Luisa Sotomayor
Dr. Luisa Sotomayor is the Director of the City Institute at York University and an Associate
Professor in community planning and housing at the Faculty of Environmental & Urban Change
(EUC) in the same institution. Luisa’s research and teaching examine urban inequalities from a
governance and urban planning perspective, including how housing systems and urban policies
produce uneven urbanisms and everyday exclusions. Sotomayor has led several research projects
funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the International
Development Research Centre, and the Lincoln Institute for Land Policy. Current and recent
funded projects examine (1) the private construction of government-sponsored low-cost housing
in the form of mass-produced apartment towers at the urban fringes of three Colombian cities;
(2) emergency housing planning in Toronto and neighbourhood opposition to the siting of new
shelter facilities; and (3) postsecondary students’ access to affordable housing in Toronto and the
impact of large student concentrations in near-campus rental markets. Luisa has master's and
PhD degrees in Urban Planning from the University of Toronto. She is a Registered Professional
Planner (RPP), a full member of the Canadian Institute of Planners and a representative of the
Canadian Schools of Planning to the Professional Standards Board’s Accreditation Program
Committee.
