Associate ProfessorRobert Faggian

Teaching expertise

Robert teaches into Deakin's Master of Sustainability, focusing on climate change adaptation, regional development and spatial analysis for sustainability planning. His teaching treats sustainability challenges as decision problems that graduates must learn to navigate under uncertainty and institutional constraint, not as technical exercises with a single correct answer. It draws directly on his applied research and engagement with governments, planners, emergency services and communities across Australia and internationally.

He chairs and teaches three postgraduate units. SLE740, Climate Change, Adaptation and Mitigation, covers the science of climate change and evidence-based adaptation and mitigation strategies across sectors, with attention to uncertainty and decision-making in policy contexts. SLE741, Regional Development Economics for Sustainability, examines classical, contemporary and alternative economic theories in the context of sustainable regional development and long-term structural change. SLE743, Spatial Analysis and Geographic Information Systems, develops practical skills in GIS-based modelling and scenario development for land-use planning and policy-relevant decision-support.

Students are encouraged to question the assumptions embedded in models and analytical tools, the institutional contexts in which decisions are made, and the downstream consequences of the choices those tools inform. The aim is to prepare graduates to work at the science-policy interface rather than as narrow technical specialists.

PhD and Masters supervision

Robert supervises doctoral and masters research in climate change adaptation, sustainability and decision-support. He has supervised 14 doctoral candidates to completion, ten of them at Deakin since 2020, and currently supervises ten more, alongside a substantial group of masters students in Uruguay through the ANII scholarship scheme. Projects of interest engage with socio-environmental systems where climate risk, governance and development pressures interact, including climate adaptation and its limits, systems thinking and complexity, spatial and GIS-based analysis, nature-based solutions, agricultural and rural adaptation, climate-related health impacts, and the governance and political-economy dimensions of adaptation decisions.

AI-enabled and systems modelling approaches are an active current focus. Current doctoral candidates are working on explainable AI for human-machine teaming, AI applications in emergency response, and AI for water management. These projects continue the broader concern running through Robert's supervision: how analytical tools can support better decisions while remaining transparent, accountable and appropriate to the context in which they are used.

Prospective students

Robert receives a high volume of enquiries from prospective students, including applicants seeking scholarships or supervision places before engaging with Deakin’s formal processes. Scholarships and places cannot be allocated informally or at a supervisor’s discretion; all applicants must follow Deakin’s admission and scholarship procedures. Useful enquiries briefly state the research problem and its intended decision or policy context, and confirm that Deakin’s HDR or Master’s-by-research admission and scholarship guidelines have already been reviewed. Enquiries that do not show this may not receive priority.