Dr Iris Levin

Dr Iris Levin is an architect, urban planner, teacher and researcher. She has a passion for working with diverse communities and understanding the effects of migration on the built environment. She is interested in housing, social planning, migration and social diversity in cities.

Teaching areas

• Housing Studies
• Urban Studies
• Social Urban Planning
• Diversity and migration in cities

Iris is Lecturer at the Department of Sustainability and Urban Planning. She gained her PhD from the University of Melbourne and joined RMIT University in 2021 after working at Swinburne University, in the community sector and Flinders University. Iris has a Master’s in Urban and Regional Planning and a B.Arch. in Architecture, gained from the Technion, Israel.

Iris’s research focuses on issues around housing, the built environment, migration, diversity, disadvantaged communities and social mix in the city. She often uses qualitative and visual methodologies and analyses and has experience in longitudinal research. Iris is the lead editor of an edited book Migration and Urban transitions in Australia (Palgrave, forthcoming). In 2016 she published Migration, Settlement, and the Concept of House and Home (Routledge), focusing on migrant settlement practices in their homes in Australia and Israel, and since then has worked on research projects dealing with public housing, urban renewal projects and social mix, urban belonging and public urban space, and neighbour relations in high-density housing arrangements.   

Iris has published extensively for academic and industry audiences and has presented her work in different forums and conferences. She has taught various undergraduate and postgraduate subjects in planning, social diversity and the built environment. Iris often contributes to community engagement panels and forums supporting local councils in engaging residents.

Available to supervise honours, masters and PhD students.

Fields of Research

• Urban And Regional Planning - 120500
• Human Geography - 160400

• Grad Cert Diploma in Learning and Teaching, Swinburne University – 2020
• PhD University of Melbourne, Australia - 2010
• M.Sc. Regional and Urban Planning, Technion, Israel – 2004
• B. Arch Technion, Israel – 1996

Professional and academic memberships:

• 2019: Board Member, The Kingston Libraries Community Panel, Australia
• 2017 - 2020: Committee Member, Council of Glen Eira, Australia
• 2020 - current: Board Member, Housing Studies, International
• 2006- current: Institute of Australian Geographers