Miriam Williams

I am an urban geographer whose work focuses on care, justice, sustainability, diverse economies and commons in the city. In 2017 I commenced my current role at Macquarie University as a lecturer in Geography and Planning. As a emerging Urban Researcher I am interested in how urban life could be made more just and caring for people and planet. I am currently the Director of the Bachelor of Planning and co-convenor of the Cities, Planning and Governance research Cluster in the Department of Geography and Planning at Macquarie. I am a member of the Community Economies Institute and the Community Economies Research Network (International) and I have a keen interest in post-capitalist politics. 

In 2013 I recieved my PhD from the University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia. This work was published in Antipode, Urban Studies, Area, Geographical Research and Cities. In June 2018 I was invited to present a Keynote at the Institute of Australian Geographers Urban Study Group Symposium on Cities of Care. This paper is now published in Cities.  In 2018 my paper titled Care-full Justice in the City was released online by the Antipode Foundation as part of a curated collection connected to the Association of American Geographers Annual Antipode lecture. 

I am currently working on four research projects. a research project on Care-full food justice: community food initiatives across Metropolitan Sydney, The Australian Sustainable Household Database (with Assoc/Prof Kristian Ruming, Assoc/Prof Donna Houston and Dr Sara Fuller), the Vertical Villages Communty, Place and Density Pilot for Churches Housing and Baptist Care (With Prof Amanda Wise, Dr Emma Mitchell, Assoc/Pof Kristian Ruming and Kate Cavanaugh) and a writing a book on Care and the City with Dr Emma Power from WSU. 

My research explores everyday practices of justice and care in the city with a specific focus on community  and urban commons. My current research focuses around seven main areas:

• Care-full Justice in the city
• A Feminist Ethic of care and the politics and practices of care
• Sustainability Practices
• Food justice and community food initiatives
• Diverse Economies, post-capitalist poltics and commoning
• Urban Commons and urban planning theory
• Participatory methodologies and geographies of possibility

I teach into both the undergraduate and postgraduate planning degrees. In 2020 I am unit convenor of:

• GEOP370 Urban Economies S2
• GEOP8080 Sustainable Urban Regions S2

I am interested in supervising HDR students with the following research interests:

• Urban and Planning Theory 
• Sustainability Practices
• A Feminist Ethics of Care and the politics and practices of care
• Diverse economies, post-capitalist politics and community economies
• Urban Commons and commoning
• Geographies of Justice and Activism
• Community Food initiatives and Food Justice