Rate My Professor Emma Rowden

Dr Emma Rowden is Senior Lecturer in Architectural History and Theory in the School of Architecture at Oxford Brookes University, having joined in July 2019. Her qualifications include a BA and B Arch (Hons 1) from the University of New South Wales, a PhD from the University of Melbourne, a PCTHE from Oxford Brookes University, and Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA). Previously, she was Chancellor's Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Technology Sydney, held research and teaching roles at Western Sydney University, UNSW Australia, and the University of Melbourne, and worked in architectural practice at PTW Architects in Sydney on heritage, justice environments, hospitals, age-in-place developments, and competitions such as Barangaroo. She teaches research methods across undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral levels, including leading modules and co-leading the Environment and Society stream of the Faculty of Technology, Design and Environment's Doctoral Training Programme. Since September 2021, as Postgraduate Research Tutor, she manages MPhil/PhD progression and serves on committees including the Research Degrees Committee, Humanities, Environment and Social Sciences Research Sub-Committee, and Faculty Research Knowledge Exchange Committee.

Rowden's research specializations cover the politics of design, architecture's links to democracy and the public, public architecture's professional role, and spatial design's impact on fairness, with emphasis on law court design for access to justice. She leads the project 'Public architecture: courthouse design, due process and dignity' and served as Co-Investigator on ESRC/UKRI 'Virtual Justice' (2020), Leverhulme 'Design and Due Process' (2014), and Australian Research Council projects like 'Just Spaces' (2013). Major publications include 'The Democratic Courthouse: A Modern History of Design, Due Process and Dignity' (Routledge, 2020; with L. Mulcahy), 'Remote Witnesses: Improving Their Experience of Technology, Orientation and Environment When Participating via Audio-Visual Links' (Tilburg Law Review, 2024), 'Remote judging: The impact of video links on the image and the role of the judge' (International Journal of Law in Context, 2018), and 'Design, dignity and due process: The construction of the Coffs Harbour Courthouse' (Law, Culture and the Humanities, 2018). Awards comprise University of Oxford Vice-Chancellor's Innovation and Engagement Award (2022), SLSA Impact Prize shortlist (2023), SLSA Book Prize shortlist (2021), LSE Visiting Fellowship (2015), and UTS Chancellor's Fellowship (2013). Her outputs influence courthouse designs, provide litigant videos for HMCTS, and inform judicial policy.