Maria Bargh

Ema Maria Bargh is a New Zealand academic, and is Professor of Politics and Māori Studies at Victoria University of Wellington.

Early life and education
Bargh is of Te Arawa and Ngāti Awa descent.

Academic career
Bargh completed a PhD titled Re-colonisation and indigenous resistance: neoliberalism in the Pacific at the Australian National University, under the supervision of Barry Hindess. Bargh joined the staff of Victoria University of Wellington, rising to full professor in 2022.

Bargh's research covers Māori political representation and constitutional change, environmental politics and policy, and the political economy. She was on the Matike Mai Aotearoa working group on constitutional reform. Bargh has been appointed by Cabinet to the role of Deputy Chair of the Independent Review of Electoral Law, alongside Deborah Hart, Andrew Geddis, Alice Mander, Robert Pedden and Lara Greaves. She is co-editor of the MAI Journal: A New Zealand Journal of Indigenous Scholarship, and is on the editorial board for the New Zealand Political Science Journal.

Honours and awards
Bargh received a Royal Society Te Apārangi Te Puāwaitanga Research Award in 2020.

She received a University Engagement Excellence Award in 2017 and a Research Excellence Award in 2021.