Associate Professor Wendy Steele

Wendy Steele is an Associate Professor in Sustainability and Urban Planning.  She is an award-winning scholar and previous ARC DECRA Fellow with research interests that focus on cities in climate change and human-nature relationships in the urban age, with a particular emphasis on wild cities, urban governance, policy and planning, climate justice, critical infrastructure and sustainability as a transformative agenda within higher education.  Her recent books include 'Planning Wild Cities: Human-nature relationships in the urban age' (Routledge 2020), 'Quiet Activism: Climate action at the local scale' (Palgrave 2021), and 'The Sustainable Development Goals and Higher Education: A Transformative agenda?' (Palgrave-Macmillan 2021). Within RMIT, she has been working with others to help support and promote the vital role of the social sciences and humanities in addressing societies 'grand challenges', as well as critical and purposeful engagement with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and rethinking the role of research impact as a transformative cultural literacy and ethos.

Wendy is regularly approached to be an invited keynote speaker at academic and industry events including: The Nature of Cities International Conference, MIT's Environmental Solutions Initiative (ESI) and the Alexander von Humboldt Biological Resources Research Institute (IAvH) People, Prosperity & the Planet Lecture Series, and the Australian Academy of the Social Sciences Emerging issues in Science and Society (EISS) Symposium. She is the convenor/co-convenor of the following:

• Australasian Cities Research Network (ACRN)
  
• Climate Adaptation Australia Website
  
• Australian Academy of the Social Sciences Workshop (Australian Urban Policy)
  
• State of Australian Cities Conference (SOAC)
  
• Critical Urban Governance Research Program, Centre for Urban Research, RMIT (CUR)

• HUSO2341 The Urban Age
• ARCH 1065/1272 Planning Theory

By appointment

• PhD Urban Studies (Urban Research Program, Griffith University)
• Masters in Environmental Planning (Department of Environment, Griffith University)
• BA (Literature/Philosophy) (University of Queensland)

As co-producers of impact, knowledge and learning, Wendy has worked extensively with individuals and groups from across Australia and internationally in community, government and the private sectors including:  National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Design Week, Melbourne Book Fair, Green Cross Australia, BMW, Prefab Australia, Planning Institute of Australia (PIA),  Victorian Planning and Environmental Law Association (VPELA),  Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP), Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation, Environment House and the ReNew Initiatives, GECKO, Climarte, One Planet, CANWin, the Mossvale Community Garden, Darebin City Council and Solar $aver initiative, Transition Towns Movement, Ecoburbia, SGS Economics, Victoria Markets, Marrickville Council and Renew (the Alternative Technology Association), the Elwood Floods Action Group (EFLAG), RedWaste and Climate for Change.