ProfessorPauline McGuirk

Pauline joined the University of Sydney School of Architecture, Design and Planning as Professor of Urbanism in August, 2026. She joins the University following a long career at the University of Wollongong, where she was Director of the Australian Centre for Culture, Environment, Society and Space (ACCESS).

Her research sits at the intersection of urban political geography and urban studies. Her long-standing research focus is the critical study of urban governance, and how its changing geographies, material practices and politics transform as it intersects with socio-economic, technological and environmental change. She has published widely on these themes, along with work on the governance of housing and the meaning of home and neighbourhood. Her published work spans over 130 journal articles, book chapters and books, along with over 40 reports for government and industry research partners.

Her research has been supported by numerous Australian Research Council Discovery and Linkage grants, along with substantial externally-funded research partnerships. Her most recent ARC Discovery project (with Maalsen and Dowling) explores the practices, politics and materialities of integrating AI into urban governance. This work was initiated through her co-edited book Artificial Intelligence and the City: Urbanistic Perspectives on AI published Taylor and Francis by (2023).

Pauline is an elected Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia in 2016 in recognition of her contribution to the social sciences. She was an Editor of the flagship journal Progress in Human Geography (2015-2020). She has also held visiting fellowships at the University of British Columbia, Trinity College Dublin, the Urban Institute at the University of Sheffield, and the National University of Ireland Maynooth.

She is an enthusiastic mentor of early- and mid-career researchers, and has an extensive research and career mentoring.