Professor Janet McGaw is a Professor in Architectural Design and Practice in the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning at the University of Melbourne. She serves as Director of the Bachelor of Design in the Melbourne School of Design. McGaw holds a PhD, a Masters by Research, and a Bachelors Degree with Honours, all from the University of Melbourne, and is a qualified architect. Her research specializations encompass place and health, Indigenous placemaking in urban settings, urbanism, Indigenous cultures, social and cultural anthropology, spatial planning, and urban sustainability. She investigates ways to make urban space more equitable through creative practice and collaborations with Indigenous communities, including projects such as Indigenous Placemaking in Central Melbourne, (Not) Royal Park: Recovering the Enduring Importance of a Kulin Nation’s Gathering Place for Culture, Health, Wellbeing and Healing, and People, Stories and Place: Yalinguth.

McGaw has authored key publications including the book Assembling the Centre: Architecture for Indigenous Culture in Australia (2022, co-authored with Anoma Pieris); “A ‘Holding Place’: An Indigenous Typology to Mediate Hospital Care” (2022, Journal of Architectural Education), which received the 2023 JAE Best Article Award in the Essay category; “Indigenous Spirituality, Health, and Well-Being in the Young: Yarns With the Victorian Aboriginal Community” (2024); “‘Doing culture’ in contemporary south-eastern Australia: how Indigenous people are creating and maintaining strong cultural identities for improved health and wellbeing” (2024, BMC Public Health); “Challenging Thematic Consensus to Decolonise Grounded Theory” (2023, International Journal of Qualitative Methods); and “Tangled Tales of Mycelium and Architecture: Learning From Failure” (2022, Frontiers in Built Environment). In teaching, she earned the 2023 Open Award for Excellence in Teaching for restructuring the Master of Architecture design studio curricula to integrate Indigenous competencies as required by the Architects Accreditation Council of Australia. This involved inviting cultural advisors, organizing site visits, symposia with Indigenous elders, and developing resources like educative videos and specialized rubrics to orient students towards Indigenous life-worlds and epistemes. Her work advances decolonized approaches in architectural education and design practice, promoting reconciliation and cultural sensitivity.

Professional Email: mcgawjk@unimelb.edu.au