Ahmed Allahwala

Ahmed Allahwala
Professor, Teaching Stream
Telephone number
(416) 287-7313
Building HL 542

My name is Ahmed Allahwala and I am an Associate Professor (Teaching Stream) in the City Studies program at the University of Toronto Scarborough. My work focuses on urban social policy, neighbourhood wellbeing, and community development within the context of contemporary state and economic restructuring in North America and Western Europe. As a community-engaged scholar, I have worked in research and teaching partnerships with non-profits across Toronto, including the Boys and Girls Club of East Scarborough, the East Scarborough Storefront, the Malvern Family Resource Centre, TAIBU Community Health Centre, and the Toronto District School Board. I have taught a wide variety of courses in Germany and Canada on topics including welfare state restructuring, immigration and settlement, city politics, community-based research, and urban planning. I was the recipient of the Government of Canada Award and a teaching fellow at the John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies in Berlin. I am currently a Senior Faculty Fellow at the Centre for Community Partnerships (University of Toronto).

Twitter: @ahmed_allahwala

Education

  • Magister Artium, Freie Universität Berlin – 2001
  • Doctor of Philosophy, York University – 2011
  • Master of Education, University of Toronto – 2020

Teaching Interests

  • CITA01H3 Foundations of City Studies
  • CITC01H3 Urban Neighbourhoods and Communities Case Study: East Scarborough
  • CITC07H3 Urban Social Policy
  • CITD01H3 City Issues & Strategies
  • POL300Y Contested Boundaries: Migration, Citizenship and Multiculturalism in Germany and Europe (Faculty of Arts & Science, Summer Abroad Program)

Research Interests

  • Urban social policy;
  • Neighbourhood and social infrastructure
  • Participatory methods
  • Community development
  • Youth and urban education

Awards and Grants

  • 2021 Experiential Learning Fund, UTSC, The Scarborough Social Atlas Project
  • 2020 UTSC Teaching Award (Associate and Full Professor Category)
  • 2014-2015 UTSC Legacy Fund, The Stories of UTSC: 1964-2014
  • 2013-2014 Research Grant, Office of the Vice Principal Academic and Dean Scarborough Oral History Project, (with C. Berkowitz and C. Guberman)
  • 2002-2004, International Council of Canadian Studies, Government of Canada Award

Publications

  • Allahwala, Ahmed & Roger Keil (2021) The political economy of COVID-19: Canadian and comparative perspectives — an introduction, Studies in Political Economy, 102:3, 233-247, DOI: 10.1080/07078552.2021.2000210
  • Allahwala, Ahmed & Bhatia, Ajeev. (2021). Supporting youth-led community geography on the impacts of neighbourhood social infrastructure on young people’s lives: a case study from East Scarborough, Canada. GeoJournal. 10.1007/s10708-021-10473-8.
  • Allahwala, Ahmed, Mustachi, Jessica, Bellaire, Keli & Yuyitung, Leah (2014) “Empowering Communities or Reproducing Stereotypes: Negotiating Power/Knowledge in Service-Learning Involving youth,” Currents in Teaching and Learning 7(1):6-22. 
  • Allahwala, Ahmed & Bunce, Susannah (2014) “Building and Sustaining Community-University Partnerships in Marginalized Urban Areas,” Journal of Geography 112(2).
  • Allahwala, Ahmed, Boudreau, Julie-Anne & Keil, Roger, (2011) ‘Neo-liberal Governance: Entrepreneurial Municipal Regimes’, In: T. Bunting and P. Filion (eds). Canadian Cities in Transition: Local through Global Perspectives, 4th Edition, Oxford University Press.