Rate My Professor Elinor Chisholm

Dr. Elinor Chisholm is a Senior Research Fellow in the Housing and Health Research Programme (He Kāinga Oranga) at the Department of Public Health, University of Otago, Wellington, within the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences Division. She earned her PhD from the University of Otago in 2016 with a thesis titled 'Individual and collective action to improve rental housing in New Zealand: an historical and contemporary study,' which explored power dynamics between tenants and landlords alongside the history of renter activism in Aotearoa New Zealand. Prior to her doctorate, she completed an MPhil at the University of Cambridge and a BA (Hons, First Class) at Victoria University of Wellington. Her academic background supports her focus on qualitative and historical research addressing housing-related public health challenges.

Chisholm's research specializations encompass housing and health intersections, including eviction experiences, Healthy Housing Initiatives, mixed tenure communities, impacts of housing interventions on wellbeing, ventilation behaviors, community facilities in multi-unit dwellings, and neighborhood perceptions among public housing tenants. Key publications include 'Mapping interactions between the sustainable development goals: lessons learned and ways forward' (Sustainability Science, 2018, co-authored with M. Nilsson et al.), 'LGBTIQ+ homelessness: A review of the literature' (International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2019), 'Tenants’ responses to substandard housing: Hidden and invisible power and the failure of rental housing regulation' (Housing, Theory & Society, 2020), 'Setting housing standards to improve global health' (International Journal of Environmental Research & Public Health, 2017), and recent works such as 'Like a family without being a family': Social connectedness between social housing tenants in Aotearoa New Zealand (Wellbeing, Space & Society, 2026) and 'A century of renter activism in Aotearoa New Zealand' (chapter in Rent strikes, 2025). Her collaborations with scholars like Philippa Howden-Chapman and Nevil Pierse have advanced evidence on housing policy, sustainable development, and health equity in New Zealand and globally, evidenced by highly cited contributions influencing international discourse on healthier housing standards.