Hilary Lapsley
Hilary Mary Lapsley is a New Zealand author, psychologist and social studies academic, specialising in gender studies. She was awarded a New Zealand Suffrage Centennial Medal in 1993, and the Judy Grahn Award for lesbian non-fiction in 2000.
Lapsley was born in Auckland in 1949 to Robin and Sylvia Lapsley, a minister and a teacher respectively. Lapsley attended the University of Auckland, where she completed a Master of Arts with honours in 1979 followed by a PhD titled The origins of modern social psychology at the University of Auckland in 1980.
Career
Lapsley worked as a research officer for the Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand, rising to deputy director, and then in 1988 was appointed as a lecturer in psychology at the University of Waikato. In 2001 she became a senior analyst at the Mental Health Commission of New Zealand. Most recently Lapsley was a senior researcher at the University of Auckland, and contributed to the Ageing Well National Science Challenge. Lapsley was a National Convenor of the Women's Studies Association, and as of 2024 serves on the committee. Lapsley wrote a book on the professional and personal relationship between anthropologists Margaret Mead and Ruth Benedict, which was published by the University of Massachusetts Press in 2001.
Personal life
Lapsley used to live on Waiheke Island, but bought into the Cohaus co-housing development in Grey Lynn with her partner Lois Cox. They divide their time between Auckland and Cox's home in Wellington. Lapsley and Cox have written three lesbian mystery novels together, under the pen name Jennifer Palgrave.
Honours and awards
In 1992 Lapsley was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship, and in 1993 she was awarded a New Zealand Suffrage Centennial Medal. The medal was given to recognize those people who had made a significant contribution to women's rights or women's issues in New Zealand. She was awarded the Publishing Triangle Judy Grahn Award for lesbian non-fiction in 2000 for her book on Margaret Mead and Ruth Benedict.
Selected works
Books
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Other
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