Dr Ashraful Alam

• Teaching
• Research interests
• Current research projects
• Postgraduate student supervision
• Selected awards and grants
• Publications

Teaching

• ENVI 111 Environment and Society
• GEOG 214 Economic Geography of the Post-World War II Era
• ENVI 311 Understanding Environmental Issues
• GEOG 374 Economic Geography of the Post-World War II Era
• GEOG 384 Urban Geography
• PLAN 435 Planning Case Study I
• PLAN 438 Planning Practice
• PLAN 535 Planning Case Study II
• PLAN 590 Planning Project
• APPS 597 Supervised Independent Study
  

Research interests

My research falls under the broad umbrella of urban and cultural geography and planning. I am interested in examining the structural dynamics of places creating conditions of otherness/othering and enabling more ‘subaltern’ and informal infrastructural politics. I am particularly interested in exploring the ways different marginalised, less-represented (e.g. migrants, refugees, climate-displaced families, the urban homeless, students and women) and sometimes more-than-human (e.g. plants and animals) communities use their own agencies to make and remake everyday places outside the expert frame. My research often employs innovative and creative methods and methodologies that empower my research participants to bring out alternative meanings and dynamics of the social worlds that may remain otherwise hidden through conventional methods.

Current research projects

• Minority ethnic migrant's settlement experience in rural New Zealand (2021 - present)
• Muslim migrant women’s politics of representation in New Zealand cities (2021 - present)
• Changing geographies of cities (2020 - present)
• Migrant imaginaries and the construction of Australian identities: the case of South Asian communities in Sydney and Perth (2018 – present)
• Well-being in the cities of Global South: Perspectives of the internally displaced children (2016 – present)

PhD supervision available

I have the capacity to take on new PhD students. My current research projects align with following areas where I would be keen to supervise PhD students are as follows:

1. Politics of urban dwelling

• Migrant identity politics in gateway cities
• Politics of housing, home and homelessness
• Urban (in)formality

2. Counter-Cities

• multi-species and more-than-human cities
• Care as infrastructure, and care-full approaches to planning
• Beyond urban exceptionalism, alternate urban imaginaries

If you are interested in any of the above or in a related field of urban planning and development, urban political ecology, or urban and cultural geographies, please email me at ash.alam@otago.ac.nz. I am happy to supervise students who wish to do research in Aotearoa New Zealand, the Pacific or in the student’s home country or country of interest. Suitably qualified applicants would be supported to apply for the University of Otago Doctoral Scholarship.

Postgraduate student supervision

Students (current)

• Rajan Ghosh, PhD – Social impacts of Pasifika ‘climigration’
• Koritiemo James Fawei, PhD – Climate change vulnerabilities in the Niger Delta Region
• Matthew Campbell, MPlan – Precinct planning in Dunedin
• George Van Pelt, MPlan – Post-earthquake urban regeneration in Christchurch CBD
• Josh Kenneally, MPlan – Resource Management Act (RMA 1991) Reform
• Trent Lynch, MPlan – High-density low-rise apartments influencing housing affordability
• Wanli Cheng, MIDP – Hong Kong’s education and the “one country, two systems”

Students (Completed)

• Kelsey Newman, MPlan – Planning for Street Art in Aotearoa-New Zealand Cities
• Jack Cowie, MPlan – Network-oriented public transport planning in medium and small New Zealand cities
• James Nicol, MPlan – The influence of planning controls on the land market and urban development in New Zealand
• Dermot Frengley, MPlan – Public Participation in Environmental Planning in New Zealand: A Look at Predator 2050
• Brenna Sherson, MPlan – The impact of sea level rise on the residents of South Dunedin: learnings for future relocation planning
• Kurt Bowen, MPlan - A study into the feasibility of a ‘land for affordable housing’ policy for private development in Dunedin City

Selected awards and grants

• 2017 – Geography Society NSW (GSNSW) Photo Competition (1st place).
• 2016 – Brown International Advanced Research Institutes (BIARI) Alumni Funding (USD 10,000), Brown University, USA.
• 2016 – Macquarie University Postgraduate Research Fellowship (MQPGRF).
• 2015 – European Network of Political Ecology (ENTITLE) Scientific Committee Travel Grant.
• 2013-2016 – Macquarie University Research Excellence Scholarship (MQRES).
• 2012 –Hong Kong Institute of Planners (HKIP) Merit Award.
• 2011 - Hong Kong Institute of Planners (HKIP) Prizes.
• 2011 – Erasmus Mundus City Regeneration (reCity) Planning Competition (5th place).
• 2010 – International Design Summer School (IDSS), Tongji University (1st place).
• 2009-2011 – Asian  Development Bank- Japan Scholarship Programme (ADB-JSP), Department of Urban Planning and Design, The University of Hong Kong.

Selected conference outputs

Alam, A.F.M.A. & Khalil, M.B. (2011). Mapping sustainability for Hong Kong: future direction. The 11th International Congress of Asian Planning Schools Association (APSA), September 2011, Department of Urban Engineering, University of Tokyo, Japan. 958-968.

Rahman, M.S., Darain, K.M. & Alam, A.F.M.A. (2009). Waste generation scenario of fish processing industries at Khulna of Bangladesh. The International Conference on Solid Waste Management, WasteSafe 2009, 9-10 November, Department of Civil Engineering, KUET, Bangladesh. 377-385. (ISSN: 978-984-33-0761-3)

Alam, A.F.M.A., Hakim, S.S. & Khalil, M.B. (2008). Crisis in spatial order of public buildings: the experience from Khulna city, Bangladesh. 5th Great Asian Streets Symposium (GAAS): A Public Forum of Asian Urban Design, December 2008, School of Design and Environment, National University of Singapore, 109. (ISBN: 978-981-08-2012-1), Proceedings CD: (ISBN: 978-981-08-2013-8).

^ Top of page

Publications