Luisa Sotomayor

Luisa Sotomayor is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change at York University, where she also serves as the Director of the City Institute. Her academic work bridges urban planning, governance, and socio-spatial justice, with a strong focus on inequality, housing, informality, and participatory planning. She is actively engaged in research across Latin America and Canada, contributing to critical debates on urban policy and citizenship.

Education:

• PhD in Planning, University of Toronto
• MSc in Planning, University of Toronto
• BA in Sociology, National University of Colombia

Her research interests center on urban inequality, housing precarity, socio-legal exclusions, and the formation of informal urban peripheries. She critically examines how state and non-state actors, community activism, and legal frameworks shape urban planning agendas. Her work questions the capacity of planning to address socio-spatial injustices and foster more equitable, democratic cities.

The recent publications reflect a strong engagement with judicialization of urban planning in Bogotá, student housing precarity in Toronto, sanctuary city policies, and the impacts of social urbanism in Medellín. Collectively, her scholarship reveals a transnational, interdisciplinary approach that connects urban theory with grassroots realities, emphasizing legal mobilization, policy mobility, and the lived experiences of marginalized populations.

Scientific Awards and Recognitions:

• MITACS Accelerate (2023-2024)
• EUC Dean’s Service Award (2021-2022)
• York University Academic Innovation Fund Award (2020-2021, 2021-2022)
• SSHRC Insight Grant (2022-2025)
• MITACS Global Link (2019)
• MITACS Accelerate (2021, 2022)
• SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant (2020-2021)
• SSHRC Connections Grant (2018-2019)
• SSHRC Doctoral Award (2011-2015)
• International Development Research Centre, Doctoral Award (2011)

Luisa Sotomayor supervises graduate students in Environmental Studies, Geography, and Planning programs. She has led major funded research projects including SSHRC Insight and Partnership Engage Grants, focusing on issues such as vertical peripheries in Colombia, policy mobility in Latin American cities, legal mobilizations in urban planning, and student housing affordability in Toronto. Her collaborative work with institutions across Canada and Latin America underscores her commitment to engaged, interdisciplinary scholarship.

She is involved in research labs and teams through the City Institute at York University and leads multi-institutional collaborations such as StudentDwellTO, which brings together faculty and students from OCAD University, Toronto Metropolitan University, University of Toronto, and York University to address student housing challenges. Her work continues to influence urban planning theory and practice in both the Global North and South.