Planning

Tolu Alabi

Research Interests

• Transportation
• Social Housing
• Urban Design and Infrastructure
• International Urban Planning strategies

Christopher Alton

Research Interests

• Planning theory
• Resource extraction

Travis K. Bost

Research Interests

• Urban Political Ecology
• Politics of Infrastructure
• Nature-Society Relations
• Urban Theory
• U.S. Gulf South
• Climate Change Politics

Felicity Campbell

Research Interests

• Critical planning studies
• Affordability, housing, land reform
• Community development

Marty Chan

Research Interests

• Urban Planning & Urban Growth
• Inclusive Transport Oriented Development

Tammy Chou

Research Interests

• Community development
• Urban design and placemaking
• Affordable housing
• Social equity

Stephanie Cirnu

Research Interests

• Real estate development
• Land use planning
• Urban design
• Universal design and accessibility

Lucy Cui

Research Interests

• Urban and suburban regeneration
• Housing policy and affordability
• Public space design
• Mixed use and public-private developments

Adam Didycz

Research Interests

• Land Use Planning
• Gentrification
• Uneven Development/Critical Urban Studies
• Environment & Health
• Urban Economic Development
• Creative City Script
• Urban Food Security

Stuart Dow

Research Interests

• Active Transportation
• Urban Design
• Land Use Planning
• Participatory Planning Method
• Public Transit and Infrastructure Planning

Laura Dumbrell

Research Interests

• Sustainability and urban communities
• Affordable housing and mixed use communities
• Heritage conservation

Thomas Dybowski

Research Interests

• Land Use Planning
• Housing and Real Estate Development
• Mixed Use Communities
• Urban Design and Public Space

Ellen Ferris

Research Interests

• Environmental Planning
• Sustainable Development & Land Use
• Climate Resilience

Sean Grant

Research Interests

• Housing Markets & Housing Policy
• Urban Land Markets & Real Estate Development
• Municipal Finance & Urban Governance
• Economic Development & Regeneration
• Heritage Planning

Madeleine Hicks

Research Interests

• Feminist and decolonial planning praxes
• Planning as protest
• Commoning and anti-capitalist movements
• Placehood, land, and justice
• Equity in participatory and collaborative processes

Gemma Johnson

Research Interests

• Transportation
• Housing
• Equity
• Global Security
• Smart Cities

Kevin Kapenda

Research Interests

• Canadian-Indigenous Relations
• Place Naming/Toponomy
• Transportation
• Relationship between Sprawl and Isolation, Health and Community/Political Participation
• Race Relations, Politics of Difference
• Planning in the Developing Countries

Michelle Kearns

Research Interests

• Equitable suburban regeneration
• Regional transportation planning
• Placemaking and public spaces
• Active transportation

Robert Keel

Research Interests

• Housing Affordability
• Land Use Planning
• Social Housing
• Transportation Planning
• Municipal Finance

Tariq Khan

Research Interests

• Urban Design
• Environmental Planning
• Historic Preservation
• Sustainability

Raili Lakanen

Research Interests

• climate change and social movements
• environmental politics
• youth activism and community organizing
• sustainability planning

Hubert Lee

Research Interests

• Public Transportation
• Economic Development
• Disruptive Technology and Innovation
• Sharing Economy

Helen Loghrin

Research Interests

• Active transportation
• Property law
• Politics of planning and development
• Sustainable infrastructure development
• Architecture and urban design

Diala Lteif

Research Interests

• Displacement and migration
• Conflict
• Social Justice
• Politics and space

Anson K. Ma

Research Interests

• Active Transportation and Transit Planning
• Suburban Modal Shift
• Public Consultation and Engagement

Dani Magsumbol

Research Interests

• Social planning
• Planning in diasporic cities
• Creative cities in the Global South
• Immigrants and urban spaces

Julie Mah

Research Interests

• Social housing provision, housing policy and affordability
• Urban change and uneven development
• Planning for spatial justice

Rui Mao

Research Interests

• Urban Sustainability and Climate Change
• Urban Governance and Finance
• Transportation Policy
• Transportation Policy Implementation

Keir Matthews-Hunter

Research Interests

• Housing markets, policy, and affordability
• Neighbourhood decline and revitalization
• Land use planning

Amina Menkad

Research Interests

• Urban Design Choices
• Social Accessibility

Ewa Modlinska

Research Interests

• Municipal planning processes
• Neighbourhood revitalization
• Community and stakeholder engagement
• Urban renewal
• Community development
• Public-private-community partnerships
• Politics of planning

Kate Nelischer

Research Interests

• Gender and planning
• Designing cities for women
• Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design

Rebecca Nelson

Research Interests

• Sustainable transportation
• Green spaces
• Equability
• Community development

Katherine Perrott

Research Interests

• urbanisms | suburbanisms
• Visioning as planning practice
• Canadian planning and development trends
• Transit oriented development, smart growth, and new urbanism
• Residential development and mortgage lending
• Advertising, marketing, and place branding
• Intersection of culture, economy, and policy

Natasha Petzold

Research Interests

• urban design as a tool to promote safer, healthier communities
• environmental planning and sustainable development
• positive and equitable social change

Steven Pham

Research Interests

• Neighbourhood change
• Financialization and asset-based welfare
• Poverty reduction
• Tower renewal programs

Noha Refaat

Research Interests

• Architecture and Urban Development
• Community-based Planning and Development in Cities
• Urban Informality

Tim Ross

Research Interests

• disability studies
• active school travel
• transportation planning
• land use planning
• children’s independent mobility
• urban mobility
• planning theory
• planning policy and regulation
• inclusive design
• photovoice
• institutional ethnography
• qualitative research methods

Claudio Sarmiento-Casas

Research Interests

• Active transportation planning in Latin America
• Tactical Urbanism
• Pedestrian and vélo-mobilities
• Diversity in mobility
• Street design
• Road safety
• Mexican cities

Clara Shipman

Research Interests

• architecture and urban planning / urban form
• housing and community development / mixed-use and mixed-income projects
• social justice and access to the city / social and spatial polarization

Anna Shortly

Research Interests

• Sustainable and equitable food systems
• Agricultural development
• Community-based planning

Arno van Dijk

Research Interests

• Role of the urban planner
• Social media and urban planning
• Engagement in urban planning
• Advocacy in urban planning

Holly Wacker

Research Interests

• climate resilience
• decolonizing planning
• right to the city

Nate Wessel

Research Interests

• Transit
• GIS
• Cartography

Ryan Whitney

Research Interests

• Non-motorized transportation planning
• Social justice
• Latin American urbanization
• Global policy transfer

JieLan Xu

Research Interests

• Built-environment
• Urban design and activity space
• GIS and spatial analysis
• Aging-in-place and age-friendly communities

Mischa Young

Research Interests

• Transportation behaviours
• Parking
• Public transit
• Urban sprawl

Merlin Yuen

Research Interests

• Multi-modal Transportation Planning
• Transportation Master Planning
• Innovations in Shared Mobility
• Urban and Transportation Design for Climate Change

Will Zahn

Research Interests

• Public housing history, housing policy, affordability
• Urban segregation and geographies of ethnoracial identity/conflict
• Spatial analysis, cartography, data visualization
• Borders, territory, post-colonialism, nationalism

Austin Zwick

Research Interests

• Economic Decline and Revitalization
• Platform Economy (Uber, AirBnB, etc.)
• Regional Economic Growth
• Municipal Finance
• Statistical Analysis
• Energy Policy

Resource Boom to Revitalization: How does fracking affect patterns of economic decline and revitalization in Northern Appalachia?

Small cities in Appalachia have been battling an ongoing struggle against economic decline for decades, but now some find themselves amidst a new natural resource boom. The technological innovation of hydraulic fracturing drilling, commonly known as ‘fracking’, has revolutionized global energy markets overnight, creating a gap of understanding about its local implications in the process. Most early research focused on documenting the environmental risks of fracking, but little work has gone into understanding its local economic impacts. Some scholars find that agglomeration economies based on the fossil fuel extraction industry may provide a solid foundation for future economic growth even after the gas dries up, while others argue that resource extraction occurs in boom-bust cycles dependent upon volatile international markets and therefore existing communities would be better off leaving the fossil fuels in the ground. The relationship between natural resource development and economic stagnation is commonly known as the ‘natural resource curse’. In addition, resource extraction communities operating on the boom-bust cycle struggle with inadequate social and health services to deal with overarching community crises of depression, family stress, violence toward women, and addiction issues. As municipalities grapple with these challenges by using rising tax revenue to add administrative capacity, increase staffing levels, buy equipment, and hire outside expertise, the boom-bust cycle becomes reflected on their balance sheets, putting their fiscal health at risk. This leads to the primary research question: How does the hydraulic fracturing resource boom affect existing patterns of economic decline and revitalization in Appalachia?