The Australasian Urban History / Planning History Group is hosting an online Zoom Postgraduate Symposium on 22 September 2023. The symposium is intended to provide a supportive and collegiate environment for students to receive thesis feedback and advice from scholars whose work engages with historical perspectives on cities, planning and the built environment more broadly. We aim to foster connections, enable critical discourse, and build relationships among researchers working on city pasts in our region.

We welcome attendance for the full day or for a session or two. We’re also excited to welcome public historian Dr Lisa Murray who will be delivering a lunchtime keynote.

Registration is now open via Eventbrite

Symposium Program

9.15AM: Symposium Opening and Session A: Nineteenth-Century Cities

Presenters: Louis Wyatt, Dipa Saha and Saul Deane

Respondents: Ursula De Jong (Deakin University), Andrew May (University of Melbourne)

Chair: Anna Temby

10.45AM: Session B: Twentieth-Century Cities

Presenters: Andrew Foley, Kathryn Ticehurst and Zeng Wu

Respondents: Christine Garnaut (UniSA) and David Nichols (University of Melbourne)

Chair: Robert Freestone

12.00PM: Lunchtime Public Keynote: Lisa Murray

The Historian and the Shaping of Cities: Former City Historian Dr Lisa Murray makes the case for the centrality of historians in shaping cities through research, policy, decision-making, urban design, placemaking, heritage significance, art and interpretation. She will reflect upon some of her work over the last 20 years and the impact it has (or has not) had on Sydney city.

1.30PM: Session C: Heritage Cities

Presenters: Kate Clark, Donya Masoomikhameneh and Lu (Rita) Yan

Respondents: Amy Clarke (Sunshine Coast University) and Peter Spearritt (University of Queensland)

Chair: James Lesh

2.45PM: Session D: Past/Future Cities and Symposium Concludes (at 4.00PM)

Presenters: Craig Atkins, Junyang Liu and Rasoul Rafat

Respondents: Elizabeth Taylor (Monash) and Lionel Frost (Monash)

Chair: Cameron Logan

A Zoom link will be provided following registration.