Architecture and urban
scholar, critic, and designer.

Part punk planner, part anarchitect.
My work looks at both we shape our cities and how our cities shape us.

Bio: Dr. Sarah Gelbard (she/her) is a critical community-based urban planning and architecture scholar. Her research and community work engage with stories of participatory planning, community practices, neighbourhood change, and complex histories of power, exclusion, and urban inequities. Her doctoral research (McGill Urban Planning) explored the tensions between participatory planning, creative and cultural revitalization, and the ongoing displacement and criminalization of marginalized and alternative groups in Ottawa. During her SSHRC funded postdoctoral research in the Department of Criminology at the University of Ottawa, Dr. Gelbard worked on housing journeys of gender and criminalization with community partners and co-researcher participants with lived experiences.

She is currently an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Criminology at the University of Ottawa, and a contract instructor at the Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism and in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Carleton University.

SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowship project (2023-2025):

  •  Just Home: Mapping Collective Housing Journeys of Gender and Criminalization

Doctoral dissertation (2023):

  • City for all: Contested narratives of participatory reforms, placemaking practices, and ‘good’ city-building in Ottawa

Courses (Carleton):

  • SOCI 4170 Community Engaged Sociology (Winter 2026)
  • ARCH 1331 Introduction to Architecture (Fall 2025)
  • SOCI 2180 Foundations in Community Engagement (Fall 2025)
  • SOCI 4171 Community Engagement (Winter 2024)
  • ARTH 4800 Women in Architecture (Fall 2023)
  • SOCI 2810 The Sociology of Third Places (Fall 2022)

Publication:

Lachapelle, S., Gelbard, S. B., & Kilty, J. M. (2025, ahead of print). ‘It’s like you’re still in jail’: exploring the subjugation of emotional knowledge in prison-to-community reintegration in Canada. Current Issues in Criminal Justice. https://doi.org/10.1080/10345329.2024.2437207

Gelbard, S. (2023). Radical Solidarities in Punk and Queer Refusals of Safety and Inclusion Narratives in Planning. Urban Planning, 8(2). 177-186. https://doi.org/10.17645/up.v8i2.6372

Gelbard, S. (2023). “Did You Hear? Mavericks Is Closing!” Punk Refusal of Gentrified Endings. GeoHumanities 9(1), 211-229. https://doi.org/10.1080/2373566X.2023.2180418

Gelbard, S. (2023). Assimilation City: Inclusive Planning and Histories of Exclusion. In D. Maoz & E. Mayer (Eds.), Canadian Readings of Jewish History: From Knowledge to Interpretive Transmission(pp. 213–232). Cambridge Scholars Publishing. https://www.cambridgescholars.com/product/978-1-5275-9003-8

Zoll, D., R. Vasudevan, B. Gauger, S. Gelbard, C.M. Kayanan, J. Mah, A. Reyes,  (2023). “Notes from the trenches: Reflections from recent Ph.D. graduates on navigating the academy.” Journal of Planning Education and Research. 45(1), 5-13. https://doi.org/10.1177/0739456X231195729 

Gauger, B., S. Gelbard, C.M. Kayanan, J. Mah, S. Sherman, R. Vasudevan. (2019, equal authorship). “Spaces of Struggle.” Critical Planning 24. 13-18. [link]

Gelbard, S. (2019). “Messy Methodologies: Proposing Radical Alternatives to the Formal Research Plan.” Critical Planning 24. 45-56. [link]

Gelbard, S. B. (2013). Wandering Dwellings: Diasporic Architectures. In R. Seredynska-Abou Eid (Ed.), Diasporic Choices (pp. 221–230). Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9781848881877_022

Blanchard, A. P., G. S. McDowell, N. Valenzuela, H. Xu, S. Gelbard*, et.al. (2013). “Visualization and Phospholipid Identification (VaLID): online integrated search engine capable of identifying and visualizing glycerophospholipids with given mass.” Bioinformatics 29(2): 284-285. *co-author contribution: data visualization

Forthcoming publications:

Gelbard, S. (submitted for review). “Piazza Dante. Monument of urban renewal.” In Granite and Bronze: A Critical Guide to the Monuments in Canada’s National Capital. Editors T Davidson & D Dean. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press.

Recent and upcoming conferences:

  • Collage co-creation as an abolitionist practice of transformative housing justice. The use of research creation and arts-based methods in studying housing, planning, and the built environment. Maynooth University. (upcoming)
  • Maplibs: Playful memory mapping for affective community vision-making. Canadian Association of Geographers Annual. Ottawa ON. 2025.
  • Making a transformative housing justice zine with collaborative speculative design. Critical Perspectives 2025: Transforming Justice. Victoria BC. 2025.
  • Transcarceration at home: housing journeys of gender and criminalization. American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting. Detroit MI / Capillary Critical Geographies Network Conference. Montreal QC. 2025.
  • Co-designing spaces for transformative housing justice in Canada. International Geographical Congress. Dublin. 2024.
  • Transformative housing justice and the home as space of abolition. Critical Perspectives / Criminology & Social Justice. Winnipeg MB. 2024.
  • Mapping collective housing journeys of gender and criminalization. Philosophy of the City. Brooklyn NY. 2023
  • Realizing the Right to Housing for Criminalized Women and Gender-Diverse People. CAEH Conference. Toronto ON. 2022.
  • Urban Planning for Queer Justice: Queering Place and Time in the Inclusive City. ACSP Annual Meeting. Toronto ON. 2022.
  • Forever unsettled: Songwriting as research text. IAG-NZGS Combined Conference. Sydney. Online.
  • Urbanist “Killjoy”: complaints about progressive popular urbanism and planning. Philosophy of the City Now: Around the world in 24h. University of Twente. Online
  • Punking the common urban narratives. ACSP Annual Meeting. Toronto ON (virtual).
  • Future dis-oriented and punk placemaking. ACSP Annual Meeting. Greenville SC.
  • Annihilation/Assimilation: the dark side of inclusive planning. Philosophy of the City. Detroit.
  • more conference presentations

Connecting theory to practice

I am also engaged in a number of advocacy and activist activities that encourage the reappropriation and appreciation of shared public space through tactical interventions, installations, and writing. Socio-cultural equity, diversity, and justice for minority and alternative groups are key themes in my work.

I am the former Housing Development Coordinator at the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies (2021-2022) and continue to collaborate with them as a Housing Advocacy Liaison.

I am also the vocalist, bass-player, and song writer for Bad Missionary and bass player in Critical Witness.

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