Nicole Kalms is an Associate Professor in the Department of Design and founding director of the Monash University XYX Lab which leads national and international research in Gender and Place. Nicole is the Deputy Associate Dean of Research. Nicole has a PhD in Architecture from Monash University. She obtained her Bachelor Degree in Architecture from RMIT and practiced architecture for several years before undertaking a Masters degree in Landscape Architecture (RMIT). Nicole is a full-time member of Monash University’s Faculty Art, Design and Architecture where she is focused on cross-disciplinary research.

Dr Kalms’ scholarly contributions include the edited book Contentious Cities: Design and the Gendered Production of Space (Routledge 2021), the monograph Hypersexual City: The Provocation of Soft-Core Urbanism (Routledge 2017) examining sexualized representation and precincts in neoliberal cities. Her forthcoming monograph She City: A Design Handbook for Challenging Inequity in Cities (Bloomsbury) will draw on interdisciplinary research and case studies from gender scholars, design practitioners, and feminist activists to update the significant research on gender and the city. 

The innovation of Kalms’ research is the examination of digital, experiential, political and material interventions collated to articulate both the shared and conflicted struggles of minoritised communities internationally. Her praxis repositions design as a strategic tool for challenging  inequity.

Dr Kalms regularly writes for a diverse non-academic audience, and is frequently invited to speak to the public about identity and urban space at major national and international cultural institutions. Kalms has been interviewed on BBC World TV (2018) and France 24 TV (2019). Kalms was the keynote speaker at the Planning Institute of Australia  Congress (2019) and the Autonomy Mobility Summit in Paris (2019). Dr Kalms serves on a variety of advisory boards, committees and panels in relation to public policy, urban safety and placemaking. 

Urbanism

Feminism

Spatial Practice

Spatial Media

Critical Studies

Interdisciplinarity

Gender

Co-Design

Gender Equality

Urbanism

Feminism

Spatial Practice

Spatial Media

Critical Studies

Interdisciplinarity