Noga Keidar

Noga is a PhD student in the Department of Sociology at the University of Toronto and a Connaught scholarship recipient, specializing in urban and political sociology. She is intrigued by the challenge of reinvigorating local leaders and activists in finding their ways to interpret and translate global urban trends to local knowledge and practices that sustain more just and equitable cities. In her work at the Urban Clinic, she is leading the Clinic's embedded research projects and developing platforms for engaged urban scholars.

Her dissertation research theorizes some of the current forms in which ideas shape cities, and particularly the interaction between cities and their so-called 'gurus', the super-star scientists who preach for urban regeneration models that have become extremely popular. As part of this project, she evaluates the global scope of the 'guru-urbanism' phenomenon, as well as closely documenting the interaction between cities and their 'gurus' by following the adoption and translation of Richard Florida's Creative Class model in Jerusalem and Toronto. Her recent work on these topics is forthcoming in City & Community. At the University of Toronto, Noga collaborates in several research projects examining world-wide public-art and cultural policy. One of the preliminary outcomes is the policy report "Redefining Public Art in Toronto" written for the City of Toronto.