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.
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.
Centre Management
Cathy Oke
Michele Acuto
Alison Young
Alexei Trundle
Sarah Bell
Sabina Andron
Centre Administration
Paola Rossi
Marita Doak
Maria Pia Dunne
Andrew Irvin
Centre Fellows
Centre Fellows are a committed, multi-disciplinary, and engaged community forming the Centre’s core team of scholars and practitioners.
Michele Acuto
Ash Alam
Sabina Andron
Sarah Bell
Joyati Das
Anna Edwards
Bianca Fileborn
Max Holleran
Enzo Lara - Hamilton
Lutfun Nahar Lata
Rewa Marathe
Jesse Mentha
Cathy Oke
Elise Park
Rebekah Plueckhahn
Daniel Pejic
Melissa Pineda Pinto
William Ridge
Kylie Soanes
Ika Trijsburg
Alexei Trundle
Alison Young
Renee Miller-Yeaman
Sookyan Wong
Graduate Researchers
Loren Adams
Chethna Ben
Elisabetta Crovara
Sophie Devine
Hannah Fairlamb
Uly Faoziyah
Anastasia Gramatakos
Samuel Holleran
Amelia Leavesley
Kajsa Lundberg
Carolina Mayen Huerta
Hannah McNicol
Emma McRae
Sombol Mokhles
Merrick Morley
Caitlin Morrissey
Jana Perkovic
Denise Ryan
Alana Scully
Joanna Stubbs
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.
Maya Costa Pinto
Pablo Fuentenebro Alonso
Nicolas Gharbi
Kris Hartley
Advisory Board
The Centre’s advisory board provides strategic input into our direction and focus, and supports the Centre’s Management Team and Director in ensure we address pressing and impactful urban issues locally, domestically and internationally.
Professor Michael Wesley | Deputy Vice-Chancellor Global, Culture and Engagement | University of Melbourne |
Professor Mark Hargreaves | Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research) | University of Melbourne |
Alison Leighton | Chief Executive Officer | City of Melbourne |
Dr Catherine Brown | Chief Executive Officer | Lord Mayor's Charitable Foundation |
Professor Winston Chow | Associate Professor of Urban Climate | Singapore Management University |
Rachel Huxley | Head of Mitigation and Climate and Health | Wellcome Trust |
Anthony F. Pipa | Senior Fellow in the Centre for Sustainable Development | Brookings Institution |
Aromar Revi | Director | Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS) |
Malcom Smith | Australasian Cities Leader | ARUP |
Molly Whelan | Acting CEO | Foundation for Young Australians (FYA) |
Kelly Grigsby | Chief Executive Officer | Municipal Association of Victoria |
Centre Associates
Centre Associates represent the Centre as champions in their respective academic divisions and are active participants in our community.
Simon Batterbury, Faculty of Science | Matthew Champion, Faculty of Arts |
Annisa Beta, Faculty of Arts | Una McIlvenna, Faculty of Arts |
Amy Hahs, Faculty of Science | Jeff Garmany, Faculty of Arts |
Peter Rush, Faculty of Law | James Murphy, Faculty of Arts |
Theresa Jones, Faculty of Science | Kirsten Parris, Faculty of Science |
Stephen Livesley, Faculty of Science | Catherine Phillips, Faculty of Science |
Claire Maree, Faculty of Arts | Megan Sharp, Faculty of Arts |
Ariane Utomo, Faculty of Science | Mark Yaolin Wang, Faculty of Science |
Projects
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Actionable Research
Should city research be led by cities?
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Cities and International Engagement Survey
Conducting a global survey of ‘city diplomacy’
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City Diplomacy
Do cities need foreign policies?
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City of Melbourne Chair in Urban Resilience and Innovation
Fostering research and training in the field of city resilience and innovation.
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Communities, kava, court orders: Ways of possessing the Pacific city
Possession is which fraction of customary law?
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Disinformation in the City
What does rising disinformation mean for cities?
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Evidence to Action
A Framework for Evidence Building and Learning from Local to Global
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Innovate4Cities
What knowledge do cities need to meet their climate action ambitions?
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Innovation Infrastructure: Planning for Growth
The civilisation of human societies is underpinned by innovation
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Map of the Month
Delivering a monthly ‘map’ of greater Melbourne
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Night Shift
Planning and designing night-time economies for night shift workers in Australian Cities
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Philanthropy and the City
What is the role of philanthropic institutions in the future of cities?
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Playbook for Urban Biodiversity
Playbook intended to inform practice and policy on biodiversity in cities
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The Retrofit Lab
The Retrofit Lab is a Research and Innovation Laboratory activating the transition of Melbourne's buildings, infrastructure and landscapes for a healthy, sustainable, and resilient city
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Spatial Justice
Investigating legal, municipal and social responses to political protesters and to the visibly homeless in city streets
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Urban Migration
What powers do cities have to govern the inclusion of migrants and refugees?
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Urban Surfaces
The role of urban surfaces in developing public cultures and equitable cities
Current projects
Past projects
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.
Climate Talks
Join hosts Professor Jackie Peel, Associate Professor Cathy Oke and Bek Markey Towler as they bring you the information you need to know in the lead up to the annual United Nations Climate Change Conferences – or ‘COPs’.
Climate Talks is produced by Melbourne Climate Futures and Melbourne Centre for Cities at the University of Melbourne. Podcast Producers: Greta Robenstone, Andi Xu, Ben Chandler, Cathy Oke, Jackie Peel and Bek Markey Towler.
City Resilience in Melbourne
Host Lukas Petridis explores what city resilience looks like in practice by exploring case studies in Melbourne and across the world. Supported by the City of Melbourne and the University of Melbourne.
Listen to City Resilience episodes below or subscribe on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Cities After Dark
Cities don't stop as the sun goes down. Join hosts Michele Acuto, Shelby Bassett and Andreina Seijas as they speak to night-time experts on what makes urban spaces tick after dark, their challenges, and the amazing world of the night-time cities.
Coffee with...the Connected Cities Coffee Chats
Let's make academic talk accessible... here you will find a series of Melbourne-style caffeinated conversations we have hosted at the Centre around cities and pressing contemporary challenges for the built environment with international guests.
More podcasts
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 Building | City Fix
Exclusively for Melbourne Centre for Cities staff, the City Building and City Fix series' aim to equip researchers with the skills needed to build a career in research, and address the challenges associated with their work.
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City Diplomacy
An intensive training program for early career city diplomats and those who work on cities’ international affairs. Delivered online and in-person.
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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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Horizons Program
The Horizons Program is an internationalisation program for early career researchers enrolled at the University of Melbourne. It is designed to expand internationally the horizon of career development imagination for graduate and early career researchers.
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Studio N: Managing Cities at Night
This intensive studio focuses on night-time governance, planning and policy for built environment practitioners and offers a venue gain an interdisciplinary and policy-relevant understanding of urban planning, urban design and architecture at night.
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ECR Sessions
The MC4C is hosting a series of Early Career Researchers’ Sessions, as part of our commitment to support ECR agendas at the Centre. The sessions are programmed, organised, and led collectively by early career Centre affiliates, to reflect the skills, concerns, and experiences of the many young researchers who work at the Centre.
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