Shiva Nouri
Doctor of Philosophy candidate
Urban planning
Biography
Shiva is currently a PhD candidate in the urban planning discipline at the Melbourne School of Design at the University of Melbourne. She has a Bachelor of Urban Planning from IKIU and a Master of Urban Planning from Shahid Beheshti University (SBU). Shiva’s research is situated at the intersection of planning, feminist studies, and the debates on the use of digital technologies in cities, using ethnographic methodologies. Her research investigates how social media is affecting women’s experiences of urban public spaces. This research attempts to produce new knowledge about the role of social media in cultivating responsive public spaces by engaging with women’s lived experiences in public spaces. Before moving to Melbourne for her PhD, Shiva worked with government agencies and private planning consultant companies as a professional urban planner in Iran. Her further research interests include urban planning and socio-spatial justice, participatory planning, global south, and feminist geography.
Thesis
Social media for empowering women in urban public spaces
The contemporary urban experience is characterized by the pervasiveness of digital technologies within the built environment and people’s everyday activities within cities are increasingly mediated by social media. Recognizing the embeddedness of social media in cities opens new possibilities for feminist analyses to explore how social media influences women's right to the city, and how it shapes the spatial practices of women in urban environments. In this research, I will investigate how, why and with what consequences migrant women are using social media in the context of everyday urban life. By investigating the lived relationships between migrant women, urban public spaces, and social media, this project works toward an understanding of the extent to which social media can support women’s empowerment in urban public spaces.