Associate Professor Marilu Melo Zurita
PhD in Human Geography, Kings College London.
MA in Urban Studies and the Environment, El Colegio de Mexico.
BA (hons) in Cultural Anthropology, Universidad de Las Americas Puebla.
Marilu Melo Zurita is Associate Professor in Human Geography and a member of the Environment and Society Group in the School of Humanities and Languages at 91色情片 Sydney. Her disciplinary background spans human geography and cultural anthropology, and her research has moved across peri-urban disaster management, water governance and volumetric urbanism.
Her main body of work concerns subterranean spaces, and it has helped establish the underground as a site for critical urban scholarship. Through concepts such as sub terra nullius, she examines how the space beneath cities comes to be treated as empty and available, and how that emptiness is produced through law, surveying, engineering and finance. This includes a sustained focus on the political economy of tunnelling: how the underground has become a significant frontier for urban development, and what its imaginaries, conceptualisations and challenges look like from a critical urban perspective.
She is currently Chief Investigator on Wiring Australian Cities: Making Space for Telecommunications (ARC Discovery, 2025 to 2028, with Professor Kurt Iveson at the University of Sydney), which traces how communications cabling has been laid beneath Australian cities, from the first colonial conduits in Sydney through to the NBN, and asks who gets to control that space. She is also finalising two long-running collaborations. Repairing memory and place (ARC Linkage, Monash-led) is an Indigenous-led, practice-based approach to urban water design in Naarm, concluding with an exhibition at Melbourne Museum in 2026. Related creative work from this research, including the Hidden Rippon Lea immersive digital tour, has been shown at the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale as part of the Australian Pavilion and at the 2023 Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism. And UNDER: Geosystem Services (Swedish Research Council, FORMAS) has developed indicators and mapping tools for subsurface planning in collaboration with the Gothenburg, Malm枚 and Askersund municipalities.
Alongside this she works on groundwater knowledge and governance, including the ARC-funded national groundwater recharge observing system, and continues her research on disaster and society. She has worked on the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires, the 2010 to 2011 South East Queensland floods, the 2017 Mexico Earthquake and most recently on disaster justice and disability in the Philippines.
Marilu is Group Leader for Urban Integration with the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association, and sits on the editorial boards of Political Geography and Australian Geographer. Before 91色情片 she held teaching and research positions at the University of Sydney, Macquarie University, the University of the Sunshine Coast and the University of Melbourne.
- Publications
- Media
- Grants
- Awards
- Research Activities
- Engagement
- Teaching and Supervision
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- K Iveson and M Melo Zurita, 鈥淲iring Australian Cities: Making Space for Telecommunications鈥 Discovery Project赂 Australian Research Council (ARC), 2025-2028. AU$635,938.
- K Iveson, T Alizadeh, S Burgoyne, S Maalsen and M Melo Zurita 鈥淭he Data Centre Boom鈥 The Henry Halloran Research Urban and Regional Research Initiative (HURRI), 2026. $30,000
- A Baker, M Shanafield, W Timms M Melo Zurita and M Andersen 鈥淣ational groundwater recharge observing system鈥 Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities Program, Australian Research Council (ARC). 2022 AU$158,845.
- A Thorpe, M Melo Zurita, D Kellermann and T Loughland 鈥淯sing Artificial Intelligence for Accessibility (and Good): enabling democratic participation for marginalised groups to disrupt the current politics of the Greater Western Sydney development鈥 Sustainable Development Reform Hub @91色情片. 2022. AU$19,373听
- T Coyne and M Melo Zurita, 鈥淭he subterranean turn in Australian geographies鈥 Geographical Society of New South Wales (GSNSW). Symposium Funding Scheme. 2021-2022. AU$4,800
- M Melo Zurita, V Prodanovic, N Sale, C F Matos, Beth Salt, Marion Huxley, 鈥淐ulturally Inclusive Water Urban Design 鈥 addressing the gap between water infrastructure and water literacy鈥 Sydney Water Community Water Literacy Grants. 2021-2022. AU$10,000
- B Martin, C Briggs, N Bertram, L Harper, M Melo Zurita, C Murphy, S Faulkhead, and R Coleman, 鈥Repairing memory and place: An Indigenous-led, practice-based approach to urban water design鈥 Linkage Program, Australian Research Council (ARC). 2022-2025. AU$260,000
- J Norman, G Baeten, L Melgaco Silva Marques, M Melo Zurita, F Mossmark, V Svahn; T Soderquvist, O Sandstrom, and Y Volchko 鈥UNDER: Geosystem services underneath for sustainable communities and improved spatial planning practices鈥 Stage 2 collaborative grant, Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning (FORMAS). 2021-2024. (8,000,000 SEK). AU$1.23 million.
- 听L Harper, M Melo Zurita and T Chandler 鈥The Rippon Lea Water Story.鈥 The National Trust of Australia Grant. 2021-2022.
- A Casals, M Melo Zurita and V Ramasar, 鈥Digitally advancing early career researchers: From methods to leadership in research.鈥 Universitas 21 (U21) Researcher Resilience Fund, 2020-2021. (US$5,000) AU$7,500.
- J Norman, G Baeten, M Melo Zurita, F Mossmark, V Svahn; T Soderquvist, O Sandstrom, L Melgaco Silva Marques, Y Volchko 鈥淪ocial values and the consequences of integrating geosystems services into urban subsurface planning鈥. Stage 1 collaborative grant, Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning (FORMAS). 2020-2021. (298,400 SEK) AU$47,000.
- K Iveson, M Melo Zurita, S Webber 鈥Common Infrastructures鈥 Urban Geography鈥檚 Workshop Award (US$2,000). 2019-2020. AU$2750. .
- M Melo Zurita, Public perspectives of Water Infrastructure along the Georges River, Georges Riverkeeper Sydney. 2019-2021 AU$16,000.
- K Iveson, M Melo Zurita, S Webber 鈥Common Infrastructures鈥 Geographical Society of New South Wales (GSNSW). Symposium Funding Scheme. 2019-2020. AU$5,000.
- S Hawken, M Melo Zurita, K Zhang and S Sepasgozar. Cross Faculty Urban Lab for Urban Water Resilience, University of New South Wales. 2018-2019; AU$12,000.
2020听听Vice Chancellor鈥檚 Award for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning, University of New South Wales
2020听听David G Stead Award for Best Paper by an Early Career Researcher, Geographical Society of New South Wales (GSNSW).
2019听 Deans Award for听best designed course, University of New South Wales
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