Jane M. Jacobs

Dr. jane jacobs profile

Vice-President of Research & Academic Affairs and Professor, Urban Design

E: jane.jacobs@monash.edu

Jane M. Jacobs was awarded her PhD in human geography from University College London (1991), with a specialisation in cultural and urban geography. Across her career she has contributed to scholarship on colonial and postcolonial geographies, architecture and society, high-rise urbanism, and the politics of urban heritage.

Dr Jacobs has published widely in these fields, including peer review papers, edited collections and single and co-authored books. Her key publications include: Edge of Empire: Postcolonialism and the City (1996 Routledge), Cities of Difference (1998 University of Minnesota Press), Uncanny Australia (1998 University of Melbourne Press), and Buildings Must Die: A Perverse View of Architecture (2014 MIT Press). Most recently, she has been involved in a digital humanities project on Digital Historical Maps of Southeast Asia and a multi-disciplinary project Foundations for Home-Based Work in Singapore.

Dr Jacobs has extensive international experience in higher education, having taught and assumed senior administrative roles at The University of Melbourne (1991-2001), University of Edinburgh (2001-2011) and Yale-NUS College, Singapore (2012- 2023). She is a keen advocate of peer mentoring in academic contexts, having experienced first-hand the professional development value of receiving scaffolded feedback from colleagues.

More information

Books

  • CAIRNS, S. & JACOBS, J.M. 2014 Buildings Must Die: A Perverse View of Architecture. MIT Press, Cambridge.
  • GELDER K. & JACOBS, J.M. 1998 Uncanny Australia: Sacredness and identity in a postcolonial nation. University of Melbourne Press, Melbourne.
  • FINCHER, R. & JACOBS, J.M. (eds) 1998 Cities of Difference. Guilford, New York City.
  • JACOBS, J.M. 1996 Edge of Empire: Postcolonialism and the City. Routledge, London and New York.

Peer review papers

  • PURWANI, O., JACOBS, J.M. and CAIRNS, S., 2026. Monarchy and urban change: The post-independence development of the Pesanggrahan Ambarrukmo, Yogyakarta. Urban Studies, p.00420980261423068. Online advanced publication January 2026.
  • PANG, N., CHEE, R., JACOBS, J.M., YUE, A., CHEE, L. 2025 Flexibility or precarity: exploring transformative resilience amongst media and cultural freelance workers in Singapore, Corporate Communications: An International Journal. Online advance publication 27 November 2025: DOI 10.1108/CCIJ-06-2024-0102.
  • YUE, A., CHEE, L., JACOBS, J.M. and PANG, N. 2025 ‘Making Do’: Young People and Mobilities at Home, Journal of Youth Studies, 28 (1), 195-212.
  • JACOBS, J.M. 2023 Traditions of Transition: Towards a Fully Terrestrial Built Environment, Traditional Dwellings and Settlement Review, 34(1), 7-17.
  • YUEN, B. and JACOBS, J.M. 2022 Down the Vertical Refuse Chutes in Singapore High-rise Living, Journal of Planning History, April 2022. doi:10.1177/15385132221085948
  • CHENG, Y.E. and JACOBS, J.M. 2020 Urban custodians and hospitable citizens: citizenship and social actions at two liberal arts universities in Hong Kong and Shanghai. Space and Polity, 24(1), 12-29.
  • STREBEL, I. & JACOBS, J.M. 2014 Houses of Experiment: High-rise housing and the will to laboratorization, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 38 (2), 450-470. Themed issue on Laboratorization and the City edited by Andrew Karvonan and Bas van Huer.
  • JACOBS, J.M. & LEES, L. 2013 Defensible space on the move: Revisiting the urban geography of Alice Coleman, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 37 (5), 1559-1583. Themed issue on Urban Planning Terrains: Relational Histories and Practices of Circulating Knowledge edited by Susan Moore and Andrew Harris.
  • JACOBS, J.M. 2012, Comparing Comparative Urbanisms, Urban Geography, 33(6), 904-914.  Themed Issue on Comparative Urbanism edited by Jennifer Robinson and Colin McFarlane.
  • JACOBS, J.M., CAIRNS, S. & STREBEL, I. 2012, Doing Building Work: Methods at the Interface of Geography and Architecture, Journal of Geographical Research 50 (2), 126-140.
  • JACOBS, J.M. 2012, Urban Geography I: Still thinking cities relationally, Progress in Human Geography, 36, 413-422.
  • JACOBS, J.M., & CAIRNS, S. 2008 The modern touch: Interior design and modernisation in post-independence Singapore, Environment and Planning A, Environment and Planning A, 40 (3), 572 – 595.
  • JACOBS, J.M. 2006 A geography of big things, Cultural Geographies, 13(1), 1-27.

Teaching

  • Introduction to Urban Studies
  • Architecture and Society
  • Creative Cities
  • Urban Heritage
  • Independent Research In Urban Studies

Research Interests

  • Colonial and postcolonial geographies
  • Architecture and society
  • Science and technology approaches to built environments
  • Cultural politics of built environment heritage
  • Histories of high-rise urbanism
  • Foundations for Home-Based Work: A Singapore Study. MOE2020-SSRTG-028. PI Lilian Chee (2021-2024)
  • Digital Historical Maps of Singapore and Southeast Asia (2019-2021) MOE Social Science and Humanities Research Thematic Grant.

Featured

Authored

  • Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple Chair, Yale-NUS College, 2021-2022.
  • Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy, 2016 - present.