Taylor Coyne is a PhD candidate, urban geographer, and design researcher working at the intersection of infrastructure, history, and cultural storytelling. Based in the Environment and Society Group at UNSW Sydney, his work examines the layered histories and speculative futures of waterscapes across Sydney’s eastern suburbs, with a focus on surfacing submerged ecologies, Indigenous knowledges, and colonial entanglements.

Taylor’s research sits at the confluence of urban political ecology, environmental history, and critical design studies. His doctoral project, Swamp City, investigates how stormwater systems function not only as technical networks but as cultural artefacts that shape, and are shaped by, power, memory, and place. Through archival research, multisensory fieldwork, and collaborative design, he explores how water infrastructure has inscribed uneven geographies of risk, access, and visibility in Sydney’s urban fabric.

Alongside his research, Taylor works as a project officer and design collaborator with Yerrabingin, an Indigenous-led design studio, where he supports Country-centred urban design processes across major infrastructure and public realm projects. He has co-led co-design workshops, contributed to award-winning Designing with Country projects, and facilitated research-informed design innovation for clients including Health Infrastructure NSW and the Powerhouse Museum.

Taylor has taught across human geography, landscape architecture, planning, production design, and the environmental humanities, and is committed to mentoring emerging designers and researchers to think historically, act ethically, and design relationally. His creative and academic work is animated by a lifelong devotion to water, an aesthetic sensibility grounded in multispecies attention and ritual slowness, and a political commitment to Indigenous justice, sovereignty, and a praxis of eco-cultural care.

He is currently preparing journal articles, creative pieces, and exhibitions that centre swamps, drains, and coastal ecologies as sites of refusal, repair, and reimagining.

Taylor.coyne@unsw.edu.au

Bidjigal Country
South Coogee 2034

Experience

EDUCATION

  • Bachelor of Visual Arts (Distinction) 2011 | The University of Sydney

  • Bachelor of Arts (Indigenous Studies & Development Studies) 2017 | The University of New South Wales

  • Bachelor of Science (Geography) (First Class Honours) 2018 | The University of New South Wales

  • Master of Environmental Management 2019 | The University of New South Wales

  • Doctor of Philosophy (Human Geography) 2020 – present*| The University of New South Wales *planned submission date Sept 2025

ACADEMIC/TEACHING APPOINTMENTS

The University of New South Wales

  • Course Convener and Lecturer for Environment, Sustainability and Development, 2021, 2022, 2024 (~150 students)

  • Course Convener and Lecturer for Disasters and Society, 2023 (~50 students)

  • Course Convener and Lecturer for Environmental History, 2024 (~30 students)

  • Academic Tutor for Environmental, Sustainability and Development, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022

  • Academic Tutor for Environment and Sustainability, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023

  • Academic Tutor for Human Geography, 2024

  • Academic Tutor for Environmental Activism, 2019

  • Academic Tutor for Disasters and Society, 2021, 2023

  • Guest Lecturer for Environment and Sustainability 2024

  • Guest Lecturer for Disasters and Society, 2021, 2022

  • Guest Lecturer for Environmental Justice, 2020, 2021

  • Guest Lecturer for Environmental History, 2022

  • Guest Lecturer for An Introduction to the Sydney Environment, 2022, 2022, 2023, 2024

  • Grading/Assessor for Landscape Studio 9; Landscape Studio 10; Human Geography; Environment, Sustainability and Development, Environmental Management Tools; Political Ecology: Sustainable Development & Justice, 2020 –2024

Monash University

  • Grading/Assessor for Advanced Architecture Project 1, 2021

The University of Technology Sydney

  • Grading/Assessor for Landscape Architecture Studio 2, 2023

  • Guest Lecturer for Landscape Architecture Studio 4, 2024

  • Guest Lecturer & Grading/Assessor for Starting with Country: Galing, Dharwal, Gyimibirr, Gawal Studio, 2024-2025

The National Institute of Dramatic Arts

  • Guest lecturer for Foundational Commons, “Storytelling for Environmental History, Swampscapes of Eastern Sydney”, 2024, 2025

  • Guest lecturer for Story and Place, “Tank Stream Memories: Spatial Design for Urban Landscapes and Remembering Country”, 2024

Additional

Yerrabingin

  • Project Officer, Designing with Country, 2024 - present

Working within Connecting with Country Studio on developing design solutions that speak to the environmental, cultural, and social needs of Country.

Responsibilities include:

  • Working with multiple, diverse First Nations community groups,

  • Ensuring the collaborative design processes with landscape architects, designers, planners, and the broader project management team occurs on time and with satisfaction from all parties.

  • Cultural heritage research synthesis,

  • Creation of Connecting with Country Framework Reports,

  • Client-facing and State Design Review Panel presentations.

Publications and Presentations

PUBLICATIONS

  • T Coyne, 2024, ‘Reimaging Urban Design of Stormwater Infrastructure in Settler-Colonial Sydney’, Geographical Research, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1745- 5871.12645

  • N'Arwee't C. Briggs, Buckley, J., Chesworth, D., Coyne, T., Farr, A., Harper, L., Ho, X., Heyns, A.L., Leber, S., Melo Zurita, M.d.L., Raby, O., 2023, 'Listen - Look up! Listen - Look down! Experiencing the counter-city through a sonic and augmented reality experience of urban undergrounds in southeast Melbourne', Cities, Vol. 142, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2023.104513

  • T Coyne, 2023, ‘Emily O’Gorman, Wetlands in a Dry Land: More-than-Human Histories of Australia’s Murray-Darling Basin’, Journal of Australian, Canadian, and Aotearoa New Zealand Studies 3 (September 2023): 187-188, https://doi.org/10.52230/OULV3524

  • T Coyne, 2023, 'Listen Deep to Subterranean Kinfrastructures', Swamphen: Journal of Cultural Ecology Vol.9 https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/index.php/Swamphen

  • N Naserisafavi, Coyne, T, Melo Zurita, M, Zhang, K & Prodanovic, V, 2022, 'Community values on governing urban water nature-based solutions in Sydney, Australia', Journal of Environmental Management, Vol.322, No.15, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.116063

  • T Coyne 2022, 'Queering the Swamp', Succession Vol.2 Queering the Environment, Network in Canadian History & Environment (Nouvelle initiative Canadienne en histoire de l'environnement), https://niche-canada.org/2022/06/27/queering-the-swamp/

  • T Coyne, 2021, review of Country by Bruce Pascoe and Bill Gamage, ed. Margo Neale, The Conversation https://theconversation.com/book-review-country-is-an-urgent-call-to-learnfrom-indigenous-knowledges-to-care-for-the-land-172142

  • Coyne, T., Melo Zurita, M., Reid, D., and Prodanovic, V. 2020, 'Culturally inclusive water urban design: a critical history of hydrosocial infrastructures in Southern

CONFERENCE PAPERS AND PRESENTATIONS

  • Common Infrastructure Symposium 2020 | The University of Sydney - Georges River beyond the pipes: a political ecology of stormwater infrastructure in Sydney’s Georges River

  • Geography Society of New South Wales Honours/Masters Research Conference 2020 | The University of New South Wales - Methods and tactics for crafting regenerative futures (Guest panel member)

  • Strange/Letters Symposium 2021 | The Association for the Study of Literature, Environment & Culture – Australia & New Zealand - Correspondence with cities

  • Connected Waters Initiative Annual Retreat 2021 | The University of New South Wales - Deep listening to Eora waters - An analysis of Sydney’s hydrosocial soundscapes

  • The Institute of Australian Geographers Annual Conference 2021 | The University of Sydney - Settler-Colonial Hydraulic Urban Design in Sydney’s Kamay Swamplands

  • The Royal Geographical Society – Institute of British Geographers Annual International Conference 2021 | London/Online - Sydney’s Subterranean Hydrostructures - abandoned train tunnels and the eels of Lake St James Station

  • Festival of Urbanism 2021 | The University of Sydney & Monash University, Melbourne - Hidden, underground stories of a watery city

  • State of Australian Cities (SOAC) PhD Symposium 2021 | Australasian Early Career Urban Research Network, RMIT Melbourne - Silent Waterscapes: Water, Infrastructure and Sound in the City

  • Subterranean Geography in Australia 2022 | The University of New South Wales - Queer Ecologies of Sydney’s Subterranean Waterscapes

  • The American Association of Geographers Annual Conference 2022 Online - Voices of the Queer Ecologies of Sydney’s Volumetric Waterscapes

  • Australian & Aotearoa NZ Environmental History Network 2022 American Environmental History Week - Panelist, Roundtable: New Approaches to Environmental Histories of Water Ecologies

  • The Australian Historical Association Annual Conference 2022 | Deakin University - Panelist: Environmental History and Environmental Humanities, Interdisciplinary Conversations

  • The Institute of Australian Geographers Annual Conference 2022 | The University of New England - Queering the Swamp

  • The American Association of Geographers Annual Conference 2023 Online - The Vibrant Soundscapes of Sydney’s Subterranean Water Kinfrastructures

  • Re-orientations: New Social Roles for the Architecture Professions|School of Architecture, University of Technology Sydney - Swamp City: Queer Ecology of Sydney’s Swampscapes

  • The Institute of Australian Geographers Annual Conference 2024 | The University of Adelaide - Eel City

  • History Now: State Library of New South Wales 2024 - More-than-human histories

  • The Institute of Australian Geographers Annual Conference 2025 | The University of Newcastle - Sensing the Swamp

EXHIBITIONS

  • Seoul Biennale of Architect and Urbanism, 2023, ‘Hidden Rippon Lee’

  • Venice Architecture Biennale, 2023, in ‘Unsettling Queenstown’, Australian Pavilion, ‘Hidden Rippon Lee’

  • Melbourne Design Week, 2023, ‘Hidden Rippon Lea’

PRIZES AND FUNDING

  • Dean List for Academic Excellence Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, The University of New South Wales 2020

  • Best Performance in Master of Environmental Management, UNSW Winner, The Orica Ronnie Harding Award –2020

  • The Geographical Society of New South Wales 2021 Symposium Grant - Awarded $4800 to facilitate a unique scholarly symposium related to subterranean geographical research in Australia.

  • Australian Postgraduate Award (APA) 2020-2023 - Awarded $26,288 annually, for a period of three years.

  • Casual Staff Teaching Award 2021 The University of New South Wales; School of Humanities & Languages - in recognition of outstanding contributions to learning and teaching.

  • People’s Choice Award, UNSW Education Festival 2022, Session Empowering Students to be Agents of Change - ‘Pluriversal Futures, in Action - Empowering Critical Thinking for Regenerative Development’