Researcher

Keywords

Fields of Research (FoR)

Urban geography, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-based research, Social geography, Urban and regional planning

Biography

I am a Scientia Senior Lecturer at the Cities Institute, and Editor of Environment and Planning D: Society and Space.

As an urban and political geographer, my work focuses on two geographical locations: Israel/Palestine and Australia. I use a comparative lens and work collaboratively with Indigenous communities to interrogate how cities in settler colonies change over time. I am interested in the histories of settler colonial cities in...view more

I am a Scientia Senior Lecturer at the Cities Institute, and Editor of Environment and Planning D: Society and Space.

As an urban and political geographer, my work focuses on two geographical locations: Israel/Palestine and Australia. I use a comparative lens and work collaboratively with Indigenous communities to interrogate how cities in settler colonies change over time. I am interested in the histories of settler colonial cities in relation to structures of land and property, but also in how these histories change and how they have been contested from the ground up and the kinds or lived experiences and future these contestations create for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous residents of the city. I am increasingly interested in the work of planning in forming and reforming land/property in cities, and in applying abolition agenda to urban transformation, within and beyond carceral spaces.

I am alumnus of the Urban Studies Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (2020-2023) and previously held the positions of Research Theme Fellow at Western Sydney University (2022-2024) and Lecturer in Urban Geography at The University of Sydney (2019-2022). Prior to completing my PhD, I worked and volunteered for several years in Human Rights and Palestinian non-for-profit organisations in Israel, including the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, The Galilee Society, Sadaka-Reut, and Bimkom-Planners for Planning Rights.


My Grants

Selected:

Geographical Society of NSW/ Symposium Funding Scheme (2024)

Urban Studies Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (2020-2023)

The Henry Halloran Trust/ Research Seminar and Publication Scheme, The University of Sydney (Rogers D, Morton A, Troy L, Blatman N, Altun S) (2021)

Antipode Scholar-Activist Award (2019-2020)

 


My Qualifications

PhD, 2019 - Ben-Gurion University, Politics and Government

M.A., 2011 - Tel-Aviv University, Sociology & Anthropology

B.A., 2007 - Tel-Aviv University, Political Science, Sociology & Anthropology


My Research Activities

I am currently undertaking research in three main areas:

First, through collaborations with First Nations communities and organisations, we examine access to and activation of land rights, and land politics and relations in settler-colonial cities and how they play out vis-a-vis government policies, planning and development and financialisation processes.

Second, I apply abolitionist tools to work across several geographical areas. I am currently writing about mapping prison geographies in Australia, probing the historical links between urbanisation and incarceration and changes to carceral structures in the context of settler colonial policies, and examining the contemporary politics and economics of redevelopments of decomissioned urban prisons.

Third, methodologically I am focusing on the role of storytelling and lived experiences in urban development, particularly as tools for intervening in urban processes to achieve more equitable and just cities.


My Research Supervision


Areas of supervision

I am a keen supervisor who devotes considerable time and effort to my students. I am currently available to supervise HDR students in various fields of critical urban studies and am particularly interested in students who work across urban, political and historical geography, as well as carceral geographies (using abolitionist tools). In addition, I would love to support those undertaking multi-site or comparative urban research. If you are unsure if I am the right supervisor for you, please do reach out: I'd be happy to advise and/or refer you to a more suitable colleague at UNSW.

 

Specific areas of possible supervision:

- Indigenous and settler colonial histories/ realities/ visions of cities

- Critical interventions in urban planning and development (infrastructure, housing, land/property relations)

- Storytelling and collaborative methodologies in urban research

- Carceral geographies of cities

- Urban research in Israel/Palestine


My Engagement

Professional

Current

Editor, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space.

Committee Member, Australasian Cities Research Network

Past

Co-convenor, The Institute of Australian Geographers, Urban Geography Study Group (2021-2024)

Co-convenor, The Institute of Australian Geographers, Indigenous Peoples' Knowledges and Rights Study Group (2019-2020)

 

Other

Advisory Committee Member, Jewish Council of Australia (https://www.jewishcouncil.com.au/).

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Location

UNSW Cities Institute
Room 218, John Goodsell Building