Naomi Stead

Biography

Dr Naomi Stead is Professor and Head of Department in Architecture at Monash University, and co-founder of Parlour: women, equity, architecture. Naomi is also Adjunct Professor in Architecture at the University of Queensland and past President of the Society of Architectural Historians of Australia and New Zealand. Her research interests lie in architecture’s cultures of re/production, mediation and reception. She is an award-winning and widely published architecture critic, having written more than fifty commissioned feature and review articles in professional magazines over the past decade, and is presently a columnist for the San Francisco–based Places Journal, where she writes essays on concepts and mythologies within and without architecture. She is an experienced qualitative researcher, having undertaken a range of research projects assessing the social, cultural and architectural significance of built architectural projects. Naomi was the leader of the ARC Linkage project ‘Equity and Diversity in the Australian Architecture Profession: Women, Work and Leadership,’ which was the genesis of Parlour. She is currently developing a new research project investigating mental health in Australian architecture.

Session details

Day 1

9.15–10am

Parlour lessons

What has Parlour learnt over the last eight years? What ideas can we offer about effective action? Justine Clark and Naomi Stead reflect on the project of advocating for greater gender equity.

Day 1

2.30–4pm

Leadership from the top – the potential of policy

What can equity policy offer? How do we ensure that it is deployed effectively to gain traction and achieve real change? Emily Grandstaff-Rice, Natalie Galea, Amy Muir and Jocelyn Chiew explore the challenges of putting policy to work in a panel discussion chaired by Naomi Stead.

Day 2

9.45–10.30am

Mental wellbeing

What can we do to improve the mental health and wellbeing of architecture students and practitioners as they navigate the built environment professions? A conversation between Naomi Stead and Ben Channon.

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