Reduce inequality within and among countries.
Inequality results in both local and global financial and social discriminations and hinders the wellbeing of the entire planet. SDG 10 asserts that access to equal opportunities and universal inclusion will result in a more prosperous world. EUC research is committed to critical intersectional research of social determinants, such as race, gender, and class, in shaping regional and international inclusion.
Building liveable futures in camps: Everyday placemaking practices of internally displaced persons in the Southern Philippines
EUC’s PhD candidate Romeo Joe L. Quintero examines how internally displaced persons in the southern Philippines navigate prolonged displacement following the 2013 Zamboanga City siege. Drawing on qualitative research with women and LGBTQ people living in resettlement sites, the study shows how displacement persists through limited access to livelihoods, services, and full citizenship, even years after relocation. By foregrounding everyday practices of care, mutual aid, and placemaking, the research highlights how displaced communities build liveable futures amid structural abandonment and ongoing inequality.
Making velomobility possible for a widening range of disabilities
Professor Emeritus Glen Norcliffe discusses his project Velomobility for Disability, which investigates how adaptive mobility devices are designed, manufactured, and used by people with disabilities in Indonesia and across the Global North and South. The research explores a wide range of low-cost, locally produced mobility solutions—including adaptive bicycles, wheelchairs, and motorbike-based designs and examines how these devices emerge through informal manufacturing systems and user-led innovation. By engaging both makers and users, the project highlights how limited access to affordable assistive technologies constrains everyday mobility, employment, and social participation for people with disabilities, particularly in low-income contexts. The work underscores the importance of inclusive design, local production, and user involvement in addressing structural barriers that shape unequal access to mobility and opportunity.
Non-status citizenship and the paradoxes of immigration regimes in a sanctuary city
Professors Liette Gilbert and Luisa Sotomayor published an article on Antipode on how non-status people face a socio-legal precariousness that contradicts the promises of an inclusive city. Marking Toronto’s tenth anniversary of its “sanctuary city” policy, their research assesses the progress and potential of social planning and municipalist agendas to support irregularised residents. This paper highlights the discomfort and transformative potential of non-status citizenship for immigration regimes in sanctuary cities and argues that recognising non-status citizenship goes beyond notions of urban citizenship to claim formal recognition and security. It also emphasizes the role of cities in expanding service delivery and calling out the failure of planning across levels of government.
Andil Gosine introduces ‘the Ecopoetics of Lorraine O’Grady’
Professor Andil Gosine joined an eminent group of scholars and creatives – the singer ANOHNI, artist Simone Leigh, filmmaker Linda Goode Bryant and Wellesley College President Paula Johnson – to honour his mentor and friend, Lorraine O’Grady. Dr. Gosine invites graduate students to join him in investigating and responding to O’Grady’s work and world through the one-time offering of the performance studies course (ENVS 6348) “The Ecopoetics of Lorraine O’Grady.” The course “will review the important body of art and scholarship that O’Grady has produced over the last five decades, as well as the postcolonial, feminist, anti-racist, psychoanalytical and Cultural Studies theoretical frameworks upon which she draws.”
Getting to know Africa and It’s People
Professor Joseph Mensah presented a lecture on Getting to know Africa and its people: Confronting popular stereotypes in observation of Black History Month in February 2024. In this lecture, Mensah discusses prevailing negative stereotypes about Africa and challenges them by shedding light on the continent’s diversity and confronting the dehumanizing effects of these stereotypes. He urges critical thinking when consuming information about the continent and emphasizes the need to confront stereotypes with awareness, skepticism, and an understanding of Africa’s political and developmental complexities
Public” Space for Whom? Encampment Evictions, Spatio-Legal Exclusion, and Differentiated Urban Citizenships in Toronto
Farida Rady is a MES alumna researcher, writer, and artist. Rady’s interests are centered on questions of agency in the city and extend to housing justice, migrations, memory, and counter-narratives. Rady explores these interests within the spectrum of academic and creative processes. This work portfolio explored the encampment eviction tactics pursued by the City of Toronto in the summer and fall of 2021 in the context of spatio-legal displacement and exclusion, carceral urban governance, and differentiated and propertied urban citizenship.
Exploring the experiences of racialized residents in two Toronto neighborhoods
Park Perceptions and Racialized Realities is a community-based participatory research project that explores the experiences of racialized and Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC) in public greenspaces. The research, led by EUC PhD candidate Nadha Hassen with Sarah Flicker,collaborated with Greenchange, Jane/Finch Centre and the St. James Town Community Co-operative.
Subversive Performances of Quarantine: Organizing Across Differences at the Conjuncture of Protest and Pandemic
The COVID-19 Pandemic intensified already existing social inequalities, especially for marginalized communities. QTBIPOC (Queer and Trans, Black, Indigenous and People of Colour) advocate and researcher Jin Haritaworn pivoted their research to address the responses to the COVID-19 pandemic unfolding in Toronto in real-time. Their research examines the subversive performances of quarantine that support wellbeing within marginalized communities, promoting a safer and more inclusive society for all.
Feminist research examines the spatialities of money, debt, and finance in women’s everyday lives
Araby Smyth (@arabysmyth) is a Post-Doctoral Visitor at the City Institute at York University on the GenUrb partnership project, led by Linda Peake. GenUrb is actively improving lives by challenging issues vital for equity, belonging, justice, and sustainable urban development. The research is conducted within and across multiple cities – Cochabamba (Bolivia), Delhi (India), Georgetown (Guyana), Ibadan (Nigeria), and Shanghai (China) where they comparatively analyze interview and life history data on the theme of money, debt, and finance in women’s everyday lives.
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