Suzanne Harris-Brandts

Assistant Professor – Contemporary Politics of the Built Environment and City Building

HBAS (Waterloo), M. Arch (Waterloo), Ph.D. (MIT)
Email Suzanne Harris-Brandts
613-520-2600

Faculty Appointment

School of Architecture and Urbanism

Faculty Affiliation

Institute of European, Russian and Eurasian Studies

Suzanne Harris-Brandts is Assistant Professor of Architecture and Urbanism at �Ӱ�ԭ�� University, a licensed architect (OAA), and founding partner of , a practice for spatial analysis, urban activism, architecture, and media in the public interest. Her research brings together design and the social sciences to explore issues of power, equity, and collective identity in the built environment. It covers topics as broad spanning as iconic city building, incentivized urbanism, contested place meanings, and design’s relationship to conflict-induced displacement—often foregrounding the role of designer agency.

Research Interests

contemporary South Caucasus and Balkans
iconic city building, including mega-projects, mega-events, and incentivized urbanism
politics of urban development and image-making, particularly in capital cities
contested place meanings and reflections of identity in the built environment
design’s relationship to conflict-induced displacement
design and designer socio-political agency

Research

2023-25 SSHRC Insight Development Grant (PI) “Megaproject Mirages: Uncovering the Politico-Economic Uses of Speculative Eco-flagships in the ‘Global East’”

2021-26 SSHRC Insight Grant (Co-applicant) “Gardens Otherwise and Elsewhere: A Historical and Ethnographic study of Georgian Gardens”

2022-24 SSHRC Connection Grant (Co-applicant) “Displacement in Wartime; Routes and Destinations, Space, Place and Pluralism: Russia’s Invasion, Ukrainian Actions and Consequences for Europe and Eurasia”

2022-23 SSHRC Connection Grant (Co-applicant) “Agora II: (Un)Common Precedents”

2020 Tbilisi Architecture Biennial (PI for Collective Domain) “Build it and they will come”

2018-22 NSF Georgia Fundamental Research Grant (Co-applicant) “Examining the Social Impacts of Large, Private Sector Urban Development in Batumi and Tbilisi, Georgia”

Select Publications

Harris-Brandts, S., Gogishvili, D., & Sichinava, D. (2024). #SpendYourSummerInGeorgia: Popular Geopolitics and Tourism Marketing in Georgia-Russian Relations, Social and Cultural Geography, 1-19.

Harris-Brandts, S. (2024). Heritage Diplomacy, Neo-Ottomanism, and a Local Quest for a New Place of Worship: The Politics of Mosque Building in Batumi, Georgia. Fabrications, 34(2). Special issue: What is “shared”? Architectural Heritage in Conflict, 1-18.

Harris-Brandts, S., & Sichinava, D. (2024). . In Gaillard, J.C., Rodriguez Alarcón, M., Ocampo Go, C. (Eds.) Oxford Research Encyclopaedia of Natural Hazard Science. Oxford University Press.

Harris-Brandts, S. & Goci, E. (2023). Formalizing Tirana. , 32-37.

Harris-Brandts, S. (2022). The ‘White Palace’ Party Headquarters: Architecture, Urban Design, and Power in North Macedonia. In Koch, N. (Ed.) . 86-112. Syracuse University Press.

Harris-Brandts, S., & Sichinava, D. (2021). . International Journal of Heritage Studies, 27 (12), 1213-1229.

Harris-Brandts, S., & Sichinava, D. (2021). The Politics of Urban Recovery in a Soviet-era Resort Town: Heritage Tourism and Displaced Communities in Tskaltubo, Georgia. In Al-Harithy, H. (Ed.) . 271-294. London, UK: Routledge.

Harris-Brandts, S., & Gogishvili, D. (2020). . Eurasian Geography & Economics, 65 (3), 289-319.

Gogishvili, D., & Harris-Brandts, S. (2020). . European Planning Studies, 28 (10), 1999-2019.

Gogishvili, D., & Harris-Brandts, S. (2019). . Caucasus Survey, 7(2), 134-156.

Harris-Brandts, S., & Gogishvili, D. (2018). . Eurasian Geography & Economics, 59 (1), 73-97.

Harris-Brandts, S. (2018). . Nationalities Papers. 46 (6), 1118-1135.