Description: This course will be offered in partnership with the City of Toronto and all 8 Toronto-area universities and colleges. Its purpose is to introduce pertinent social, environmental, economic and political challenges faced by communities in the city of Toronto and learn about possible policy responses by providing students with access to and information from senior city hall urban policy makers.

Programs: Cities, Regions, Planning

Contact the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change to enroll for FALL 2024

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This spring, we are bringing City Institute to the community for important conversations!

Access to Post-Secondary Education: For whom? For what?

April 9th, 5:30-7:30 PM

Urban Indigenous Education Centre, 16 Phin Ave, Toronto, ON M4L 3T2

Join us for an evening discussion about current debates and programs aimed at reducing barriers to access in higher education. Panellists will discuss the experiences, realities, and aspirations of Indigenous, Black, racialized, and undocumented youth in Toronto, how local universities are currently addressing these needs, and ideas and systemic changes needed to challenge inequities in learning and well-being for young people in university settings.

Please RSVP here:

This event is co-sponsored by the Faculty of Education at 快播视频.

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We are pleased to announce that Ushieja De Zoysa is the new ORU (organized research unit) coordinator of the CITY Institute at 快播视频.

Ushieja De Zoysa is a graduate from the Faculty of Science at 快播视频. She comes to CITY with 4 years of research administration experience working with a high-profile particle physics experimental group in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. (EDMcubed Research Group, 快播视频: /edmcubed/team/).

The CITY Institute and the Office of the Vice President of Research and Innovation are thrilled to have her on board as the new Organized Research Unit Coordinator of CITY.

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It is with great pleasure that I warmly welcome each of you as the new Director of The City Institute at 快播视频 (CITY).

Since its establishment in 2006, CITY has been at the forefront of facilitating critical, interdisciplinary, and collaborative research on urban matters on a global scale. I would also like to acknowledge and express deep appreciation for the exceptional work of our former Director, Professor Linda Peake, and our founding Director Professor Roger Keil, before her. Their legacy and contributions have been instrumental in shaping CITY as an open community and establishing its reputation as a leading hub of urban scholarship.

I am committed to upholding CITY as an inclusive space and advancing our mandate, fostering an environment that cultivates internationally excellent research, and promoting dialogue on Canada's urban agenda at 快播视频 and beyond. We are proud of our enduring partnerships with community groups, non-governmental organizations, and policymakers, both locally within Toronto and across the Greater Toronto Area, as well as globally. These partnerships underscore our commitment to bridging academia and society.

CITY is located on the 7th floor of Kaneff Tower in our Keele Campus, in the geographic heart of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). As a vibrant metropolis, the GTA serves as a living laboratory for urban and regional studies, offering a rich tapestry of (sub)urban challenges, innovations, and opportunities that directly impact the lives of its 6.2 million residents. CITY's privileged central location enables us to actively participate in and contribute to the ongoing urban and regional transformations, policy debates, and community initiatives that shape the future of one of North America's largest city regions. It also compels us to seek new ways to respect and take care of this land, which is the ancestral territory of many Indigenous Nations, including the Anishinabek Nation, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, the Huron-Wendat, and the current treaty holders, the Mississaugas of the鈥疌redit.

Having been an active member of CITY since joining the Planning Program at the Faculty of Environmental & Urban Change (previously the Faculty of Environmental Studies) at 快播视频 in 2016, I have had the privilege of contributing to the Institute's mission as an affiliated faculty and as a former member of CITY's Executive Committee. In this new role as Director, I am thrilled to embark on this journey with all of you, building upon the foundation laid by Professors Peake and Keil and the collective expertise, fresh perspectives, and dedication of our faculty, post-doctoral fellows, students, visitors, and community members.

Once again, welcome to CITY. Together, let us explore new frontiers in urban scholarship and practice.

Sincerely,

Luisa Sotomayor

Associate Professor

Director, CITY Institute

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Leveraging insights from feminist geography and diverse economies and cultural studies traditions, this talk will trace the contours of underrecognized but entrenched and consequential forms of labor, value, narrative, and social infrastructure鈥攖ogether amounting to an expanded sphere of social reproduction鈥攊n urban space. This is a conceptualization which initially emerged from an ethnography of everyday life among residents on a few blocks of a single street in a gentrifying neighbourhood of Manhattan, New York City. Published in 2020 as a book called Urbanism without Guarantees, that work explicated how ordinary people鈥檚 everyday experiences, common sensibilities, and routine practices at once reflect and buoy historically specific formations of sociality, economy, culture, and power in place. This talk will begin with an overview of core concepts from that work, then sketching out some possible ways those concepts might be made generative in and through the example of collaborative place-based oral history and critical humanities projects aimed at confronting inequitable urban development and displacement in Seattle, Washington.

Prof. Christian Anderson, is an Associate Professor of Social Thought and Action and Science, Technology, and Society in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at the University of Washington Bothell (just outside Seattle, USA). He is an urban geographer and ethnographer whose work focuses on the relationships among people, places, everyday practices, ways of knowing, and forms of social and political-economic organization.

Light refreshments will be served.

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The 2022 winners of the OISE Leaders and Legends awards have all contributed greatly to the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education鈥檚 ongoing mission to enhance the social, economic, political and cultural wellbeing of individuals and communities locally, nationally and globally.

Through their good works, this year鈥檚 six winners 鈥� nominated by their OISE alumni, faculty, staff, students, and retirees 鈥� Ella Karia, Correnda Downey, Xin Wang, Karen Brown, Kamala Jean Gopie and Vidya Shah are recognized for their excellence in leadership in teaching, research and advocacy.

They were celebrated virtually at the OISE Alumni Association鈥檚 Biennial General Meeting on June 8 鈥� OISE alumni, the winners鈥� nominators and friends all in attendance to cheer them on. Professor Kristin Snoddon, chair of the Leaders and Legends Awards Committee announced the winners and spoke about their impact.

鈥淚 wish to congratulate a truly remarkable group of winners,鈥� said Snodden, an OISE alumna and professor at Toronto Metropolitan University. 鈥淲hat they have in common is creativity, passion, and leadership in various anti-racism and social justice initiatives, as well as initiatives that support communities in important ways.

鈥淲e are celebrating them for the inspiration and guidance they provide.

(鈥�)

Mentor of the Year Award

Winner: Dr. Vidya Shah, EdD, M.T.  

This award honours an individual who has offered exceptional support, guidance and encouragement to members of the OISE community.

Dr. Vidya Shah, this year鈥檚 winner, is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education at 快播视频. Dr. Shah teaches in the Master of Leadership and Community Engagement, as well as undergraduate and graduate level courses in education. She has worked in the Model Schools for Inner Cities Program in the Toronto District School Board and was an elementary classroom teacher in the TDSB.

Dr. Shah has exemplified the qualities of excellence, leadership and mentorship through her scholarship, work in the community and school boards, and her engagement with junior scholars. She has been generous with her time, advice and feedback. She is actively engaged in equity work demonstrated through her scholarship, work on committees and in community.

How do you believe you best encapsulated this award? Can you provide one example of how?

Mentorship is such an important aspect of my life as someone who has amazing mentors and who in/formally mentors others. It reinforces the idea that achievements and acknowledgments are never individual, isolated experiences. We are because of all of those around us, whose labour and wisdom, both seen and unseen, have paved pathways, built bridges, and opened doors. Mentorship that is multi-directional and flexible helps us remember that we are part of collectives and communities. There is tremendous power in that鈥�. Respectful and reciprocal mentoring relationships are beneficial for all involved and invite us into deeper awareness of who we are and who we might be.

Aside from formal mentoring relationships, people reach out to me for support because they have read my work, seen a webinar, or engaged with me on social media. These connections are so important to me because they keep me connected to classrooms and communities, push my thinking, and invite opportunities for new relationships and collaborations.

How grateful are you to have been recognized with the Mentor of the Year Award?

I am very grateful to receive an award that recognizes the importance of relationships in this work of movement building and liberation. 

Who would you like to thank for this award?

I would like to thank Jocelyn Shih for nominating me. As we have worked on The UnLeading Project, we have had the opportunity to play with ideas of leadership and be in the questions of leadership together. Such a beautiful experience! I would also like to thank Professor聽Joseph Flessa聽and Professor聽Sue Winton聽for writing nomination letters. It is such an honour to be nominated for a mentorship award by two of my amazing mentors.聽

The full article by the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, OISE, can be found .

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Linda Peake鈥檚 award-winning research integrates feminism and anti-racism into theorizations of urban everyday life, inspiring scholarship in human geography and urban studies, as well as promoting equity and diversity in the academy.聽聽Her original body of work on women as gendered urban subjects has invigorated critiques of canonical knowledge production, utilizing methodologies that engage with subaltern knowledge production and marginalized communities, and creating the field of comparative feminist urban research.

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Elijah Leotaud, a fourth year student majoring in Sociology and Urban Studies, is one of the 54 Dean's Award for Research Excellence (DARE) winners. The DARE award offers Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS) undergraduate students the opportunity to participate in research projects under the supervision and guidance of a faculty member.

Elijah's DARE research entitled "Performing Diaspora: Accordion Routes of Italian Immigrants to Toronto" investigates the Italian-Canadian diaspora by considering the importance of the accordion to social and cultural realities of first generation Italian-Canadian immigrants. In doing this, the research will focus on accordion player and teacher Joe Caringi who created a music school in Toronto鈥檚 Little Italy. As a source for anecdotal stories, Caririgi and students of this school provide an alternative understanding of the intergenerational experience of Italian-Canadians in Toronto through the lens of the accordion. This study identifies the performative importance the accordion had in shaping immigrant identities and sense of place in Italian Canadian urban culture.聽Professor Teresa Abbruzzese of the Urban Studies program, Department of Social Science (LA&PS) is supervising Elijah's research.

Elijah and Prof. Abbruzzese have presented the DARE research to the 2022 American Association of Geographers (AAG) Annual Conference with the title "Performing Diaspora: Accordion and Steel Pan Routes of Italian and Caribbean Immigrants to Toronto" under the session theme "Space, Place, and Music: New Currents in the Geography of Music and Sound 3". They will also co-author a paper based on the DARE research with the addition on the study of Caribbean diaspora and the steel pan鈥檚 importance in carrying life histories from Trinidad to Toronto.

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