Placing Unheard Voices is a research initiative led by Dr. Tara Coleman. Tara was diagnosed with early Parkinson’s in 2017 aged 41. In 2022, she received a Marsden grant from the Royal Society of Te Apārangi to undertake the project. Between 2022-2025, Tara worked with 48 people living with early Parkinson’s and translated their stories of everyday life into research poetry, as well as traditional academic writing. She also undertook autoethnography – using journaling and personal poetry – to study her own experience of living with and researching early Parkinson’s.
Tara is a researcher-poet, mother, dog-lover and person living with young-onset Parkinson’s. She is an advocate for reading and writing poetry to support wellbeing and quality of life. She combines her academic expertise with her personal experience of Parkinson’s to create compassionate and impactful research.
Tara received her PhD from the University of Auckland in 2013 and has 20 years of experience lecturing and running workshops in the disciplines of social science for public health, human geography, anthropology, and arts-based research strategies.
