Colleen Chiu-Shee

About Colleen Chiu-Shee

Colleen Chiu-Shee brings a professional background in architecture and urban design as well as scholarly training in social sciences. She is broadly interested in pathways toward more sustainable urban futures. Her research explores innovative spatial, social, and policy interventions that seek to reform existing practices to foster environmental sustainability and socio-ecological equity. Dr. Chiu-Shee’s doctoral dissertation critically examined eco-cities in China and reflected on how developing countries forged adaptive capacity while grappling with the dual challenges of environmental degradation and rapid urbanization. Building on her dissertation, Dr. Chiu-Shee has employed a comparative and relational approach to explore green city practices in broader international contexts.

Dr. Chiu-Shee’s scholarship seeks to bridge theory and praxis related to city design and development and enable cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural dialogues. This commitment involves forging connections among diverse knowledge domains, experiences, and epistemological perspectives across global boundaries. She has developed collaborations between North America and Asia and examined a range of subjects, including housing policy and affordability, community development and collective governance, urban informality and land politics, climate resilience in vulnerable regions, land reclamation and coastal development, master-planned new cities and communities, and digital infrastructure for pandemic management.

During the pandemic, Dr. Chiu-Shee broadened her transcontinental journey, witnessed disparate sociopolitical landscapes, and further developed her cross-cultural outlook. She worked as an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Hong Kong. Before that, she concluded a postdoctoral fellowship at the Asia Research Institute (ARI) at the National University of Singapore. She remains an Associate in ARI’s Urbanisms Cluster. Dr. Chiu-Shee’s teaching engages design and planning history, theory, and practice and promotes principles of experiential learning, reflective practice, and cosmopolitan engagement. Her project-based pedagogy aims to foster imagination, creative problem-solving, and appreciation of diversity and inclusion. Dr. Chiu-Shee has co-organized lecture series and workshops to facilitate global scholarly exchange, served as an International Expert to support China’s international collaborations on environment and development, and been a Member of the National Committee on United States-China Relations.