Dr. Janice Barry has been working in the field of urban and regional planning for nearly 20 years. She worked as a natural resource and protected area planner with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources before deciding to embark on a career in planning research and teaching. Her scholarly work is driven by a concern for how planning decisions are made and the institutional structures (laws, policies, procedures and professional norms) that faciliate and impede meaningful engagement with diverse peoples and perspectives.
In recent years, her work has focused on conflicts and collaborations between Indigenous peoples and settler planning agencies. Although her early research and professional experiences were on natural resource planning, Dr. Barry also examines on how Indigenous rights and title are addressed in the urban environment. She is particularly interested in the planning relationships that are emerging between municipalities and First Nations as land claims are settled and treaty land entitlements are fulfilled. She has written numerous articles on these subjects, included her 2016 book (with Libby Porter) Planning for Coexistence? Recognizing Indigenous Rights through Land-Use Planning in Canada and Australia.
While she is excited to continue to her work on Indigenous-municipal relationships and to engage in community-based planning projects with Indigenous partners, she is also expanding her research on participatory planning. One of her emerging interests is in how community engagement practitioners define their work and how they are working to professionalize and market their practices.
Dr. Barry holds a PhD in Community and Regional Planning from the University of British Columbia, as well as a Masters in Canadian Studies and Indigenous Studies and a Bachelors of Science in Environmental Science and Biology, both from Trent University. She is also a Registered Professional Planner. Before taking up her current position at the University of Waterloo, she worked as an Assistant Professor at the University of Manitoba's Department of City Planning, a Lecturer of Town Planning at the University of Sheffield (UK), and a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Glasgow (UK).
