Rate My Professor Michelle Thompson-Fawcett

Professor Michelle Thompson-Fawcett (Ngāti Whātua) is a Professor in the School of Geography at the University of Otago, where she also serves as Associate Dean Māori – Manupiki Māori in the Division of Humanities. She earned a Bachelor of Town Planning (BTP) and Master of Planning (MPlan) from the University of Auckland, followed by a DPhil in Geography from the University of Oxford. Before entering academia, she spent a decade in local government planning with the New Plymouth District Council, Taranaki Regional Council, and Manukau City Council. Joining the University of Otago in 1999, she advanced to Professor, delivering her Inaugural Professorial Lecture in 2018 on identity in place. Previously Head of the Department of Geography, her career encompasses extensive research leadership, teaching, and supervision.

Thompson-Fawcett's research examines processes, practices, contests, and power relations in urban place-making and landscape change; Indigenous planning and resource management aspirations, practices, and influence; and transformations in spatial planning and governance. She leads the Toitū he Kāinga: Healthy Environmental Relationships in Urban Settings programme, funded by Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga. With 170 research outputs, she has supervised 10 PhD completions—such as theses on tenure review, neighbourhood conceptions, and Indigenous co-management—and secured grants including from the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council for Indigenous-municipal planning contact zones. Key publications include 'Explaining variability in cultural impact assessment outcomes: Insights from Aotearoa New Zealand' (2025, with D. Jolly), 'Fluid stories: Indigeneity flowing through the urban narrative' (2022), and 'Insurgent Indigenous practices and the guardianship of cultural landscapes' (2025, with C. Doyle) in A Research Agenda for Landscape Studies of Planning. She teaches Urban Geography courses (GEOG 215, 384, 457) and Planning Case Studies (PLAN 435, 535). Her contributions have earned the 2018 Distinguished New Zealand Geographer Award and Medal, Kaupapa Māori National Tertiary Teaching Excellence Award for Sustained Excellence, and Australasian Cities Research Network Medal for Indigenous-led urban planning.