Deidre Brown

Deidre Sharon Brown (born 1970) is a New Zealand art historian and architectural academic.

Brown currently teaches at the University of Auckland and is the Deputy Dean for the Faculty of Creative Arts and Industries.

Additionally, she is a governor of the Arts Foundation of New Zealand, a member of the Māori Trademarks Advisory Committee of the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand, and a member of the Humanities Panel of the Marsden Fund.

In 2021, Brown was made a Fellow of the Royal Society Te Apārangi.

She was the recipient of the 2023 NZIA Gold Medal.

Brown grew up in New Lynn, New Zealand, and is of Māori, Pākehā and English descent and affiliates with the Māori tribes Ngāpuhi and Ngāti Kahu.

Brown attended the University of Auckland for both her undergraduate and graduate degrees.

In 1997, she completed her PhD at the University of Auckland.

Her 1997 thesis was titled Mōrehu Architecture and focused on Māori architecture between the years 1850 and 1950.

After completing her education, Brown began to focus on teaching her specialty of Māori art history and architecture at universities.

In 1998, Brown began her academic career at the University of Canterbury School of Fine Arts, where she was a lecturer in the art history department teaching Māori art history.

In 2003, Brown returned to the University of Auckland where she taught design and history in the School of Architecture and Planning.

She became a professor, with research interests in Māori architecture and art, the relationship of art and curatorship to architecture, and intersections between culture and technology.

She has published a number of books about art and architecture that focus on her interests, specifically Māori art.

Brown has also curated a number of exhibitions in galleries throughout New Zealand.

In 2004, Brown's book Tai Tokerau Whakairo Rākau: Northland Māori Wood Carving won the NZSA E.H. McCormick Best First Book Award for Non-Fiction at the Montana New Zealand Book Awards.

Māori architecture: from fale to wharenui and beyond won the Art, Architecture and Design category in the 2009 Ngā Kupu Ora Māori Book Awards and was a finalist in the Illustrated Non-Fiction Category at the 2010 New Zealand Post Book Awards.

In 2021, Brown was made a Fellow of the Royal Society Te Apārangi.

Awards Brown has received include:

Art in Oceania: A new history received the 2013 Art Book Prize (Banister Fletcher Award) from the Authors' Club.

In 2019, Brown was appointed head of the School of Architecture and Planning.

She is the first indigenous woman to head an architecture school.

Brown's main academic focus is the history of Māori art and architecture.

Much of Brown's work discusses Māori culture, honing in on art and architecture.

Brown has contributed and edited a variety of books connected to her interests of study.

She is the co-author of A New Zealand Book of Beasts: Animals in our History, Culture and Everyday Life with Annie Potts and Philip Armstrong in which her chapters examine the significance of animals in Māori and Pākehā art.

Brown also wrote a book titled Māori Architecture that explores the different Māori-designed structures and space and their evolution over time.

Brown has been widely recognised for her impactful and significant contributions to the art history world.