Visiting Professors 

• Application materials must be received via the application form at least 3 months prior to the visiting professorship start date.  

• Applications are vetted by the Director, School of Cities, and a recommendation for appointment must be made to the Vice-Dean Faculty & Academic Life, Faculty of Arts & Science. 

• Successful applicants will receive an official letter of invitation from the Director, School of Cities. 

• The letter of invitation can be used as needed at the Visiting Professor’s home institution, or for any visa requirements.  

An application consists of: 

• A current curriculum vitae
• A statement of no more than 4,000 characters (approx. 700 words) describing the proposed project focus and interest that the applicant will pursue if selected. The statement must include budgetary information if applicable. 
• Approximate or exact date(s) of visit over a 12 month period 
• A formal letter from the applicant’s home institution that 1) verifies proof of status and title, 2) confirms continuing appointment, 3) confirms salary continuation for the period of the application’s visit. The dates indicated in the home institution letter must match the dates of the proposed visit.  

• Please refer to the Canadian Immigration and Citizenship website at www.cic.gc.ca/english/index.asp 

• Instructions will be provided by the University of Toronto upon approval of the visiting appointment. 

Canada does not pay for medical or hospital services for visitors. You must purchase health insurance. Please visit the University Health Insurance Plan (UHIP) website at www.uhip.ca for information on plans that cover the hospital and medical services of non-resident students, employees, and short-term university visitors at Ontario universities and affiliated colleges and their families. 

The University of Toronto has several temporary accommodation options, including the Visiting Faculty Housing (VFH) program (facultyhousing.utoronto.ca), Lowther Suites (lowthersuites.com), Glen Grove Suites & Condominium Residences (glengrove.com), and 89 Chestnut Residence (chestnut.utoronto.ca). 

David Gordon FCIP RPP AICP is Professor in the School of Urban and Regional Planning of the Department of Geography and Planning at Queen’s University. He received a Doctor of Design degree from the Harvard GSD. Professor Gordon was SURP Director for over a decade and has also taught at McGill, Toronto, TMU, Riga, Western Australia, Harvard and Pennsylvania, where he was a Fulbright Senior Scholar.  

Prior to becoming a full-time professor, he was a principal in an urban design firm and manager in a Toronto waterfront agency. He is a member of the National Capital Commission’s design review committee, Research Chair of the Council for Canadian Urbanism and a Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Planners, sharing their National Awards four times. Recent books include Town and Crown and Planning Canadian Communities (with Pam Shaw). His research examines planning histories, capital cities, waterfronts and suburbs in Canada, Australia and the USA. 

David Gordon’s current major research field, planning history, uses longitudinal studies of planning practice to answer questions about implementation. The main site is Canada’s national capital region, which is the focus of the country’s longest sustained urban planning effort. The capital city research program was supported by three SSHRC grants and a Fulbright fellowship. The results are reported in a book, many refereed articles and a research website. This research stream culminated in another book, Town and Crown: An illustrated history of Canada’s capital. 

A second research focus is planning Canadian suburbs. This area has been addressed in several book chapters, articles in the Journal of the American Planning Association, Urban History Review, Journal of Architectural and Planning Research and Journal of Urban Design. The project is supported by two SSHRC grants to examine the histories proportions and policy implications of Canadian suburbs.  The research was extended for comparison with Australian suburbs at UWA’s Institute for Advanced Studies and American suburbs at MIT’s Center for Advanced Urbanism.

Read David Gordon’s full biography on the Queen’s University website  

Sergio Montero is Associate Professor of Geography & Planning and Inaugural Director of the Institute for Inclusive Economies and Sustainable Livelihoods (IIESL) at the University of Toronto, Scarborough. Prof. Montero is interested in place-based and inclusive approaches to reimagine local economic development and urban & regional planning. His research is often comparative and emphasizes thinking from the Global South and from the peripheries of economic development. Before joining UTSC as faculty and director of IIESL in July 2023, he was a professor of urban & regional development at Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia (2015-2023).

During his time as visiting professor at the School of Cities (Dec 2021- July 2022), Sergio did research on the relationship between urban development and recent social and legal struggles for inclusion in Bogotá, Colombia.

Dr. Montero’s recent research has been focused on the politics and governance of urban and regional planning; on the South-South and South-North circulation, learning and adoption of international policy models and “best practices,” particularly around sustainable transport; and on local and regional economic development strategies, especially in Latin America. He has published on these topics in several academic journals such as Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, Urban Studies, Economic Development Quarterly, Latin American Studies, the Journal of Rural Studies or the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, among others. He has edited two books on local economic development in Latin America (in English and Spanish) and a recent collection on the global mobilities and diffusion of policy knowledge (in English and Portuguese). Sergio is associate editor of the journal Regional Studies and international corresponding editor of Urban Studies. He holds a master and PhD in City and Regional Planning from the University of California, Berkeley (USA) and a BA in Economics from Universidad de Granada (Spain).

Read Sergio Montero’s full biography