Dr. Zhixi Zhuang is the Associate Director for Education and Capacity Building at the Global Migration Institute, Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU). 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 TMU.
As the Founder and Director of DiverCityLab (www.divercitylab.com), 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.
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.
| Migration Reasearch Hub ID: 6009 | |
| ORCID | https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8867-3493 |
| https://www.linkedin.com/in/ www.linkedin.com/in/zhixi-zhuang/ | |
| X/Twitter | https://twitter.com/@ZhixiZ |
| Researcher ID | 6009 |
Expertise
Migration processes
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Migration drivers
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Migration forms
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Disciplines
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Subject Areas
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Other
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Qualitative research
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Quantitative research
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Types of study
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Scope
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UN Countries
Roles
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Toronto Metropolitan University
University, Toronto, Canada
Associate Professor
Research
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