Sarah Gelbard
Contract Instructor
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.
Dr. Gelbard’s SSHRC funded postdoctoral research in the Department of Criminology at the University of Ottawa (2023-2025) mapped housing journeys of gender and criminalization through arts-based, co-creation research developed in partnership with community organizations and co-researcher participants who have lived experiences of housing insecurity and criminalization. This research was informed by her past work experience as the Housing Development Coordinator (2021-2022) at the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies (CAEFS), and ongoing collaborations with them as well as serving on the human rights taskforce of the Women’s National Housing and Homelessness Network (WNHHN). Dr. Gelbard is also an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Criminology at the University of Ottawa, and a contract instructor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Carleton.
Research
- Spatial and housing justice
- Community engagement and participatory methods
- Gender and feminist theory
- Prison abolition and transformative justice
Education
PhD Urban Planning, McGill University
Master of Architecture, Carleton University
Bachelor of Architectural Studies, Carleton University
Recent Publications
Lachapelle, S., Gelbard, S. B., & Kilty, J. M. (2025). ‘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.
Gelbard, S. (2023). Radical Solidarities in Punk and Queer Refusals of Safety and Inclusion Narratives in Planning. Urban Planning, 8(2). 177-186.
Gelbard, S. (2023). “Did You Hear? Mavericks Is Closing!” Punk Refusal of Gentrified Endings. GeoHumanities 9(1), 211-229.
Courses
ARCH 1331: Introduction to Architecture [Fall 2025]
Courses in other departments
SOCI 4170: Community Engaged Sociology [Winter 2026]
ANTH/SOCI 2180: Foundations in Community Engagement [Fall 2025]
ANTH/SOCI 4171: Community Engagement Capstone [Winter 2024]
ARTH 4800: Women in Architecture [Fall 2023]
SOCI 2810: Sociology of Third Spaces [Fall 2022]