Jesse’s long-term research interest lies in the cultural and policy dynamics of scaling up niche urban spaces that foster environmental sustainability and well-being. His recent research has focused on how local food spaces shape the public imagination by acting as educational interventions for transforming everyday food practices at the cultural level. His professional and academic life lies in and between three distinct fields: urban planning, applied linguistics, and education. His PhD entitled The Pedagogical Life of EdibleVerge Gardens in Sydney: Urban Agriculture for the Urban Food Imaginary, explored verge gardens and how they function as public pedagogy. This research examined best-case gardens and their impact on everyday food practices; the spatial design of over a hundred verge gardens and their relationship to notions of food, space, and social practices; and crafting policy interventions to steer verge gardening practice.
Recent publications and work in progress include:
- Houston, D., Mann.,A., McGregor,A., Hsu, J., Chaudary, S. Growing Food and Density together: Enabling Sustainable Urban Transformation through Local Food Production (Final Report). Urban Growth NSW
- Hsu, J. (2016) Curating the street: Urban construction fence art as semiotic texts.
- Hsu, J. (2018) Towards post-industrial foodways: Public pedagogy, spaces, and the struggle for cultural legitimacy. Policy Futures in Education. doi: 1478210318774189.
- Hsu, J. (2019) Public pedagogies of edible verge gardens: Cultivating streetscapes of care. Policy Futures in Education. doi: 10.1177/1478210318816759.