hand: Photographers and Painters Alike (Hocken Collections, 2018). Petersen contributes regularly to the Hocken Blog with detailed analyses of collection items, including the Shellal Mosaic album, portraits related to the Unknown Soldier, early wireless technology images, and Pacific Island photography. She presented Treasures from the Hocken Photographic Collection at the University Club in 2017 and proposed the campus heritage panels project unveiled in 2018. Through her curatorship, publications, and public outreach, Petersen has made significant contributions to the study and preservation of New Zealand's photographic heritage and cultural history.