Project Chief Investigators
Professor Carl Grodach
Monash University
Carl Grodach is Foundation Professor and Director of Urban Planning & Design at Monash University. His research focuses on community-level impacts of the arts and cultural industries and the impact of urban cultural policy and planning on urban development outcomes. Grodach has published extensively in leading urban studies, planning, and cultural policy journals; he is co-editor of the book, The Politics of Urban Cultural Policy: Global Perspectives (Routledge, 2013) and co-author of Urban Revitalization: Remaking Cities in a Changing World (Routledge, 2015). Grodach teaches community development, cultural planning, economic development, urban design, and urban revitalization. He also regularly provides consulting service to non-profit and governmental organisations and, in conjunction with his students, has produced a number of award-winning neighbourhood revitalisation plans.
Professor Chris Gibson
University of Wollongong
Chris Gibson is Professor of Human Geography at the University of Wollongong (UOW), and Director of the UOW Global Challenges Program. His research addresses questions of urban and regional economic and environmental change, vulnerability and resilience. Chris has published over 100 academic papers and 10 books on diverse topics – from the contributions of festivals to regional development, to the history and geography of niche industries including music, surfboard-making and guitar manufacturing. His current collaborative projects focus on economic geographies of enterprise formation at the interface of the creative industries and manufacturing, and policy-making towards the future of manufacturing cities and regions. From 2010-2013 Chris was an inaugural ARC Future Fellow, and in 2013 was the lead international expert contributor to the United Nations Creative Economy Report. Chris is currently Editor-in-Chief of the academic journal, Australian Geographer.
Professor Justin O’Connor
Monash University
Justin O’Connor is Professor of Communications and Cultural Economy at Monash University. He is also visiting Professor in the School of Media and Design, Shanghai Jiaotong University, where he jointly runs a Global Cultural Economy research hub. He heads the research unit Culture Media Economy , is program leader for the Master of Cultural and Creative Industries. He is part of the UNESCO ‘Expert Facility’, supporting the 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of Cultural Diversity, a board member of Renew Australia and convenes the Global Cultural Economy Network.
Dr Xin Gu
Monash University
Xin Gu is Lecturer in Communication and Media Studies at Monash University. Her PhD thesis was a study of cultural industries policy initiatives in Manchester (UK), where she focused on the function of networking for agglomeration, sustainability and policy delivery. Xin has published widely on subjects of urban creative clusters and agglomeration; cultural work, creative entrepreneurship; creative and cultural industries policy; media and city; maker culture and cyberculture in China.
Dr Andrew Warren
University of Wollongong
Andrew Warren is Senior Lecturer in Economic Geography and ARC DECRA Fellow at the University of Wollongong, Australia. Prior to commencing at UOW in 2015, he taught geography and planning at the University of New England. His research focuses on labour and the shifting geographies and cultures of work, and impacts of industrial and technological change. Empirically his research focuses on industrial cities and regions, and geographies of manufacturing. He is the author of Surfing Places, Surfboard Makers (University of Hawaii Press, 2014).
