Professor Melanie Davern
Professor
Details
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College: School of GUSS
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Department: School of GUSS
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Campus: City Campus Australia
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melanie.davern@rmit.edu.au
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ORCID: 0000-0002-3790-0024
Open to
- Masters Research or PhD student supervision
About
Melanie Davern is a Professor of Public Health and Urban Planning within the Centre for Urban Research and Director of the Australian Urban Observatory (auo.org.au) digital liveability planning platform at RMIT University, mobilising research evidence into policy and practice nationally and internationally. Melanie was awarded an RMIT University Vice Chancellor's Senior Research Fellowship in 2022.
Melanie's research focuses on the intersection between public health and urban planning that is simply communicated to non-academic audiences as “liveability”. She is driven by a research ambition to build an applied and transdisciplinary knowledge base that is valuable, accessible, meaningful, and relevant. Her scholarship and practice is founded in collaborative, co-designed and engaged research to co-create better city planning and policymaking that improves social, economic, and environmental benefits for all members of society, locally, nationally, and globally.
As an active and engaged scholar, Melanie welcomes approaches from the media and future Honours, Masters and PhD students with interest and passion that align with her curiosity and research interests in health and place.
Melanie's research focuses on the intersection between public health and urban planning that is simply communicated to non-academic audiences as “liveability”. She is driven by a research ambition to build an applied and transdisciplinary knowledge base that is valuable, accessible, meaningful, and relevant. Her scholarship and practice is founded in collaborative, co-designed and engaged research to co-create better city planning and policymaking that improves social, economic, and environmental benefits for all members of society, locally, nationally, and globally.
As an active and engaged scholar, Melanie welcomes approaches from the media and future Honours, Masters and PhD students with interest and passion that align with her curiosity and research interests in health and place.
Supervisor projects
- What Role Does the Neighbourhood Have in Supporting Healthy Ageing?
- 8 Aug 2024
- Ordinary Australians' sensemaking of the Anthropocene world
- 1 Jul 2021
- Neighbourhood Connections of Iranian Migrants in Melbourne, Australia
- 5 Nov 2020
- The Contribution of Neighbourhood Environmental Features to Socio-economic Inequity in Loneliness
- 3 Dec 2019
Teaching interests
Supervisory interests align to any of the research interests listed above or any other topics related to health and place from intellectually curious potential Honours, Masters or PhD students.
Research interests
Liveability, Public Health and Health Services, Health Equity, Urban and Regional Planning, Urban Policy, Healthy Ageing and Age Friendly Cities, Children's Health, Walkability and Cycling, Climate Adaptation and Health, Subjective Wellbeing and Psychology, GIS and Mapping, Data Vizualisation, Social and Urban Policy, Community Engagement and Participatory Democracy, Public Open Space and Urban Greening, Social Infrastructure and Social Planning, Municipal Public Health Planning, Knowledge Translation and Mobilisation, Indicators, Environmental Science and Management, Policy and Administration, Demography, Other Environmental Sciences.
