Dr Ashraful Alam

Biography

I am a Senior Lecturer in Social Planning at the University of Melbourne. Prior to joining the University of Melbourne, I directed the internationally renowned Master of Planning Programme at the University of Otago for five years.

My research falls under the broad umbrella of urban studies and planning, with a strong emphasis on social and cultural dynamics. For more than a decade, my research has been centred on migrant politics of housing and belonging in destination. I am particularly interested in investigating how various marginalised agencies, both human (e.g., internal and international migrants, climate-displaced families, the urban homeless, students and women) and non-human (e.g., plants and animals), shape urban spaces and infrastructures. I frequently use innovative user-centered community engagement tools to empower my research participants, allowing them to explain alternative meanings and dynamics in their social worlds without the researcher's bias.

My most recent research focuses on migrant settlement experiences outside of large cities in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. The research is funded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and I am working with colleagues from Toronto Metropolitan University, the University of Calgary, Griffith University, and the University of Otago. I have established research collaborations with NGOs and universities in Bangladesh, where I primarily focus on informal city-making processes outside of established slums, which are frequently triggered by climate change-induced rural-to-urban migration.

Featured projects

• Beyond the Metropolis