Rate My Professor Michelle Thompson-Fawcett

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.