​Dr Sascha Nolden

Writer, Scholar, Librarian, Archivist, Editor, Translator, Publisher

Dr Sascha Nolden, PhD, MA(Hons), MIS, BA(Hons), Dip.Perf.Arts, was born in Pinneberg, Germany, on 2 April 1975 and has lived in New Zealand since 22 March 1982.
​Sascha studied at the University of Auckland from 1997 to 2007, initially in the School of Music completing a Diploma in Performing Arts, and continuing his studies in musicology as part of a Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in German language and literature.
​Postgraduate research included an honours dissertation, published under the title Austrian Architects in New Zealand, and an MA thesis, titled ‘German and Austrian Ornithologists and the Avifauna of New Zealand: exploring the life and ornithological work of Johann and Georg Forster, Ernst Dieffenbach, Julius von Haast, Ferdinand von Hochstetter, Andreas Reischek and Otto Finsch’.
​Translation and archival research became central to his primary source investigations using documentary heritage collections at this time.
Gradually Sascha discovered the fascination of deciphering and transcribing old manuscript letters and other unpublished sources as a way of understanding the subjects of his research.
​After graduating MA (Hons) with First Class Honours, he was awarded a Bright Future Top Achiever Doctoral Scholarship by the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology, allowing him to embark on his doctoral studies researching the life, work, and letters of Ferdinand von Hochstetter.
​Since being admitted to the degree of PhD at the University of Auckland in 2007, Sascha has continued in his quest to discover more about Hochstetter, and to commemorate his life, work, and achievements, especially in New Zealand.
​He subsequently curated exhibitions at the Auckland Central Library and at Nelson Provincial Museum, in 2008 and 2009 respectively, presenting a selection of material discovered during his research in both New Zealand and Europe. He also co-convened the Hochstetter Symposium in 2008. 
Collaborations with Dr Mike Johnston of Nelson have included an illustrated monograph on Hochstetter and his New Zealand explorations of discovery with Julius von Haast, published by Nikau Press in 2011, and two volumes of annotated translations of Hochstetter’s 1859 Nelson diaries, published by the Geoscience Society of New Zealand in 2012 and 2014.
​In 2013 Sascha enrolled for postgraduate studies in the School of Information Management at Victoria University of Wellington, graduating with the degree of Master of Information Studies, in Archives & Records Management and Library Science on 10 December 2014.
​Sascha held a position as Research Librarian at the Alexander Turnbull Library from 21 January 2015 to 21 January 2023 and resides in Lower Hutt with his wife Carol Ann and their children.

© Sascha Nolden 2022