School of Planning

Faculty of Architecture and Planning

Joanna Kocsis

Assistant Professor

JoannaKocsis
School of Planning

Email: joanna.kocsis@dal.ca

Website: https://joannakocsis.wixsite.com/joannakocsisphd

Joanna is a community-engaged activist scholar whose work examines the contemporary transformations of urban space that result from the economic and social restructuring of communities impoverished by globalization.  Joanna experiments with affect focussed and arts-based methods to explore how creative practice can be used in research, policymaking and civil society organizing to build socially just and sustainable cities. Her theory-building work on affect in planning, connects the ontological principals of anti-oppressive, post-structuralist, feminist and decolonial perspectives to the material practice of research, examining how creative practice produces space for knowledge creation by historically excluded communities, in ways that advance social justice and sustainability projects. 

Areas of Research Focus

  • Urban Theory
  • Planning Theory
  • International Development
    Planning
  • Social Justice
  • Chronic Urban Trauma
  • Urban Restructuring

Teaching

  • PLAN 3101 Hist. & Philosophy of Planning 
  • PLAN 3101/5101 Hist. & Philosophy of Planning

Education

  • PhD in Planning University of Toronto
  • MSc International Rural Planning and Development Guelph University
  • Honours Bachelor of Arts with High Distinction University of Toronto

Recent Projects

Impacts of Urban Change

  • Young Canadians and Chronic Urban Violence: Healing, resilience, and resistance from between the bridges (Halifax, Nova Scotia) SSHRC Connections Grant
  • Multi-Scalar Urban Transformation: Global geo-politics in the streets of Old Havana and San Juan (Havana, Cuba and San Juan, Puerto Rico) Royal Geographic Society
  • Intergenerational Geotrama and the Impacts of Successive Economic Crisis on Cuban Youth Migration (Havana, Cuba) Migrations Collective, Newcastle University
  • Joven Habana: Challenges Facing Urban Youth During the Economic and Social Restructuring of Post-Socialist Cuba (Havana, Cuba) SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowship

Urban Climate Justice

  • The Urban Climate Justice School of Southeast Asia (Thailand and Cambodia) School of Cities
  • Just Mitigation?: Applying a climate justice approach to the implementation of mitigation policies in growing cities in Southeast Asia (Battambang and Sihanoukville, Cambodia) Climate Positive Energy Initiative
  • Urban Climate Justice: Policymaking for Transformative Resilience (Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia) School of Cities

Selected Publications

  • Kocsis, J. (2024). ‘Y Compartimos. . .’: the collective creation of performed fiction in practice. Cultural Geographies, 31(3), https://doi.org/10.1177/14744740241227442
  • Smeds, E., Verlinghieri, E., Kocsis, J., Connolly, J. J. T., Polgár, A., Manaugh, K., . . . Wargent, M. (2023). ‘Seeing Like a Citizen’: Rethinking City Street Transformations through the Lens of Epistemic Justice. Planning theory & practice, 24(5), 697-729. https://doi.org/10.1080/14649357.2023.2273664
  • Kocsis, J. (2023). ‘¡Eso no se dice’!: Exploring the value of communication distortions in participatory planning. Planning Theory, 22(3), 270-291. https://doi.org/10.1177/14730952221124824
  • McMillan, R., Kocsis, J. and Daniere, A. (2022) Rights, justice and climate resilience: Lessons from fieldwork in urban Southeast Asia. Environment and Urbanization. Vol. 34 Issue. 1 https://doi.org/10.1177/09562478211035644

Selected Honours & Awards

  • 2021: Caribbean Studies Senior Doctoral Fellowship
  • 2019: Best Short Film, Miami International Cuban Film Festival “Joven Habana” 
  • 2013: Second Place, Best Paper Competition AIE, University of Oxford
  • 2010: Schneller and Summers Award, Ontario Agricultural College, Guelph University; Students for Development Award, Canadian International Development Agency
  • 2009: Rural Planning and Development Field Award; Dean’s Scholarship, Ontario Agricultural College, Guelph University
  • 2008: College Scholar Award, Trinity College, University of Toronto
  • 2007: Chancellor’s Scholarship, Trinity College, University of Toronto

Selected Grants

  • 2023: Migration Collective; Royal Geographic Society; School of Cities Grants
  • 2022: Climate Positive Energy Grant; SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowship
  • 2021: School of Cities Urban Challenges Grant
  • 2020: Ontario Graduate Scholarship
  • 2019: Research Fellow, School of Cities, University of Toronto
  • 2016: IDRC Doctoral Research Award
  • 2015: SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship
  • 2014: IDRC Professional Development Award
  • 2012: IDRC Research Award
  • 2010: SSHRC Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship