Awards and Achievements


UNSW Nominee for Australian Universities Teaching Committee Award
Vice-Chancellor's Award for Teaching Excellence (UNSW)


Associate Professor
BA Amherst MA PhD Michigan , MASA MPIA
Associate Dean (Education)
Home \\ Staff \\ Robert Zehner
room
2041
phone
+61 2 9385 4835
fax
+61 2 9385 5613
email
r.zehner@unsw.edu.au
Bob Zehner is a social scientist whose research and publications have focussed on responses of residents to living in various environments including new towns and planned communities, mining towns and award-winning medium density housing. His work has also included a nationwide study of local government responses to climate change, of Sydney resident responses to aircraft noise, and a longitudinal study of practicing planners and planning education. He came to the UNSW from the University of North Carolina in 1975 as a Fulbright Scholar, and formally joined the School of Town Planning in 1976. He received a 2002 UNSW Vice-Chancellor's Award for Teaching Excellence, was a 2003 UNSW nominee for an Australian Universities Teaching Committee award, and received an Australian Learning and Teaching Council Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning in 2008.

Professional affiliation and membership


  • Member, Planning Institute of Australia
    Member, American Sociological Association

Teaching


Survey research methodology, urban society and sociology, communication, quantitative techniques and data analysis, planning theory and practice I.

Research


Survey methodologist with a wide range of research interests including responses to neighbourhood and community designs, aircraft noise amelioration, local government and climate change, mining towns and planning education. He was the initial Convenor of the Faculty's Urban and Regional Studies Research Group. He is the Joint Leader (with Graham Forsyth of COFA) of the Studio Teaching Project, a collaboration of the University of New South Wales, the University of Queensland, the RMIT University and the University of Tasmania, which is supported by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (formerly the Carrick Institute) under their Discipline Based Initiatives scheme.

Recent Publications


Books

Forsyth, G, Zehner, R and McDermott, R (eds) (2007) National Forum on Studio Teaching. Proceedings of the National Forum on Studio Teaching at COFA, UNSW, July 2007. Kensington: Learning and Teaching @ UNSW. [ISBN: 978-0-7334-2562-2]

Zehner, R and Reidsema, C (eds) (2007) ConnectED 2007 Proceedings of the International Conference on Design Education. Sydney: UNSW. [ISBN: 978-0-646-48147-0]

Lea, J.P., and Zehner, R.B., (1986), Yellowcake and Crocodiles: Town Planning, Government and Society in Northern Australia., George Allen and Unwin, Sydney. [ISBN: 0 86861 875 6]

Zehner, R.B., (1977), Access, Travel and Transportation in New Communities., Ballinger Publishing Company, Cambridge

Zehner, R.B., (1977), Indicators of the Quality of Life in New Communities., Ballinger Publishing Company, Cambridge

Burby, R.J., III, and Weiss, S.F., with Donnelly, T.G., Kaiser, E.J., Zehner, R.B., and Lewis, D.F., Loewenthal, N.H., McCalla, M.E., Rodgers, B.G., Smookler, H.V., (1976), New Communities U.S.A.: Results of a National Study., Lexington Books, Lexington

Zehner, R.B., and Chapin, F.S., Jr., with Howell, J.T., (1974), Across the City Line: A White Community in Transition., Lexington Books, Lexington

Lansing, J.B., Marans, R.W., and Zehner, R.B., (1970), Planned Residential Environments, Ann Arbor:Institute for Social Research.

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Papers

Zehner, R. (2008) Studio teaching in Australia, from art and architecture to urban design and planning. ACSP ��" AESOP Joint Congress Chicago, Illinois, July.

Zehner, R. (2007) Environmental issues and Australian local government planners: How priorities change (1989-2006). Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP) Conference, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, October.

Kordjamshidi, M, King, S., Zehner, R., and Prasad, D. (2007) Modeling Efficient Building Design. Architectural Science Review. Vol 50 No 1, 52-59.

Corkery, L, Roche, B, Watson, K and Zehner, R. (2007) Transforming design studio learning and teaching through real world projects. In Zehner, R and Reidsema, C (eds) Proceedings of ConnectED 2007 International Conference on Design Education; UNSW, July.

Zehner, R. (2007) Creativity, innovation and design: A faculty-wide first-year course still waiting for lift off. In Zehner, R and Reidsema, C (eds) Proceedings of ConnectED 2007 International Conference on Design Education; UNSW, July.

Zehner, RB. and Marshall, N. (2006) Non Participation = Better Participation: Optimising student-led research seminars. World Planning Schools Congress (WPSC-06). Mexico City, Mexico, July.

Blair, J. Fisher, M. Prasad, D. Judd, B. Soebarto, V. Hyde, R. Zehner, R.. (2003) Positioning Paper: Affordability and Sustainability Outcomes of ‘Greenfield’ Suburban Development and Master Planned Communities ��" a case study approach using triple bottom line assessment>i>, Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute.

Burby, RJ, Marans, RW and Zehner, RB., (2002.), Columbia surveys way back when: Selected results from the Michigan and North Carolina studies, Mobile workshop 6 Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning Conference, Baltimore, November.

Zehner, R., (2002), Planners at work: Tracing continuity and change. Australian Planner, 39, 25-29.

Freestone, R., and Zehner, R. (2002) John Henry Shaw. Australian Dictionary of Biography>i>, Melbourne: Melbourne University Press .Vol 16, 2002, 219-220.

Zehner, R., (2001), Environmental priorities for Australian local government: Changing emphases 1989-2000, Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning Conference, Cleveland, November.

Zehner, R., (1999), Planners in Oz: Linking practice to education, Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning Conference, Chicago, November.

Zehner, R., (1999), Tracking planners’ activities as part of the education review process: New South Wales from 1979 to 1999, ANZAAPS Annual Conference, Darwin, September.

Zehner, R., (1995), The search for excellence in teaching. Australian Universities Review, (1), 77-78.

Burgess, M., and Zehner, R., (1993), Attitudes of residents, currently exposed to aircraft noise, to amelioration measures, in Proceedings of the 1993 Annual Conference of the Australian Acoustical Society, SA Division of the Australian Acoustical Society, Glenelg, SA, 178-185.

Zehner, R.B., (1991), Environmental priorities and the greenhouse: Planning at the local government level, Australian Planner, Vol. 29, No. 1, 33-38.

Oluwoye, J.O., and Zehner, R.B. (1988) Pedestrian crossing patterns on arterial roads in Nigeria, in Road Use Behaviour: Theory and Research. Asses/Maastrict, The Netherlands: Van Gorcum, 668-674.

Murphy, P.A., and Zehner, R.B., (1988), Satisfaction with sunbelt migration, Australian Geographical Studies, Vol. 26, 320-324.

Zehner, R. B., (1986), Evidence presented to hearings on the potential of the Kakadu National Park Region. Senate Standing Committee on National Resources, 13 May 1986. Commonwealth of Australia Hansard Report,, 541-593.

Fiegel, N., Kay, M.A., Naylor, M.L., and Zehner, R.B. (1981) The Journey to Work: A comparison of suburbs in Sydney and Canberra, in Transport in a Changing World. Canberra: The Institution of Engineers, Australia, 103-109.

Domicelj, S., and Zehner, R.B. (eds.), (1981), Planning Education in Australia: Excellence and Relevance. Sydney: Planning Research Centre, University of Sydney.

Zehner, R.B., (1980), Urban Development in Australia and Australian Urban Policy, Journal of the American Planning Association, 46(3), 362-362.

Zehner, R.B., and McCalla, M.E., (1977), Response Rates and Prior Letters, Journal of Advertising Research, 17(1), 31-35.

Burby, R.J., III, Weiss, S.F., and Zehner, R.B., (1975), A national evaluation of community services and the Quality of Life in American New Towns, Public Administration Review, 35(3), 229-239.

Zehner, R.B., (1974), Participation in perspective: A look at new town involvement, Sociological Symposium, 12, 65-80.

Zehner, R.B., (1973), Neighborhood and community satisfaction in new towns and less planned suburbs, Ekistics, 36(212), 28-30.

Zehner, R.B., and Marans, R.W., (1973), Residential density, planning objectives and life in planned communities, Journal of the American Institute of Planners, 39(5), 337-345.

Zehner, R.B., (1971), Neighborhood and community satisfaction in new towns and less planned suburbs, Journal of the American Institute of Planners, 37(6), 379-385.

Zehner, R.B. (1970) Sex effects in the interviewing of young adults, Sociological Focus, 3(4), 75-84.

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Chapters

Zehner, R., and Marshall, N. (2007) Community Participation: To be involved or not to be involved - Is that the question? Chapter 12 in Australian Planning (Thompson, S., ed) Cambridge University Press, 247-262.

Zehner, R., and Bounds, M., (1995), Sociology in a professional course: Challenging students to write about their place in society. In Dawkins, J. (ed), The Outcomes of Planning Education, Proceedings of the 1995 Conference of Planning Schools. Sydney Vision UTS Papers in Planning, Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building, University of Technology Sydney, 111-120.

Murphy, P.A., and Zehner, R.B., (1994), Planning and computer technology: A cautious view through the looking glass. In Freestone, R. (ed), Spirited Cities: Urban Planning, Traffic and Environmental Management in the Nineties, Sydney: Federation Press, 43-55.

Zehner, R., and Burgess, M., (1993), Survey of resident attitudes, in Burgess, M., and Zehner, R. Aircraft noise amelioration. Acoustics and Vibration Centre, University of New South Wales, Australian Defense Force Academy, 26-59.

Zehner, R.B., (1988), What matters to mining town residents: The view from Jabiru in the heart of Kakadu, in Brealey, T.B., Neil, C.C., and Newton, P.W. (eds.), Resource Communities: Settlement and Workforce Issues, CSIRO Australia, 193-208.

Lea, J.P., and Zehner, R.B., (1985), Democracy and planning in a small mining town: The governance transition in Jabiru, N.T., in Loveday, P., and Wade-Marshall, D. (eds) Economy and People in the North. Darwin: North Australia Research Unit, Australian National University, 225-247.

Fiegel, N., Kay, M.A., Naylor, M.L., and Zehner, R.B., (1981), The Journey to Work: A comparison of suburbs in Sydney and Canberra, in Transport in a Changing World. Canberra: The Institution of Engineers, Australia, 103-109.

Zehner, R.B., (1977), Transportation in New Communities in the United States, in The Way Ahead - New Cities or Bigger Cities. Canberra: The Institution of Engineers, Australia, 92-93.

Burby, R.J., III, and Weiss, S.F., with Donnelly, T.G., Kaiser, E.J., Zehner, R.B., and Lewis, D.F., Loewenthal, N.H., McCalla, M.E., Rodgers, B.G., Smookler, H.V. New Communities U.S.A., in Warren, R.L. (ed), (1977) New Perspectives on the American Community, 3rd edition. Chicago: Rand McNally, 582-592.

Zehner, R.B., (1972), Neighborhood and community satisfaction: A report on new towns and less planned suburbs, in Wohlwill, J.F., and Carson, D.H. (eds) Environment and the Social Sciences: Perspectives and Applications. Washington: American Psychological Association, 169-183.

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Page Last Updated: 9 Apr 2008