Zhixi Zhuang

Zhixi Zhuang is the Associate Director for Education and Capacity Building. She is a Registered Professional Planner (RPP), a member of the Canadian Institute of Planners (MCIP), an Associate Professor at the School of Urban and Regional Planning at Toronto Metropolitan University, and an affiliate faculty in three interdisciplinary graduate programs at TMU: MA in Immigration and Settlement Studies, PhD in Policy Studies, and PhD in Communication and Culture. 

As the Founder and Director of DiverCityLab (external link) , Zhixi’s research challenges an important disciplinary divide, as migration studies and planning studies are often treated separately. Through an interdisciplinary research program, she examines the growing urban diversity of Canadian cities and investigates how city-builders can instill the values of equity and inclusion into planning policies and practices. Specifically, she explores the intersections of immigrant settlement and integration, urban transformations, and municipal policies and governance, all from a lens of equity, inclusion, and socio-spatial justice. With a strong record of successful grant writing and peer-reviewed publications in high-impact, multidisciplinary international journals spanning planning, urban design, geography, migration, health, and education, her research generates empirical evidence and policy recommendations for city strategies that aim to support migrant integration in both large and smaller Canadian cities, promote ethnic entrepreneurship and food security, foster suburban placemaking and transformation, and enhance the role of municipal planning in cultivating community belonging. 

Zhixi currently holds multiple SSHRC grants across the Insight and Partnership streams, leading projects that address migrant integration, forced migration, welcoming infrastructure, small and mid-sized cities, immigrant entrepreneurship, food security, housing for international students, oral histories, equitable aging and health care, and digital media and technology. Her work engages interdisciplinary and multisectoral partnerships at local, national, and international levels. Her expertise in migration and cities, inclusive planning, and equity-based placemaking has been recognized nationally and internationally. She has been invited to speak at the International Metropolis Conference, the Urban Economy Forum-World Planning Congress, Aalto University, University of Oxford, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, the Conference Board of Canada, the Ontario Professional Planners Institute, the Cities of Calgary, Brampton, and Toronto, and the Provincial Government of Biscay in Spain. She has served as a jury member for the Urban Europe - Urban Migration competition.

Zhixi has led mixed-method, arts-informed, and community-based participatory research (e.g., documentary, Photovoice, digital storytelling, walk-along interviews, and exhibitions) to effectively engage migrant communities, city building professionals, and policymakers. By grounding her research in reciprocity, care, non-extraction, relationship-building, and transparency, she has applied these principles by using care as methodology, arts as a medium, and co-creation as a form of empowerment. Her 25-minute, SSHRC-funded documentary Globurbia: Suburban Place-making Amidst Diversity (external link)  has been screened and featured at academic and professional planning conferences including the Urban Affairs Association, Ontario Professional Planners Institute, and Canadian Institute of Planners conferences. Domestic and international academics in a wide range of undergrad and grad courses including planning, geography, urban studies, community development, politics, and public management have requested permission to use the film in their classrooms. In partnership with the Toronto Ward Museum and funded by Digital Museums Canada, she curated the digital storytelling initiative Hot pot and parking lots: Immigrant food businesses in Agincourt  (external link) . These creative outputs have reached diverse audiences – academic, policy, and public – demonstrating the transformative potential of arts-based research for community-building and civic engagement. 

Internationally, she holds three pivotal academic leadership positions: an appointed member of the Global Planning Education Committee at the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning; an elected Board member and Chair of the Academic Affairs Committee for the International Association of China Planning; and an Associate Editor of the top-ranked Journal of Planning Education and Research.