Associate ProfessorBeau Beza

Dr. Beza's academic career was set in motion during his PhD studies where he combined aesthetic transactions and evidence-based decision making to produce outcomes. His thesis involved developing an aesthetic model that he used to identify local resident and tourist perceptions of the Mt. Everest landscape. This perceptual data, obtained from 150 respondents in Nepal and Australia, was analysed using statistical techniques (e.g. ANOVA, Cluster & Factor Analysis) and the aesthetic model to provide for evidence-based decision making in his development of a waste management system for the Junbesi Valley, Nepal.

Beau has undertaken a number of leadership roles at Deakin University. Below is a brief synopsis of each:

Higher Degrees Research Coordinator (i.e. Doctor of Philosophy Coordinator) (current role)

School of Architecture and Built Environment 

Role description: To provide academic leadership related to Higher Degrees by Research (HDR) in School disciplines (i.e. Architecture, Construction Management, Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning). In my 2024 appointment, emphasis in my HDR role is in the Architecture discipline and acting on my agenda to improve female candidature enrolments and retention, single parent support, and establishing an understanding amongst staff/students of philosophical research (world)views and design research approaches. To identify and select PhD students to enter the HDR program, oversee supervisory arrangements between staff/students, and to ensure that candidates’ academic needs are met as well as to cultivate a scholarly atmosphere in the School. Chair relevant meetings (e.g. confirmation, progress support) and liaison with relevant Deakin University and faculty officers and academics. Provide training and development for supervisors and students through, for example, HDR seminars to ensure both parties participate effectively in the intellectual life of the school and faculty. To resolve disputes and/or provide support for students/staff leading to a PhD candidate’s successful submission of a thesis, thesis by publication, creative work plus exegesis or folio.

Deputy Associate Dean, Teaching and Learning 

Faculty of Science, Engineering and Built Environment

Role description: Responsible for overseeing and implementing projects related to improving student learning and engagement, and academic teaching across the four schools* in the Faculty of Science Engineering and Built Environment. In support of the Associate Dean Teaching and Learning; i) To advise on policy, procedural and curriculum issues related to teaching and learning (T/L) across the faculty, with the intent of improving students’ university experience and their employability, ii) To support the faculty advance its T/L objectives in its four schools, and iii) To proactively engage in T/L matters with Deakin University’s Deputy Vice‐Chancellor Academic (DVCA), Pro Vice‐Chancellor (Teaching and Learning) (PVCT/L), Dean of Students and the university’s four faculties**, committees and academic/research groups^.

* School of Architecture and Built Environment, School of Information Technology, School of Life and Environmental Science and School of Engineering.

**Faculty of Health; Faculty of Business and Law; Faculty of Science, Engineering and Built Environment; and Faculty of Arts and Education.

^ E.g. Office of the Vice-Chancellor; Office of Academic Governance and Standards; Education Analytics & Business Performance Insights group; Student Complaints, Appeals & Conduct division; and Prospective Students group.

Acting Associate Dean, Teaching and Learning

Faculty of Science, Engineering and Built Environment

Role description: To engage with the DVCA and the university’s teaching/learning executive to provide advice leading to the development and actioning of on-going strategies that support student development across the university, academic colleagues’ teaching and professional staff development as well as implantation of contemporary tools supporting knowledge transfer. To manage up/down information leading to the development and implementation of positive T/L strategies for effective online teaching and assessment. To consult with the university’s four faculties and executive groups across its four campuses through to the individual program level to develop and implement teaching and assessment strategies leading to effective student learning/assessment outcomes.

Associate Head of School, Teaching and Learning

School of Architecture and Built Environment 

Role description: To provide leadership to the school in all aspects of Deakin’s T/L plans and be an active member of the School Executive. To work collaboratively with the professoriate, academic and administrative staff of the school and faculty, to ensure high quality cross-disciplinary T/L and student learning/engagement within the school. To develop and deliver accredited, high quality on‐campus and cloud‐based T/L programs. To work collaboratively with the faculty’s Associate Dean Teaching and Learning, Deputy General Manager, the Governance and Curriculum Group and the Student and Staff Support Group to ensure the management of the school’s teaching and learning align with the university and faculty goals and plans.

Course Director of Urban Planning and Landscape Architecture programs

School of Architecture and Built Environment 

Role description: To provide academic oversight and management of Planning, Urban Design and Landscape Architecture programs to achieve in students their meeting of both professional association accreditation competencies and Deakin University’s GLOs/CLOs/ULOs. To engage across disciplines and the AHoS T/L to promote learning outcomes that support cross‐disciplinary knowledge to produce rounded graduates. To manage up/down information to develop and implement course strategies that support cross‐discipline learning.

Associate Professor

School of Architecture and Built Environment

Role description: To teach in the school with emphasis on cross-disciplinary design that is in theme with current built environment issues and consistent with the University's principles of teaching, learning and advancing students’ experience. To develop learning environments that are flexible, student-centred and accessible, and to utilise appropriate technology. To contribute to research, scholarly publication and the generation of research funding. To develop and nurture links and partnerships with industry, professional bodies and the wider community. To supervise PhD research and honours students, ensuring successful completions and quality of results. To contribute to the visioning and administration of the School and Faculty.

Scholarship and Teaching Aim

Dr. Beza's scholarship and teaching aim is to understand the social production of space and to use this knowldge to develop appropriate site solutions. This aim is achieved through meaningful knowledge exchanges with communities, academics and students where collaboration and the co-production of projects are key to producing applied and scholarly outcomes.

Outcomes achieving of his aim:
-Growing Up In Cities III. Dr. Beza is project co-lead and conducting research into young people’s contemporary urban life. He leads the project across 15 countries, where 40+ researchers are examining adolescent's perceptions of urban space to better understand the impact the local environment has on their lives.

-Urban Space: Experiences and Considerations from the Global South](https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvhn0bx4). An edited volume analysing and discussing the "appropriate, negotiation and reconfiguration of Urban Space in cities".

-Development and realisation of a Sensory Urbanism (SU) design research studio investigating the multi-sensory/temporal aspects of place. This studio led to the development of a SU [prototype](https://mindlab.cloud/place-making-using-virtual-environments-2/), involving Industrial Design and Architecture students from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (Bogota, Colombia) and Deakin University's built environment PG students. Reporting of this prototype was published in 2019 and presented at the 24th Annual Conference of the Association for Computer-Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia. Currently, he is continuing this work with colleagues at the University of Sydney and Deakin University's [Mediated Intelligence in Design (MInD) Lab](https://mindlab.cloud/#about).

-Development and realisation of an intercultural design studio ([Finding Common Ground](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8inJADSJ-w)) focused on urban redevelopment in Melbourne and Mexico City as well as a conference paper and presentation at the International Urban Design Conference held in Sydney, Australia.

-Planning & realisation of a rural (urban) [development and rebuilding studio](https://www.facebook.com/keepwalkingnepal/photos/a.1072179576260596/1877816469030232/?type=3&theater). Since 2010 this studio examines community self-help/self-organisation practices, in a rural urbanising community in the Mt. Everest region of Nepal. Outcomes related to this work include a journal article published in Planning Theory and Practice (see, 17(2)) and a chapter titled Placemaking in a world where spirituality and community development meet - the Junbesi Valley, Nepal (see above book).

The above support a research and teaching framework that uses concepts established by Heidegger (1962, 2008; 1971, 1975) (being and dwell) and Lefebvre (1996) (an oeuvre and autogestion) to establish a philosophical foundation to Beza's work. That is, 'being' and dwell are used to structure arguments of the existence of urban space. This is extremely important when, for example, examining space created in informal settlements as these settings (in Colombia, Mexico) are largely considered not to exist in a formal planning/regulatory sense and are overlooked by city officials. Lefebvre's concept then allows for the '[ ] exceptional social capital and self-organisation practices [ ]' that display '[ ] distinctive socio-spatial qualities and dynamics that result from' the social production of space to be articulated. Yet, as the design profession is an experience based field Beza also employs Dewey's (1934) philosophical deliberations to explain '[ ] aesthetic transactions in human living'. Which allows him to use Dewey's work to provide a bridge to relate the above philosophies to that of the human experience of urban space, which can also be used to link relatively contemporary arguments of place established by Tuan (1971; 1977), Relph (1976), Whyte (1980), and Hayden (1996).

Research Groups
Research Group Membership

[Growing Up In Cities III](https://www.deakin.edu.au/architecture-built-
environment/research/growing-up-in-cities): Project Lead, Co-ordinator &
Researcher

Team Member of the [Mediated Intelligence in Design (MInD)
Lab](//mindlab.cloud/#about)

Researcher [HOME](//deakinhomeresearchhub.com/)

Competitive Grants/Awards/research consultancy and Prizes (Figures in Australian dollars) (Total from major awards 2010-2020: $1,736,000)

Endeavour Leadership Program grant, Australian Government Department of Education and Training (2019/20) $26,500. Title of project Informal
Settlements: Challenges and Opportunities in Urban Development, in collaboration with Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogota, Colombia and
Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City, Mexico.

Coastal scenario planning and assessment modelling research project (2019), $63,000. Through the Great Ocean Road Coast Committee, in partnership with Deakin University's Live Smart Research Lab (2019).

Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR)(2013-2017)
$1.4 million (Chief Investigator (CI) and team member/Category 1/ACIAR project code ASEM/2012/063). Research title: Improving the methods and impacts of agricultural extension in conflict areas of Mindanao, Philippines.

Places Victoria/RMIT University Placemaking Research Grant (2011-2012)
$100,000 (Chief Investigator/Category 2/Proj. Code: 0200309090).

Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre Limited (2010-2012) $84,000 (Chief
Investigator/ Category 4/Proj. Code: 0200307878)

Various other grants pre-2011 total $62,533 (e.g. World Expeditions Travel
Grant (2011), World Expeditions Corporation; Design Research Institute Grant (2010); Lonely Plant Foundation Grant (2006), The Lonely Planet.)