Amelia Thorpe

Amelia Thorpe is Associate Professor in Law at UNSW, working in the areas of planning, property and local government law, legal geography and urban studies. Her research centres on frameworks for decision-making in contemporary cities – who gets to have a say, and how – and the ways in which those frameworks might contribute to social and environmental justice.

Amelia’s approach is interdisciplinary, drawing on degrees in Architecture and City Policy as well as Law, and professional experience in public interest environmental law and in planning and urban development. In her recent book, Owning the Street: The Everyday Life of Property (MIT Press, 2020), Amelia explores how local, personal, and materially grounded understandings about belonging, ownership, and agency intersect with law to shape the city.