The School of Cities is a unique multidisciplinary hub for urban research, education, and engagement creating new and just ways for cities and their residents to thrive. Based at the University of Toronto and in a fast-growing, culturally diverse, and economically dynamic urban region, the School of Cities supports leading scholars, practitioners, and community members spanning disciplines and lived experiences to co-create new understandings, policies, and practices.

The future is urban, with close to 70% of the world’s population expected to live in cities by the year 2050. The School of Cities fosters opportunity, collaboration, insight, and knowledge exchange with a global reach, playing a critical role in addressing climate change and justice, migration and belonging, inequality and democracy, and the world’s collective ability to address urgent urban challenges.

Our Strategic Plan

The work of the School of Cities is currently guided by its Strategic Plan (2021-2026), developed through consultations with faculty, students, staff, and external partners. We are focused on achieving four strategic objectives:

Encouraging multidisciplinarity

To apply our diverse expertise to complex urban problems, we are providing research grants and other opportunities that encourage interdisciplinary collaboration and multidisciplinary perspectives among faculty and students in social sciences, natural sciences, humanities and arts, and professional schools from across the university and the globe. 

Mobilizing knowledge

By intentionally communicating our work and engaging local and global communities in the conversation, we are establishing publicly accessible policy roundtables, speaker series, project websites, and exhibitions. You will find our work and insights in video, traditional media and digital channels, and much more. 

Building capacity

To improve cities and the lives of those within them, we must empower people through knowledge and skill development. We are creating programs that strengthen the capacity of faculty, students, urban leaders, practitioners, and the general public.

Abstract globe illustration made with a uniform grid of green and blue dots.

Expanding our network

To foster informed debate and exchange of ideas across generations, disciplines, sectors, and institutions, we must expand and fortify our networks. The School of Cities convenes and connects researchers and students to communities across the GTHA and around the world.

Our Commitments

Acknowledging Traditional Lands

We acknowledge and respect that our work is conducted on the ancestral and unceded territory of the many Indigenous peoples that call this land home, including the Huron-Wendat, the Seneca, and most recently, the Mississaugas of the Credit. We recognize the ongoing role of colonialism and its consequences for Indigenous peoples, and the ways in which other systems of oppression intersect with colonialism to deny so many people a place to call home. We affirm our commitment and responsibility to advancing reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, fostering closer relationships between nations, and improving our own understanding of local Indigenous ways of knowing. We acknowledge the many whose footsteps have marked these lands for generations, and we are grateful for the traditional knowledge keepers and elders who are still with us today and those who have gone before us.

Institutional Culture and the Practice of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion

The School of Cities embraces equity, diversity and inclusion as a source of creativity and inspired scholarship. These values are embedded in the School’s leadership, institutional culture, and governance structures, manifested across its research, education, and partnerships/outreach, and in its activities. The School aims to reflect the diversity of people and communities of the local urban region, and is especially committed to the active participation of under-represented and equity-deserving groups, especially Indigenous, Black, immigrant, and racialized people, people with disabilities, and 2SLGBTQ+ people.