Dr Carolyn Whitzman
BA Honours (Concordia), MA (Toronto), PhD (McMaster)
Member, Planning Institute of Australia
Senior Lecturer in Urban Planning
Email: whitzman@unimelb.edu.au
Dr. Carolyn Whitzman joined the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning in July 2003. Previously, she worked as a social policy planner with the City of Toronto from 1989 to 1999. Her planning consultancy practice has included work with local, state and national governments; colleges and universities; non-profit organizations; and businesses, in Canada, the US, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK.
Dr. Whitzman has an international reputation for her work on the prevention of violence in urban areas, and she has been a keynote speaker at several conferences on this subject. Her work in Toronto has been cited as 'best practice' by the United Nations Commission on Housing Services (UN-Habitat) and the International Centre for the Prevention of Crime. She is the Chair of the Planning for Health and Well-Being Project, funded by the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (VicHealth), Board Member of Women in Cities International (www.womenincities.org) and sits on the Planning Institute of Australia's National Education Committee. She has also done research on social infrastructure provision and on the relationship between changing images, social conditions, and planning in a historic perspective. Her current research projects include: gender, local governance, and violence prevention; evaluating and monitoring crime prevention policy; institutional and social barriers to children walking and cycling in their neighbourhoods; and health-supportive urban planning policy.
Current Teaching Responsibilities
705-289 Urbanisation and Urban Development
705-337/ 705-637 Social Planning for Health
705-641 Managing Change
Current Administrative Responsibilities
Postgraduate Coordinator, Urban Planning
Research Interests
- gender, local governance and violence prevention in Victoria and internationally
- the relationships between the built environment and health outcomes
- institutional enablers to children's independent mobility in cities
Funded Research
| Project | Gender, Local Governance, and Violence Prevention |
| Year: | 2006-09 |
| Source: | Australian Research Council Linkage Grant (with Victorian Health Promotion Foundation- VicHealth) |
| Project | Institutional Enablers to Children's 'right to the city' |
| Year: | 2005-06 |
| Source: | Australasian Centre for the Governance and Management of Urban Transport (funded by the Volvo Research and Education Foundation) |
| Project | Campus-Community Partnerships to Prevent Violence (with Latrobe University Public Health Department and the City of Whittlesea) |
| Year: | 2005-06 |
| Source: | VicHealth Research Grant |
| Project | Gender, Violence Prevention, and Local Governance: Making the Links |
| Year: | 2005 |
| Source: | Early Career Researcher Grant, University of Melbourne |
| Project | Feminist Planning Practice over the long distance (with Women and Cities International) |
| Year: | 2005 |
| Source: | Association for Canadian Studies in Australia and New Zealand |
| Project | Canadian and International Good Practice on Women and Safer Communities |
| Year: | 2003-2006 |
| Source: | Status of Women Canada Project Grant |
| Project | Doctoral Fellowship |
| Year: | 2000-2003 |
| Source: | Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada |
Awards Received
- Starkey-Robinson Award, Canadian Association of Geographers, for doctoral dissertation that best advances the discipline (2005)
- Faculty Teaching Award (2004)
Recent Publications
Books
C Whitzman and G Wekerle, Safe Cities: guidelines for planning, design, and management, New York, Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1995.
Book chapters
C Whitzman, "Safer Cities, Gender Mainstreaming, and Human Rights", in Report of Valladolid 2004: the Right to Safety and the City, La Paz, R et al eds., Valladolid, Spain: University of Valladolid School of Architecture Special Paper no. 3, 2004, pp. 23-27.
C Whitzman, 'The 'Voice of Women' in Canadian Local Government' in Urban Affairs: Back on the Policy Agenda, C Andrew K Graham and S Rankin eds, Montreal and Kingston, Queen's University Press, 2002, pp 93-118.
C Whitzman, 'Social Infrastructure in Tall Buildings: a tale of two towers' in Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat: Cities in the New Millenium, London, Spon Press, 2001, pp 59-74.
Refereed journal articles
Whitzman, C. "Gender, Fear of Crime and the Challenge of Creating Safer Space", Environment and Planning A, in press.
Whitzman, C; SLATER, T. "Ghetto Village Land: Myth and Housing Policy in Parkdale Toronto, 1883-2003", Urban Affairs Review, 41(5), 673-696, 2006.
Whitzman, C. "At the intersection of invisibilities: women, homelessness, and health outside the 'big city'", Gender, Place, and Culture, 13(4), 383-399, 2006.
C Whitzman, "Social Planning and Crime Prevention: lessons from innovative practices", Australian Planner, 42(3), 32-35.
C Whitzman, "Safer Space in Toronto," Urban Planning Overseas 19(4), 58-61, 2005. [in Chinese]; English version published in Special Issues in Urban Planning in Toronto, York University Centre for Urban Studies, 121-130, 2005 and online www.arts.yorku.ca/sosc/urbanst/publications.html
C Whitzman, 'Feminist Activism for Safer Social Space in High Park, Toronto: how women got lost in the woods' Canadian Journal of Urban Research, 11(2), pp 47-67, 2002.
Refereed conference papers
C Whitzman, "Local governance, community safety, and gender: a comparison of Australian and Canadian initiatives", National Conference on the State of Australian Cities, Sydney, 4,500 words, published online 2003 www.uws.edu.au/about/acadorg/caess/uf/conference#4.
Reports to Government and NGOs that are Publicly Available
C Whitzman and M Canuto, Women's Safety Awards 2004: a compendium of good practices, report published in hard copy and online at www.femmesetvilles.org, December 2004.
Keynote Addresses
"Safer Cities and Urban Development," Sharing Across Borders – Learning from Experience Training Institute, International Centre for the Prevention of Crime, Mont Tremblant Canada, June 2006.
"Gender, Local Governance and Violence Prevention", City Times in Urban Planning: Feminist Views International Conference, Bergamo Italy, March 2006.
"Cross-Cultural Lessons from Best Practices on Women and Community Safety", Second International Seminar on Women's Safety, Bogota, November 2004.
Research Supervision
- Julie Rudner (PhD candidate), Institutional Enablers to Children's 'right to the city'
- Patricia Hayes (PhD candidate), Gender, Local Governance, and Violence Prevention.