Title/Position: Associate Professor
Department/Faculty/Institution: Geography and Planning, University of Toronto
Degree(s)/School(s): University of Toronto
E-mail: deb.cowen@utoronto.ca
MCRI Projects: B2: Suburban Redevelopment and Tower Renewal; B8: Everyday Suburbanisms.
Background: Deborah Cowen is Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography and Programme in Planning at the University of Toronto. She has been involved in community projects and urban activist work in Toronto's post-war suburbs for a number of years. Her scholarly research follows two main trajectories. The first examines urban politics and planning, with a focus on the suburbanization and racialization of poverty. The second examines violence and security, where she examines how territory is fashioned and how the political is remade through conflict. Deborah is a co-editor of the journal Environment and Planning D: Society and Space and she is currently collaborating on a documentary and research project with the NFB's HIGHRISE team, looking at "digital citizenship" in suburbs, globally.
Research Interests: Sub/urban Politics; Citizenship and Space; Labour; Violence.
Selected Publications:
Cowen, D. (2011). Logistics Liabilities. Anthropological Research on the Contemporary. http://anthropos-lab.net/studio/logistics’-liabilities.
Parlette, V. & Cowen, D. (2010). Inner Suburbs at Stake: Investing in Social Infrastructure in Scarborough. Report prepared for the Cities Centre Occasional Paper series.
Cowen, D. (2010). A Geography of Logistics: Market Authority and the Security of Supply Chains. The Annals for the Association of American Geographers. 100 (3): 1-21.
Parlette, V. & Cowen, D. (2010). Dead Malls: Suburban activism, local spaces, global logistics. The International Journal of Urban and Regional Research.
Cowen, D., Siciliano, A. & Smith, N. (2010). Fear, Insecurity, and the City. In P. Filion & T. Bunting (eds.) Canadian Cities in Transition. OUP.
Cowen, D. (2009). Containing Insecurity: US Port Cities and the ‘War on Terror.’ In S. Graham (ed.) Disrupted Cities: When Infrastructure Fails. New York and London: Routledge, pp. 69-84.
Cowen, D. & Smith, N. (2009). After Geopolitics? From the Geopolitical Social to Geoeconomics. Antipode. 41 (1): 22-48.
Cowen, D. (2007). National Soldiers and the War on Cities. Theory & Event. 10 (2).
Cowen, D. (2007). Struggling with ‘Security’: National Security and Labour in the Ports. Just Labour. 10: 30-44.
Cowen, D. (2008). The Soldier-Citizen. In E. Isin (ed.) Recasting the Social in Citizenship. University of Toronto Press: 189-209.
Cowen, D. (2007). National Soldiers and the War on Cities. Theory & Event. 10 (2).
Cowen, D. & Bunce, S. (2006). Competitive Cities and Secure Nations: Conflict and Convergence in Urban Waterfront Agendas after 9/11. The International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. 30 (2): 427–39.
Cowen, D. (2005). Suburban Citizenship? The Rise of Targeting and the Eclipse of Social Rights in Toronto. Social and Cultural Geography. 6 (3): 335-357.
