MATUP Class of 2016–
Ph.D. student, University of Toronto.

Sinead graduated in 2016 from the MA Theories of Urban Practice program. She holds a BA in Art History from McGill University, 2012.

She is currently a Ph.D. student in the Department of Geography & Planning at the University of Toronto, working with Prof. Kanishka Goonewardena. Her area of focus is generally urban geography, but her interests also include critical theory–particularly feminist theory–and cultural studies.

Prior to starting her Ph.D., Sinead worked as a project manager for Martha Rosler, an artist whose work has long engaged with issues of housing justice, homelessness and gentrification in various locations around the world. When she returned to Toronto (where she grew up), she worked in public consultation, assisting with efforts to generate input on infrastructure and planning projects. For Sinead, one of the compelling reasons to pursue the Ph.D. is to develop critical pedagogy and provide people with the tools to move towards action in transforming social relations and urban space.

Sinead writes:

“MATUP program transformed my understanding of what integrated critical theory and practice could look like. If this sounds trite, let me qualify it by saying that this was due in significant part to the peers I met and worked with. In the second year of the program, I was part of a group of students who worked collaboratively with a research network in Quito, Ecuador investigating migration, food security, childcare and arts activism centered around a local food market in the city. Some of this work was displayed at the UN-Habitat III conference in Quito in 2016, and our projects were also displayed in an exhibition at the Sheila Johnson Design Center at Parsons, under the title “Territorial Urgency/Urgencia Territorial.” Two things I learned through this experience that continue to inform my work are: a) the importance of resisting specialization in educational institutions–by this I mean the narrow specificity of disciplinary affiliations that divide and separate us; and b) that activism and so-called ‘scholarly work’ have deeply intertwined histories and can be reconciled, if uneasily (I continue to learn from my friends and colleagues how to practice this).”