Meet the Board
The Board exists to keep the Press on the bent and the wide as opposed to the straight and the narrow.
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Louise Johnson
Chair.
Dr Louise Johnson is an Honorary Professor at Deakin University and Honorary (Professorial Fellow) at the University of Melbourne. A human geographer, she taught for over 40 years in Australian and New Zealand universities and has a solid record of research, policy development and community activism. Key recent books include The Story of Australia (2022 with Tanja Luckins and David Walker) and Planning in Indigenous Australia-From Imperial Foundations to Postcolonial Futures (2018 with Sue Jackson and Libby Porter). -
Brendan Gleeson
Honorary Editorial Advisor.
Brendan founded Shiel Street Press, named after the street he lives in. He is also Professor of Urban Planning at The University of Melbourne. He is author of numerous books including several with his friend and fellow board member, Sam Alexander – Degrowth in the Suburbs (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019) and Urban Awakenings: Disturbance and Enchantment in the Industrial City (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020). -
Samuel Alexander
Samuel Alexander has spent the last 15 years as an academic at Melbourne University, lecturing for the Master of Environment and researching with the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute. Currently he is co-director of the Simplicity Institute, an independent centre exploring degrowth, post-carbon energy transitions, and post-capitalist futures. His recent books include Beyond Capitalist Realism (2021) and Art Against Empire (2017), as well as Urban Awakenings (2020) and Degrowth in the Suburbs (2019) (the latter two being co-written with Brendan Gleeson). Most of his writing is available at samuelalexander.info
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Pat Fensham
Pat is a Principal and Partner at SGS Economics and Planning where he works to address social disadvantage and find solutions and innovations to policy challenges and issues. Pat specialises in metropolitan and strategic planning, infrastructure planning and funding analysis, cultural development, regional and community economic development, development feasibility analysis and facilities audits and planning. He’s a bad guitar player, keen music fan and in his spare time likes swimming and yoga.
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Liz Taylor
Dr Elizabeth (Liz) Taylor is a Senior Lecturer in Urban Planning and Design at Monash University. She has previously worked in research fellowship roles at RMIT and at Melbourne University. Often using spatial and historical perspectives, her research develops understanding of long-term urban change and the role of policy settings in it. She is the author of "Dry Zones: Planning and the Hangovers of Liquor Licensing History" (2019). She is also co-host of the podcast "This Must Be The Place", a musician and member of nerd-folk band Taylor Project, and an enthusiast of country swimming pools,
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Charity Edwards
Charity Edwards is a lecturer in both Architecture and Urban Planning & Design at Monash University and a practicing architect, with 20 years of experience on projects in Australia and internationally. She is also a co-founder of The Afterlives of Cities research collective, which brings together expertise in architecture, astrophysics, and speculative fiction to recover futures through civic creative practice. Their recent Warracknabeal Courthouse Reactivation was announced as one of “the key projects that are supporting economic recovery and building a stronger Victoria.”
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Stephen Regan
Stephen Regan is Professor Emeritus at Durham University (UK), where he was Director of the Centre for Poetry and Poetics from 2004 to 2021. He is currently a research associate in the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne. His books include Irish Writing: An Anthology of Irish Literature in English 1789-1939 (OUP, 2004) and The Sonnet (OUP, 2019). He has recently edited The Penguin Book of Elegy (with Andrew Motion) and is also editing three volumes of the forthcoming Oxford History of Poetry in English.
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Claire Denby
Claire Denby brings communications, editorial, design and marketing expertise to Shiel St Press. Her experience spans across strategic planning, communications, engagement, community and stakeholder relations in the areas of sustainability research, climate change, health and social equity. She is passionate about the natural environment, community, social justice and creating a better and balanced world.
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Graeme Davison AO
Graeme Emeritus Sir John Monash Distinguished Professor at Monash University. He is a former President of the Australian Historical Association, Chairman of the Heritage Council of Victoria, a Fellow of the Australian Academies of Social Sciences and Humanities, and a prominent adviser and commentator on museums, heritage and urban policy. In 2011 he was made an Officer in the Order of Australia.
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Dominique Hes
Dominique Hes is the Zero Carbon Building Lead at the City of Melbourne and Chair of the board of Greenfleet. She is an award-winning educator and writer with more than 25 years’ experience at universities, professional organisations and communities. With degrees in Botany, Engineering, Architecture and a Certificate in Governance, Dominique brings an interdisciplinary approach to all her work. She has written or edited 6 books and over 100 papers.