Dr Laura Beth Bugg

Room 106 RC Mills Building +61 2 9114 1281

Current Position Lecturer


Research Interests

Dr. Laura Beth Bugg’s primary research interest is the intersection of religion and place, namely the diversity, creativity and innovation of religious traditions and people in urban spaces. One of the primary challenges in contemporary cities is how cultural, religious and ethnic differences are expressed spatially, in the ways in which various groups make claims on urban space. Laura Beth is particularly interested in the experiences of new immigrant groups in the establishment of places of worship and religious schools, and the ways in which contestations around minority places of worship are mediated and controlled by urban planning processes and regulations. She is interested in how these experiences shape and mediate the communal life of religious groups.

Laura Beth’s other area of interest is religious schools as “unofficially sacred” sites that allow insight into the construction of religious identity and community. She is interested in the tension between the state’s interest in schools as spatial embodiments of of multiculturalism, modernity and nation-building and religious groups’ interest in schools as places of religious and cultural reproduction.

Laura Beth also continues her interest in the area of gender and religion, building on the work of her ThD (Doctor of Theology, 2006) from Harvard University, which utilised explicitly feminist and postcolonial theoretical and sociological frameworks to analyse social phenomena such as slavery; constructions of the body; family; marriage, sex and sexuality to examine the so-called “household codes” of the New Testament, in which wives and slaves are told to obey their husbands/masters. Laura Beth also holds a MURP (Master of Urban and Regional Planning, 2008) from The University of Sydney and a MDiv (Master of Divinity) from Harvard University.

Current Teaching:

SCLG2604: Social Inequality in Australia

Publications

Books

• N. Gurran, Miller, D. and L. Bugg, eds. (forthcoming 2009) Alternative Visions of the World City: Planning for Environmental and Cultural Enrichment. Ashgate Publishing Ltd: London.

Chapters in Books

• L. Bugg (2001) ‘A Feminist Primer of Terms’, in Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza, Wisdom Ways: Introducing Feminist Biblical Interpretation. Orbis, Maryknoll, NY

Articles in Refereed Journals

• Bugg, L. and Gurran, N. (2011) ‘Urban Planning Process and Discourses in the Refusal of Islamic Schools in Sydney, Australia’, Australian Planner 48(4).
• Gurran, N., Milligan, V., Bugg, L., Baker, D. (2007) “International Practice in Planning for Affordable Housing: Lessons for Australia”, Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute Final Report No. 120, Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute: Melbourne.
• Gurran, N. Milligan, V., Bugg, L. and D. Baker (2007) ‘International Practice in Planning for Affordable Housing: Lessons for Australia,’ Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute Positioning Paper No. 99, Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute: Melbourne.

Refereed Conference Proceedings

• Bugg, L. (2008) ‘Learning from Camden: a Pedagogical Framework for Engaging with Religious Diversity’, Proceedings of the Australian and New Zealand Association of Planning Schools Conference, ‘Planning Education in a Globalised World’, Sydney, 26-28 September, 2008.

Opinion Pieces

• Bugg, L. (2008) ‘Planning Policy Must Be Used to Heal Divisions’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 29 May

Conference Papers:

• (2012) 'Planning discourses and the refusal of a Swaminarayan temple on the Rural Fringe of Sydney, Australia', Gujarati Studies Association Biennial Conference, 15-16 February, Dubai, UAE.
• (2011) ‘It’s not about religion’: Multicultural Policy, Local Government Planning and the Refusal of a Hindu Temple in Sydney, Australia’, Recognition and the Politics of Identity and Inclusion in the 21st Century. Hong Kong University Law School, 28-29 April, Hong Kong.
• (2010) “Too Visible in the Landscape: Minority Religious Facilities on the Rural-Urban fringe”. Plenary delivered to Double Vision: Biennial Australian Studies Conference, The University of Sydney, Australia. 25-26 November.
• (2010) 'It’s not a Religious Issue: Local Government Planners and the Refusal of Islamic Schools', American Sociology of Religion Association, July, Atlanta, GA, USA
• Sept 2008 ‘Learning from Camden: a Pedagogical Framework for Engaging with Religious Diversity’. The Australian and New Zealand Association of Planning Schools (ANZAPS) Conference, Sydney, NSW.
• May, 2008 ‘Muslims on the Fringe: Planning for an Islamic School on the Outskirts of Sydney, NSW’. Joint Congress of the Association of Colleges and Schools of Planning and the Association of European Schools of Planning, Chicago, Illinois, USA.