Melissa Folk

Melissa Folk is a designer, unhoused advocate, and settler living on unceded Indigenous lands in Tio’tia:ke/ Montreal. They examine the connection between settler colonialism and hostile design in urban space. Melissa’s research explores how the state employs architectural strategies to control and regulate intended uses of public space through the support of surveillance and policing. Their work establishes the possibility for the ‘right to the city,’ imagined through the decriminalization of encampment and increased accessibility to shelter and public infrastructure. Melissa is originally from Regina, and completed their Master of Architecture degree at the University of Manitoba where their Design Thesis focused on engaging community through creating spaces of exchange and socialization. They continue this work in the Cultural Studies PhD program to propose policy, law, and design changes for improving the standard of living for those subject to being unhoused. Their subject interests are in hostile design, surveillance, public space, neoliberalism, the right to the city, decolonization, and abolition.