York’s City Institute provides new knowledge and innovative approaches in the urban arena

As a learning and teaching institution, York University is defined by our ability to address complex social challenges and to develop and deliver solutions that make meaningful change in the world. That is especially true in our cities, where most of us now live. 

York is a centre of thought and action on how we build more sustainable and inclusive cities and communities. At the centre of that work is the City Institute at York University (CITY), which brings together York’s urban scholars with specialties in areas such as geography, environmental studies, planning, sociology, anthropology, political science and education. It is led by Professor Linda Peake, an award-winning scholar on the intersection of race and gender and the influence they play in human geography and beyond. Under her leadership, the City Institute is impacting upon how we build, develop and redevelop our communities in the 21st century.  

“We created the City Institute to be a world leader in research on how we can better plan, build and improve our cities for the benefit of the people who live in them,” says Peake. “I’m incredibly gratified to work alongside so many brilliant thinkers, and to be a part of such an important project. The work we’re doing together is having a real impact in the world today and will for years to come.” 

As an interdisciplinary institute, CITY facilitates critical and collaborative research, providing new knowledge and innovative approaches to comprehending and addressing the complexity of the urban arena. The Institute also plays a vital role in developing Canada’s next generation of leaders and thinkers, with graduate and postdoctoral fellows playing a central role in the life of the Institute. CITY’s researchers have long-standing relationships with community groups, NGOs and policy-makers within Toronto, across the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and globally. 

The City Institute has a number of working groups, including the. Smart Cities Research Group, the Feminist Urban Research Group, and Suburbs and Suburbanism Group. CITY also drives numerous innovative research projects, including CivicLabTO, Digital Urbanism and the Challenge of Urban Governance, Student DwellTO, as well as the SSHRC-funded GenUrb: Gender, urbanization and the global south, which is focused on urbanization and gender in lower-middle income countries and is also led by Professor Peake.  

Bringing together thought leaders from across the University and beyond, the CITY Seminar Series fosters dialogue about a variety of topics ranging from the federal election’s impact on the GTA to Indigenous-centred knowledge and education. Recently, the CivicLabTO Summit brought all of Toronto’s colleges and universities together to discuss the City’s post-pandemic recovery with a focus on collaboration with municipal government, renewal and resilience.   

Most recently, the City Institute has established a series of graduate professional training events – workshops on professional practice, ‘sit down and write’ sessions, undergraduate and graduate essay prizes, a day-long graduate conference – for urban graduate and 4000-level undergraduates. This will be an annual set of events and will also aid graduate students working on their FGS Individualised Development Plans.