Melbourne Centre for Cities
designed to foster responsible and cosmopolitan city leadership, and the information it needs, in an interconnected and increasingly urbanised planet
Cities are on the frontline of today’s most pressing global challenges. The way we manage and study cities, and how city leadership is thought of in an interconnected but disrupted world, are critical to our collective futures. This is where the University of Melbourne’s new Melbourne Centre for Cities comes in with an explicit focus on urban governance as its main area of research, action and training, and a distinct purpose to foster and foreground cities research in and from Melbourne with a clear cosmopolitan outlook.
Connected Cities: a centre mission
Building on the work of its predecessor, the Connected Cities Lab in operation through 2018 to 2020 specialising in the ways networks, international processes and information influence urban governance, the Centre focuses on the role of cities in major societal challenges, how city leadership can address them, and the information needed to do so in a connected but also disrupted and unequal time.
The Centre takes an explicit international point of view on pressing questions for urban governance. It does so by aiming to work with peers and places around the globe, explicitly connecting cities, urban researchers and key stakeholders in city leadership.
Our Partners
The below map is a live listing of all current collaborations across Melbourne Centre for Cities.
Click any icon for more details on our research partners or view the side menu for a complete listing of Partners organised by categories of: academic institutions, local and national governments, NGOs, business & philanthropy, IGOs, and fieldwork or site engagements.
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Centre Management
Michele Acuto, Centre Director
Alison Young, Deputy Director
David Bissell, Director of Research Capability
Cathy Oke, Associate Director (Enterprise and Impact)
Kate Murray, Centre Coordinator
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Centre Administration
- Kate Murray, Centre Coordinator
Jennifer Dam, Administration Officer
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Centre Fellows
- Michele Acuto, Professor of Global Urban Politics
Shelby Bassett, Research Assistant in Urban Policy
Sarah Bell, City of Melbourne Chair in Urban Resilience and Innovation- David Bissell, A/Prof & ARC Future Fellow
Jessie Briggs, Research Fellow in Urban Sustainability
Stephanie Butcher, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in International Urban Politics
Ariana Dickey, Research Fellow in Urban Sustainability
Lieve Donnellan, Honorary, Historical and Philosophical Studies
Bianca Fileborn, Senior Lecturer in Criminology
John Hajek, Senior Lecturer in Criminology
Pablo Fuentenebro Alonso, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in International Urban Politics
Paris Hadfield, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Urban Innovation
Benjamin Hegarty, McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellow
Max Holleran, Lecturer in Sociology
Louise Johnson, Honorary Professorial Fellow
Ihnji Jon, Lecturer in International Urban Politics
Amelia Leavesley, Research Fellow in Urban Sustainability
Melanie Lowe, Research Fellow in Urban Resilience and Innovation
Inderlina Mateo-Babiano, Senior Lecturer in Urban Planning- Cathy Oke, Melbourne Enterprise Senior Fellow in Informed Cities
Daniel Pejic, Research Fellow in International Urban Migration
Alexei Trundle, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Sustainable Urban Development
Alison Young, Professor of Criminology
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Visiting Fellows
Joyati Das, Visiting Fellow in International Urban Development
Kazi Nazrul Fattah, Visiting Fellow in International Urban Politics
Kris Hartley, A/Professor of Public Policy, The Education University of Hong Kong
Anna Kosovac, Research Fellow in Water Policy
Clinton Moore, Urbanisation Specialist at UN-Habitat
Andreina Seijas, Urban Night Researcher, Harvard Graduate School of Design
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Graduate Researchers
Loren Adams "Socio-Spatial Exploits: A Critical Anthology of Heists, Hacks, Hijacks, and Copycats"
Elisabetta Crovara "Changing the workplace"
Anna Edwards"The Night Time Economy in Australian Cities"- Amelia Leavesley"Making sustainable cities: an operational model for local engagement with global sustainability frameworks"
Kajsa Lundberg"Ordinary Harms and Extraordinary Crises: Environmental harm and fire on the edges of the city"
Carolina Mayen Huerta"Equity in access to urban green spaces (UGS) and its effect on well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic"
Hannah McNicol"The Belt and Road Initiative, the ‘Second’ Global Cold War and competition for infrastructure financing in Special Economic Zones in Cambodia"
Emma McRae "Participation, collaboration and speculation in urban digital twin visualisations"
Sombol Mokhles "Climate Change Experimentation in International City Networks”
Merrick Morley "Community resilience and shared spaces: navigating identity and difference in new multi-residential developments in metropolitan Melbourne"
Caitlin Morrissey “Making Up the Global City”- Daniel Pejic "City agency and global urban migration governance: a study of inclusive leadership at home and abroad"
Jana Perkovic "Form Follows Finance: Redesigning Housing Markets"
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Centre Associates
- Simon Batterbury, Faculty of Science
- Annisa Beta, Faculty of Arts
- Judy Bush, Faculty of Architecture, Building & Planning
- Brad Clarke, Faculty of Science
- Jennifer Day, Faculty of Architecture, Building & Planning
- Ben Gook, Faculty of Arts
- Hannah Gould, Faculty of Arts
- Amy Hahs, Faculty of Science
- Julia Hurst, Faculty of Arts
- Theresa Jones, Faculty of Science
- Catherine Kovesi, Faculty of Arts
- Carla Leahy Pascoe, Faculty of Arts
- Stephen Livesley, Faculty of Science
- Claire Loughnan, Faculty of Arts
- Claire Maree, Faculty of Arts
- Dave McDonald, Faculty of Arts
- Una McIlvenna, Faculty of Arts
- Monica Minnegal, Faculty of Arts
- James Murphy, Faculty of Arts
- Nikos Papstergiadis, Faculty of Arts
- Kirsten Parris, Faculty of Science
- James Petty, Faculty of Arts
- Catherine Phillips, Faculty of Science
- Peter Rush, Faculty of Law
- Soheil Sabri, Faculty of Engineering and IT
- Megan Sharp, Faculty of Arts
- Mark Yaolin Wang, Faculty of Science
- Nicholas Williams, Faculty of Science
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Achieving Justice For Street Harassment
Developing victim-centred understandings of justice in response to street harassment
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Actionable Research
Should city research be led by cities?
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Cities and the UN
What place do cities have in the United Nations?
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Cities at Night
Urban life doesn't stop when the sun goes down
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City Diplomacy
Do cities need foreign policies?
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City Networks
The networked frontier of city leadership
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City Resilience Strategies
City actions contributing to resilient urban futures
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Comparative Imaginations
How do cities think of each other?
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Environment Politics Beyond Environment
How can environment politics go beyond the essentialist morality of ‘protecting nature’?
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Evidence to Action
How can we enable healthy and equitable cities in which young people can flourish?
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From Garden City to Eco-Citadel: Global Greenbelts
History of municipal greenbelts in the UK, USA, and Australia
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Gig Cities
How are gig economy mobile apps changing our cities?
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Great Powers and Urbanisation Project
How is geopolitics being shaped in the ‘urban age’?
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Healthy City Leadership
Supporting the World Health Organization in driving healthy and sustainable urban governance
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Innovate4Cities
What knowledge do cities need to meet their climate action ambitions?
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Knowledge in Action for Urban Equality
Can we co-produce more equal cities?
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Leading Cities
Is urban governance delivering on its promises?
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Philanthropy and the City
What is the role of philanthropic institutions in the future of cities?
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Promoting Urban Nature and Biodiversity Conservation
Cities play a critical role in combatting the dual biodiversity extinction and climate crises
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Project Night Justice
Building safer cities for women and gender diverse people
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Science and the Future of Cities
A Nature Sustainability Expert Panel
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SDGs Cities Challenge
A collaborative project contributing to the implementation of key urban Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targets and indicators.
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SDGs for Melbourne
Localising the SDGs: A Strategic Prioritisation Framework for City of Melbourne
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Spatial Justice
Justice in the Streets: Responses to Public Homelessness and Public Dissent
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Student-City Policy Innovation
How can cities best work with young people to shape global energy transitions and climate action?
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Tackling a Global Pandemic in Asian Megacities
What policy lessons can be drawn from the formal and informal responses to global health shocks in the urban context to build more inclusive and resilient cities?
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Urban Migration
What powers do cities have to govern the inclusion of migrants and refugees?
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Urban Observatories
Leveraging urban data to shape cities
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Urban Resilience and Innovation
The Urban Resilience and Innovation Program interrogates the relationships between urban decision-making and resilience, using action research in partnership with the City of Melbourne and key stakeholders.
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Working Away
How working away is changing home
At Melbourne Centre for Cities we go beyond traditional text-based research outputs. Through the Connected Cities podcast we bring you urban experts from around the globe offering prompts, provocations, and casual conversations around city life and governance.
Our show notes deliver links to companion publications and references made in each episode, plus transcripts for accessibility.
Get in touch: urban research is an inherently collaborative endeavour!
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Centre Fellows
Centre Fellows are a committed, multi-disciplinary, and engaged community forming the Centre’s core team of scholars and practitioners.
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Visiting Fellows
Visiting Fellows are engaging practitioners and scholars outside of the University of Melbourne who join the Centre community for a mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and culture, plus enriching collaborations.
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Centre Associates
Centre Associates represent the Centre as champions in their respective academic divisions and are active participants in our community.
We deliver education that builds upon Centre research to inform the next generation of city leaders and encourage research-led education.
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City Diplomacy
An intensive training program for city diplomats and those who work on cities’ international affairs. Delivered over a one-month period with two streams: for early career city diplomats and established city leaders.
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City Leadership
A two-week summer intensive designed to tackle the ‘international’ aspects of city governance and planning, with a focus on city leadership, the institutions and trends that underpin it.
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Studio N: Cities at Night
This intensive studio tackles the ‘night time’ challenge for built environment practitioners and offers a venue to further refine interdisciplinary and policy-relevant skills of urban planning, urban design and architecture professionals.
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Studio R: Urban Resilience
The ultimate learning purpose of this studio is to enhance the general understanding of ‘resilience’ and to seek proper applications of this concept in ecological/sustainable urbanism projects, with special focus on water-resiliency and climate-led disaster mitigation.