IMFG is delighted to welcome our post-doctoral and graduate fellows for the 2019-20 year.
Nick Lombardo is the 2019-2020 IMFG Post-doctoral Fellow. He holds a PhD from the Department of Geography and Planning at the University of Toronto. His dissertation research dealt with the production of infrastructure and its relation to property law in New York City’s history, focusing on the Port of New York. His current research project examines how municipal governments deal with federal infrastructure projects, with a focus on Toronto’s Pearson Airport and MacMillan railway yard in the post war and contemporary periods. Prior to his PhD, Nick worked as a researcher at the Martin Prosperity Institute on a range of urban and regional issues.
Michaela Pedersen-Macnab is the 2019-20 IMFG Graduate Fellow. She is a PhD student at the University of Toronto in the Department of Political Science. Before coming to Toronto, Michaela worked as a researcher at the China Institute, a Canadian policy think-tank that specializes in Canada-China relations. She has also worked as a governance consultant for a variety of municipalities in Western Canada. Michaela previously completed an MA in Political Science at the University of British Columbia, and a BA in Environmental Studies at the University of Alberta. In 2018, Michaela was also selected as one of the winners of the International Policy Ideas Challenge hosted by Global Affairs Canada. Her research seeks to compare the response strategies of Canadian cities to heat waves and to evaluate the efficacy of short and long-term municipal heat response planning. In particular, it examines the ways in which long-term urban infrastructure and climate adaptation planning, which are necessary for municipal hot weather response, are constrained and empowered by multi-level funding arrangements.
Noga Keidar is the 2019-20 Blanche and Sandy Van Ginkel Graduate Fellow in Municipal Finance and Governance. She is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Sociology, and a fellow in the Urban Genome Project at the School of Cities, both at the University of Toronto. Her dissertation research examines the canonization process of urban models, and for the IMFG she will examine the development of municipal public art policy models. In addition, Noga is the Deputy Director of the Urban Clinic at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where she is leading the Clinic’s embedded research projects and developing platforms for engaged urban scholars.