Ranu Basu

Ranu Basu's research and teaching interests relate to the geographies of marginality, diversity and social justice in cities; power, space and activism; critical geographies of education; and spatial methodologies including critical GIS. Her projects funded by SSHRC, CERIS and Infrastructure Canada have explored the impacts of neoliberalization of educational restructuring in Ontario; multiculturalism in schools through questions of 'integration'; social sustainability and the meaning of public space as it relates to migrants (including the South Asian Diaspora); and the provision of infrastructure for marginal groups in suburban regions.

She is the Principal Investigator in an international SSHRC Insight Grant project titled Subalterity, Education and Welfare Cities that historically traces the geopolitical impacts of forced displacement on cities and schools through questions of conflict and displacement in Havana, Toronto and Kolkata. As part of this project, a working group on the Geopolitics of Education for Peace is currently exploring international examples around the world related to questions of education, praxis and peace.

In 2008, she was a John A. Sproul Fellow at the Center for Canadian Studies, and a visiting scholar at the Center for Cities and Schools at the Institute for Urban and Regional Development (IURD). She serves on the executive board of the Centre for Refugee Studies (CRS), the YCAR Executive Committee; and previously with the York Centre for Education and Community (YCEC) and CITY Institute. Her publications have appeared in journals such as the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research; Professional Geographer; Education, Social Justice and Citizenship; Geoforum; Environment and Planning: C.

Representative Publications

Basu, R. (2021) "Geopolitical Framings of Subalterity in Education III: Context of Displacement." Refugee Watch – A South Asian Journal on Forced Migration 58.

Basu, R. (2011) "Multiculturalism through Multilingualism in Schools: Emerging Places of 'Integration' in Toronto." Annals of the Association of American Geographers 101(6): 1307-1330

Basu, R. (2013) "Multiplying Spaces of Subalterity in Education: From Ideological Realms to Strategizing Outcomes." Canadian Geographer 57(3).

Basu, R. (2004) "The Rationalization of Neoliberalism in Ontario's Public Education System, 1995-2000." Geoforum 35(5): 621-634.

Basu, R. (2004) "A Flyvbjergian perspective of Public Elementary School Closures in Toronto: A Question of ‘Rationality’ or ‘Power’?" Environment and Planning: C, Government and Policy 22: 423-251.

Basu, R. (2012) "Spatial Phronesis: A Case Study in Geosurveillance." In B. Flyvbjerg, S. Schram and T. Landman (eds.) Real Social Science: Applied Phronesis. Cambridge University Press.