Biography

Mirjana is Associate Head of School International and Senior Lecturer in the School of Architecture and the Built Environment at Deakin University. She has thirty years experience as architectural educator, including international appointments, with strong research and expertise in teaching architectural theory and architectural design.

Her most distinctive contribution to the discipline and to education is how architecture mediates identity and culture. Postcolonial Space(s) (Princeton Architectural Press, 1997) was a pioneering first book that introduced a new cultural framework for rethinking architecture. Mirjana’s essay on multiculturalism and the migrant house in this volume established her international reputation as a forefront scholar, and its radical subject became the theme of a subsequent key publication, Migrancy and Architecture (Routledge 2004). Mirjana’s essay in this latter publication redefines architecture from the perspective of at least two sites of migration. These publications are the result of ‘Other Connections,’ a pioneering group of international academics formed in 1993 at NUS that also developed four key international conferences. Mirjana is a founding member of this groups and convened Sites of Recovery, the international conference in Beirut. Journal articles in Journal of South East Asian Architecture, Space and Culture, Interstices, Architecture Theory Review, Fabrications have sustained this international reputation. New theories on aesthetic taste and how architecture/migration mediates human dignity are published in two 2014 chapters. She is invited as key note speaker to conferences, and has secured a book contract with Routledge on Ethno-Architecture and the Politics of Migration.

She has led curriculum reviews and acted as consultant for other schools, and received awards and commendations for teaching. Students that she has mentored have received nationally acclaimed awards and prizes in both design and theoretical research.

Mirjana’s work is driven by a focus on the creative ways that architecture mediates human dignity and identity. This has shaped her approach and role in design, architectural education and research. Mirjana has an international reputation in architectural theory with a major contribution to the theories on migration and architecture.

Prior to academic work, Mirjana worked as a design architect and gained awards for projects. This link to the profession continues through her role as Jury member for the AIA award system, and her role on the AIA Education Committee.

Mirjana’s leadership of the Cultural Ecology Research Group has built a strong cultural platform in the school research environment. In 2012 she secured funds for an International Cultural Ecology Symposium, with key note speaker Professor Marwan Ghandour from Iowa State University and Professor Darko Radovic from Keio University. 

She is the editor of the publication, Cultural Ecology: New Approaches to Culture, Architecture and Ecology, Deakin University ISBN 978-0-9875039-0-9. CERG is developing the project ‘Transformative Regionalism: Mapping the Invisible City of Geelong,” proposes alternative methodology that includes participation of artists and community for regional city identity development. The combination of expertise in creative design work, education and research is key to innovative for community participation as developed in the project on Children’s Vision of the City.

Biography summary

Mirjana is Associate Head of School International and Senior Lecturer in the School of Architecture and the Built Environment at Deakin University. She has twenty years experience as architectural educator, including international appointments, with expertise in teaching architectural theory and architectural design.