Date: February 27, 2026
Time: 9:00 am - 6:00 pm EST
Location: Room 303 & 305, , 91亚色 |
This event is co-sponsored by the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change, the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, and the Office of the Vice President of Research & Innovation.
We are pleased to invite you to the CITY Institute鈥檚 upcoming graduate student symposium, "The City in the Age of the Polycrisis," to be held on February 27, 2026, at 91亚色. The general theme of this interdisciplinary event is the 鈥減olycrisis鈥, that is, a crisis predicated on the convergence of social, cultural, environmental, economic and political upheavals. With the emergence of the polycrisis, cities around the world today, both in the Global South and Global North, are contending with a set of unprecedented and particularly vexing challenges. The nature of these challenges are varied and cut across all sectors in ways that directly and/or indirectly affect many aspects of the contemporary city. We see this for example, in how global climate change is connected to issues of population displacement and migration, which in turn are connected to xenophobic reactions and economic scapegoating that, in part, has contributed to the concerning rise in populist and authoritarian reactions in cities around the world today.
Beyond the political implications of the polycrisis for cities (often defined in terms of threats to democracy), the polycrisis has implications for many other sectors of the city, as seen for instance in the 鈥渉ousing crisis鈥, the 鈥渇inancial and economic crisis鈥, the pandemic and various health crises (including the opioid crisis, the mental health crisis, and the inaccessibility to health care), the 鈥渆nvironmental crisis鈥, the 鈥渋nfrastructure crisis鈥, the 鈥渃ultural wars鈥, and numerous 鈥渉umanitarian crises鈥 at various sites around the world (e.g. Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, etc).
This graduate student symposium will bring into dialogue and discussion the many different dimensions of the polycrisis and the implications these have for cities based on (but not limited to), the following sorts of guiding questions:
- How can we approach and analyze the polycrisis?
- How do we identify and critically analyze the impacts and effects of the polycrisis on different aspects of the urban, including: the political, cultural, social, and environmental?
- What are some of the responses, actions and policies that cities can adopt to address different aspects of the polycrisis?
- What does the polycrisis mean for the future of the city 鈥 politically, socially, economically, culturally?
- How does the polycrisis impact every day urban life and lived experiences in the city?
It is clear that an analysis of the complex issues associated with the polycrisis will require the expertise of different disciplines, and perhaps unorthodox approaches. As such, we welcome submissions that centre urban questions and from the widest possible array of disciplinary perspectives, including but not limited to: sociology, geography, politics, law, disaster management, public policy, health, cultural studies, anthropology, psychology, urban planning, international development, social work, refugee studies, psychology, kinesiology, critical disability studies, environmental studies, the humanities and the natural sciences.
Official Program
Organizers:
Harris Ali, Acting Director, the CITY Institute
Sean Ferkul, PhD Candidate, Faculty of Social Work
Sophia Ilyniak, PhD Candidate in Human Geography, Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change
Nikki Pagaling, Coordinator, the CITY Institute
Eric Rweikiza, 4th-year Undergraduate, Department of Sociology, LAPS
Stefan Treffers, Postdoctoral Fellow, Sociology, CITY Institute