I am an interdisciplinary researcher, with a background in architecture and urban and environmental planning, and a PhD in geography. In my current research projects I bring together themes of labour, skill and the built environment, to understand how working lives are being impacted by environmental change. I am driven by an interest in what tasks and skills might be needed, adapted or resurrected in order to meet the emergent challenges of limited resources and more volatile environmental conditions.
My ethnographic approach draws on 20 years of professional experience in engineering, technology and design roles, and I prefer to work 'alongside’ participants where possible. Conceptually, I look to feminist and postcapitalist perspectives that consider all forms of work as valuable. This includes work which is less visible, including that which takes place in the home and community, or outside of the bounds of the enterprise. My PhD was an ethnography of the paid and unpaid working lives of repair and maintenance trades workers at Australia's largest steelworks.
Current research projects include the ARC DP ‘Governing Urban Energy Transitions’, examining energy transitions in the commercial office sector across Sydney and Melbourne (with Profs Pauline McGuirk and Robyn Dowling [Syd]). During my PhD I worked as a research assistant on the ARC DP ‘Making Less Space for Carbon’, examining everyday household life and responses to a climate changing world. I have also collaborated on an inter-disciplinary UOW Global Challenges project which looked at manufacturing futures for the Illawarra region.
