Biography

Dr Jess McLean does research on how humans, more-than-humans, environments and technologies interact to produce geographies of change. Her research focuses on digital technologies, water politics, climate action and activism. As an Associate Professor in the School of Social Sciences at Macquarie University, she teaches smart urbanism, Anthropocene politics, and environmental justice. In 2020, her book Changing Digital Geographies: Technologies, Environments and People was published that has contributed to shaping the emerging subdiscipline of digital geographies. Jess was founding co-Editor-in-Chief of the open access Digital Geography and Society journal and is currently an Associate Editor of Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers. Within the Discipline of Geography and Planning at Macquarie, Jess is HDR Convenor and co-convenes the School of Social Sciences' Environments and Societies Research Strength. 

Teaching

Units that Jess McLean convenes in 2021:

FOAR7005 Living in the Anthropocene (Faculty of Arts Master of Research unit)

GEOP8050 Attitudes to the Environment (Postgraduate unit)

GEOP3030 Liveable cities

Units to which Jess makes significant contributions:

GEOP3000 Environmental Justice in the Anthropocene

Research student supervision

Jess McLean is currently taking on new PhD and Masters of Research students in the following areas:

• Digital technologies - including digital sustainability, digital justice, feminist digital action, digital geographies, gender and the digital.
• Water cultures - urban and rural contexts, Indigenous knowledges and rights with respect to water, power and water cultures.
• Anthropocene studies - climate change, water dilemmas, justice in the Anthropocene.

Current HDR students:

Sarah Prebble: Digitally-mediated human-nature relationships in sustainable Cities: Urban Forest governance in Melbourne and Sydney

Elise Frost: Relational placemaking through outdoor exercise practices in Sydney 

Elisabeth Nicolson: Dancing the earth and dreaming song to restore the balance- Exploring the role of Aboriginal song and dance in the environmental crises

Previous HDR student supervision:

Malcolm Campbell: Autistic Identity and Community Engagement through social media

A/Prof Corrinne Sullivan: Indigenous Australian experiences of sex work: Stories of Agency, Autonomy and Self-Determination (PhD)

Dr Rosy Sabiha Yeasmin: Ethical Political Ecology of Tourism in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh: Engaging with Indigenous and Gender Concerns (PhD)

Dr Wayne Williamson: Community and government planning authority use of social media in planning practice: a mixed methods analysis from Sydney (PhD)

Emily Speed: What folk are saying: representations of Indigenous Australians, decolonisation, and Australia’s National Folk Festival  (MRes)

Solomon Frank: Community and government planning authority use of social media in planning practice: a mixed methods analysis from Sydney (MRes)

Elise Frost: "Our River”? Diversity, values, and community engagement in planning for Dyarubbin, Penrith (MRes)