Organising Committee
Joint Chairs
Karien Dekker
RMIT University
Professor Karien Dekker works at RMIT University in the school of Property, Construction and Project Management. She is currently a Chief Investigator on a project on housing solutions for temporary migrants in Australia. She writes about social infrastructure and affordable housing in diverse communities.
Karien's life revolves around a greater desire to create inclusive communities in which everyone feels welcome. She is also passionate about affordable housing for all. To inform policy and public opinion, she interprets large datasets, while making sense of the findings with interviews and observations.
Andrea Sharam
RMIT University
Associate Professor Andrea Sharam is the RMIT-AHURI Research Centre Director. Located within the School of Property, Construction & Project Management, she is a national housing expert and researcher with an interest in:
market-based apartment development
non-market housing models (such as land trusts, cooperatives, non-profit housing)
social and affordable housing
housing construction
matching in housing markets.
Property in the Not-For-Profit Sector.
Hong Kong University
Professor Shenjing He is Lady Edith Kotewall Professor in the Built Environment and Head of the Department of Urban Planning and Design at the University of Hong Kong, where she also directs the Social Infrastructure for Equity and Well-being (SIEW) Lab. Her research spans urban redevelopment, gentrification, housing, urban-rural interface, and healthy cities. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (UK) and has received prestigious awards from both the NSFC and the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong. She serves as Co-Editor-in-Chief of Area Development and Policy and Chair of the Asia-Pacific Network for Housing Research (APNHR).
Shenjing He
Djordje Stojanovic
University of Melbourne
Dr Djordje Stojanovic is an Associate Professor in Architectural Design at the University of Melbourne. Born in Belgrade, he has been a registered architect in the UK for 23 years. His professional practice includes internationally published adaptive reuse projects of public significance and award-winning collective housing projects developed for international design competitions. His book, Architecture for Housing, was published by Birkhäuser in 2024. He currently serves as academic lead for the Housing Research Initiative at the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning.
https://findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/profile/841379-djordje-stojanovic
Deb Batterham
Swinburne University
Dr. Deb Batterham is a Post-doctoral Research Fellow in the Housing, Homelessness and Urban Studies Research Group (HHAUS) at Swinburne University of Technology. She is passionate about preventing and reducing homelessness and the health and safety of homelessness and community sector workers. She brings over 2 decades of experience working in the homelessness sector to her academic role.
Committee Members
Jago Dodson
RMIT University
Jago Dodson is Professor of Urban Policy and works in the Research and Innovation Portfolio as the Director of the Urban Futures Enabling Impact Platform. Jago has an extensive record of research into urban problems addressing a wide array of housing, transport, urban planning, urban policy, governance, infrastructure, energy, and spatial labour market questions. Jago's research record includes more than 140 publications and has been awarded research funding from major scientific bodies including the ARC, AHURI, NHRA, AURIN, and the EU Horizon scheme. Jago has previously led major urban research groups in Australian universities, including the Urban Research Program at Griffith University (2011-2014) the Centre for Urban Research at RMIT (2014-2023).
Dulani Halvitigala
RMIT University
Associate Professor Dulani Halvitigala specialises in property valuation and teaches property valuation courses at RMIT University. She is also the Program Manager for RMIT's Property Development, Investment and Valuation undergraduate program. Her research focuses on property valuation and related issues, climate-resilient housing, strata-titled developments and related issues, and new working practices and their impact on office markets. She has secured funding through competitive research grants from the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI), the Australian Property Institute (API), the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), Natural Hazards Research Australia (NHRA), and the Strata Community Association of Victoria (SCAV), as well as various internal RMIT research grants – securing nearly $2.0 million in competitive funding in total. She has published in high-ranked international journals and presented at prestigious international conferences. She is the Co-Editor of the Pacific Rim Property Research Journal (PRPRJ), an editorial board member for the Property Management journal, and a peer reviewer for several property journals.
RMIT University
Soheila is a Research Fellow at the School of Property, Construction and Project Management (PCPM) at RMIT University. She conducts interdisciplinary research to improve the sustainability and productivity of housing and construction. Her work operates at the intersection of the circular economy, modern methods of construction, life cycle assessment, and systems thinking and supports more regenerative ways of designing and building. Soheila holds a PhD in Architecture and Built Environment, where her doctoral research on advancing a circular economy in housing construction received the 2024 Top Performing HDR Student Prize. She works closely with industry and government stakeholders to translate research into practical strategies and policy-relevant outcomes.
Sohelia Ghafoor
Chris Leishman
Australasian Housing Studies Association, Adelaide University
Iris Levin
RMIT University
Dr Ali Zolghadr is a Lecturer in the School of Property, Construction and Project Management at RMIT University. His research focuses on housing construction, with an emphasis on the application of systems theory and simulation modelling to address complex challenges in housing supply and construction industry outcomes. His work contributes to advancing evidence-based policy and practice across the built environment.
Sarah Sinclair
RMIT University
Dr Sarah Sinclair is an Associate Professor of Economics at RMIT University. Her research spans housing economics, economic geography, institutional economics and sustainable housing, with a focus on how housing markets, places and governance systems shape household wellbeing and decision-making. Her work has examined housing wealth, ageing and retirement, mortgage stress, residential mobility, accessible housing and the social and economic value of housing design. She is also engaged in research on sustainable property investment, green finance and the institutional conditions that influence the delivery and uptake of more sustainable housing. Sarah has published across economics, housing, property and interdisciplinary social science journals and has contributed to policy-focused and industry-engaged research on housing affordability, governance, productivity and ageing well.
Ali Zolghadr
RMIT University
Dr Iris Levin is an architect, urban planner, educator and researcher. She has a passion for working with diverse communities and understanding the effects of migration on the built environment. She is interested in social housing, planning, migration and social diversity in cities.
Libby Porter
RMIT University
Professor Libby Porter leads research on the politics of urban land, property rights and dispossession, critical urban governance, and decolonising urban planning.
Libby is a planner and urban geographer working on the role of planning and urban development in dispossession and displacement, and what we might do about it. Her research has examined Indigenous rights in urban and environmental planning; cities and diversity; gentrification and displacement through urban renewal; the impact of mega-events on cities; urban sustainability; and urban informality. Her current work is in the areas of public housing, displacement and critical property studies, urban governance, decolonisation and the urban condition of settler-colonial dynamics of power.
Libby has held academic appointments in the UK and Australia and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Prior to her academic life, she worked in urban planning practice and policy-applied research in both local and State Government in Victoria, and was a member of the Expert Advisory Panel for Melbourne 2030. She has previously been Assistant Editor for Planning Theory and Practice leading the Interface section, and helped co-found Planners Network UK.
Jin Zhu
Hong Kong University
Jin Zhu is Assistant Professor in Housing Studies at the Department of Urban Planning and Design, University of Hong Kong. His research spans housing, land policy, urban and rural planning, and urbanisation and migration, and has been funded by the NSFC and the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong. He serves as Asia Area Editor of the International Journal of Housing Policy and Secretary of the Asia-Pacific Network for Housing Research (APNHR). He is also a Visiting Fellow at the City Futures Research Centre, UNSW Sydney, where he completed his PhD.
RMIT University