Geography and Planning
Faculty List
Professors Emeriti
L.S. Bourne, MA, Ph D, FRSC, DES Hons
J.N.H. Britton, MA, Ph D
R.B. Bryan, BA, Ph D
I. Burton, Ph D, FRSC
A.J. Dakin, Ph D, ARIBA, FRTPI
J.H. Galloway, MA, Ph D (V)
E.C. Relph, M Phil, Ph D
S.T. Roweis, M Sc (Pl), Ph D (I)
J.W. Simmons, MA, Ph D
T. Smith, M Sc, Ph D
A. Waterhouse, M Sc (Pl), Ph D
Associate Professor Emeritus
A. M. Davis, Ph D
Associate Professor and Chair of the Department
R.J. DiFrancesco, MA, Ph D
Professor and Graduate Chair
R. Buliung, MA, Ph D
Associate Professor and Undergraduate Chair
M. Farish, BA, Ph D
Professors
H. Bathelt, MESc, MA, Ph D
J.M. Chen, B Sc, Ph D, FRSC
D. Cowen, MScPl, Ph D
A.G. Daniere, MPP, Ph D
J.R. Desloges, M Sc, Ph D
M.S. Gertler, MCP, Ph D, FRSC
E. Gilbert, MA, Ph D
J. Hackworth, MA, MEP, Ph D
L.D.D. Harvey, M Sc, Ph D
D. Leslie, MA, Ph D
R. Lewis, MA, Ph D
W.S. Prudham, MA, Ph D
K.N. Rankin, MRP, Ph D
S. Ruddick, MA, Ph D
R. Silvey, MA, Ph D
S. Wakefield, MA, Ph D
Professor, Teaching Stream
D. Boyes, M Sc, Ph D
Associate Professors
C. Abizaid, MA, Ph D
A. Boland, MAIS, Ph D
K. Goonewardena, M Pl, Ph D
P. Hess, MEP, Ph D
J. Liu, Ph D
V. Maclaren, MPl, MS, Ph D
M. Siemiatycki, M Sc, Ph D
N. Singh, MFM, Ph D
J. Zhang, MS, Ph D
Assistant Professors
N. Adiv, MS, Ph D (CLTA)
M. Daigle, MA, Ph D
H. Dorries, MScPL, Ph D
J. Spicer, MCP, Ph D
L. Stephens, MScPL, PhD (CLTA)
M. Widener, MSc, Ph D
Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream
S. Peirce, MSc, Ph D (CLTA)
Introduction
Geography is the study of the environments created on the earth’s surface by nature and people. The physical and biological elements of these environments, as well as their economic and social structure, historical development, spatial organization, interrelationships, management and planning form the subject matter of Geography. Geography, therefore, relates closely to other fields in natural science, social science and the humanities, and geographers take courses in these related fields along with their geography courses. Students specializing in other subjects often select one or more geography courses to deepen their understanding of the resource base, culture and economy of those parts of the world in which they are interested.
Employment opportunities for geographers exist in many branches of international organizations, government, industry, and education. Geographers work at all levels of government service, especially in agencies responsible for environmental management; land and resource analysis; development of historic districts and sites; urban transportation planning; urban and regional development planning; trade promotion; community social services; geographic systems design and data analysis; transport network design and the processing of archival, survey, and cartographic information. In business, geographers work in marketing, locational analysis, resource development, and in consulting firms engaged in project evaluation, land use planning and natural heritage conservation. They often also find work in the non-profit sector as policy analysts, cartographers and geographic information science specialists, community organizers, and educators.
Students studying Geography may take either an H.B.A. or H.B.Sc., depending upon the subjects they wish to emphasize. The Department offers Specialist, Major and Minor Programs in Geography, and contributes courses to various departmental and college programs including American Studies; Anthropology; Archaeology; Canadian Studies and Peace and Conflict Studies; Equity Studies; School of the Environment; Environmental Geosciences; Urban Studies; Ethics, Society and Law and International Relations; and European Studies. Counselling and advice may be obtained from the Associate Chair, Undergraduate or the Undergraduate Counsellor.
Associate Chair, Undergraduate:
Professor M. Farish, Sidney Smith Hall, Room 5040 (416-978-6671)
Undergraduate Counsellor:
K. Giesbrecht, Sidney Smith Hall, Room 5044 (416-978-6455)
General Enquiries: 416-978-3375
Regarding Geography and Planning Programs
For 2020-21
Admission to major and specialist programs will be determined by a student's mark in 0.5-1.0 GGR FCEs at the 100 and/or 200 level. See program descriptions for details on the entry requirements. These are limited enrolment programs that can only accommodate a limited number of students. Achieving the marks required does not necessarily guarantee admission to the program in any given year.
Double majors in Geography may only overlap 1.0 FCE. Students combining any of our Minor programs with a Specialist/Major program would normally be allowed to overlap only 1.5 FCEs towards both programs. Double minors can overlap 1.0 FCE. Students combining the Focus in Planning and the Focus in Urban Geography can overlap 1.5 FCE. Students that choose to specialize or major in one of the three Geography programs cannot minor in the same program but may do so in another Geography program.
Generally, students may only take 1.0 Independent Research Project FCE toward their program requirements.
Geography and Planning Programs
Human Geography Specialist (Arts Program) - ASSPE1667
The Human Geography programs provide the opportunity to learn about the relations between landscapes, places, people and nature, and the spatial organization of human activities. While students are encouraged to explore the breadth of the discipline, we also identify courses by theme for students who wish to develop expertise in one or two subfields (e.g., urban geography, cultural and historical geography). The Human Geography programs appeal to students who wish to develop an integrative understanding of the cultural, economic, political and social forces that shape how people use and experience the environments they live in. These programs offer training in quantitative and qualitative research methods, including GIS and Remote Sensing.
This is a limited enrolment program. Students must have completed 4.0 credits and meet the requirements listed below to enrol.
Variable Minimum Grade
A minimum grade is needed for entry, and this minimum changes each year depending on available spaces and the number of applicants. The following courses must be completed:
- 0.5 credit in GGR courses at the 100- or 200-level, with a minimum grade of 75%, or
- 1.0 credit in GGR courses at the 100- or 200-level, with a minimum grade of 70%
To ensure that students admitted to the program will be successful, applicants with a final grade or grade average lower than the minimum grades stated above will not be considered for admission. Please note that obtaining this minimum final grade does not guarantee admission to the program. Jointly-offered GGR courses will also be considered (e.g. JEG, JGI, JGE).
First Year Geography Courses: Any 2 courses (1.0 credit) from JEG100H1, GGR101H1, GGR107H1, GGR112H1, GGR124H1, GGR196H1, GGR197H1, GGR198H1, GGR199H1. 200/300-level GGR courses may also be used to meet this requirement. Contact the Undergraduate Administrator to update your program.
Physical and Environmental Geography Course: Any course (0.5 credit) not used to satisfy first year course requirement from JEG100H1, GGR101H1, GGR201H1, GGR203H1, GGR205H1, GGR206H1, GGR223H1
Methods Courses: All (1.5 credits) of GGR270H1, GGR271H1, GGR272H1
Regional Geography Course: Any course (0.5 credit) from GGR240H1, GGR246H1, GGR254H1, GGR341H1, GGR342H1, GGR343H1, GGR344H1
Fourth Year Courses: Any 2 (1.0 credit) 400 series GGR courses, at least one of which must be from Group E. Up to 0.5 credit can be used from GGR493Y1, based on suitability of placement for this program, and approved by department.
Applications: Any 11 courses (5.5 credits) from Group E; Up to 1.5 credits can be from Group F. Up to 1.0 credit can be used from GGR493Y1, based on suitability of placement for this program, and approved by department.
Note: At least 4.0 credits must be 300/400 series courses. Of these, at least 1.0 credit must be 400 series (includes Fourth Year Course requirement).
Total credits: 10.0
Focus in Planning (Specialist) - ASFOC1667B
The Planning Focus provides students with the opportunity to learn about how planning is a key component of the dynamic relations that exist between places, policy, power, and people. It focuses in on the conscious choices and decision made by various groups to shape the spatial organization of human activities. The Planning Focus will appeal to students who wish to develop an integrative understanding of the cultural, economic, political and social forces that shape the development and redevelopment of metropolitan and rural regions. Students are encouraged to explore the breadth of our courses that engage planning questions in relation to transportation, social segregation, health and housing, economic policy, environment change, and globalization.
Enrolment in the Human Geography Specialist (ASSPE1667) program is required.
Core (required) Courses: 1.0 FCE from GGR217H1 and JGI346H1
Planning Electives: Any 3 courses (1.5 FCE) from GGR241H1, GGR338H1, GGR339H1, GGR343H1, GGR349H1, GGR354H1, GGR359H1, GGR424H1, GGR433H1, GGR434H1, GGR460H1, GGR493Y1 (0.5 FCE can be used based on internship)
Note: At least 1.0 FCE must be 300/400 series courses.
Focus in Urban Geography (Specialist) - ASFOC1667S
The Focus in Urban Geography provides students with the opportunity to emphasize urban geography as part of their Human Geography specialist or major. Urban geography focuses on the political, social, cultural and economic processes that shape city life, development and policy. This focus will appeal to students registered in the Human Geography specialist or major program who wish to develop an integrative understanding of the dynamics that shape the urban realm. Students are encouraged to explore the breadth of our course offerings in housing, historical, political and transportation.
Enrolment in the Human Geography Specialist (ASSPE1667) program is required.
Human Geography Major (Arts Program) - ASMAJ1667
The Human Geography programs provide the opportunity to learn about the relations between landscapes, places, people and nature, and the spatial organization of human activities. While students are encouraged to explore the breadth of the discipline, we also identify courses by theme for students who wish to develop expertise in one or two subfields (e.g., urban geography, cultural and historical geography). The Human Geography programs appeal to students who wish to develop an integrative understanding of the cultural, economic, political and social forces that shape how people use and experience the environments they live in. These programs offer training in quantitative and qualitative research methods, including GIS and Remote Sensing.
This is a limited enrolment program. Students must have completed 4.0 credits and meet the requirements listed below to enrol.
Variable Minimum Grade
A minimum grade is needed for entry, and this minimum changes each year depending on available spaces and the number of applicants. The following courses must be completed:
- 0.5 credit in GGR courses at the 100- or 200-level, with a minimum grade of 67%, or
- 1.0 credit in GGR courses at the 100- or 200-level, with a minimum grade of 63%
To ensure that students admitted to the program will be successful, applicants with a final grade or grade average lower than the minimum grades stated above will not be considered for admission. Please note that obtaining this minimum final grade does not guarantee admission to the program. Jointly-offered GGR courses will also be considered (e.g. JEG, JGI, JGE).
First Year Geography Courses: Any two courses (1.0 credit) from JEG100H1, GGR101H1, GGR107H1, GGR112H1, GGR124H1, GGR196H1, GGR197H1, GGR198H1, GGR199H1. 200/300-level GGR courses may also be used to meet this requirement. Contact the Undergraduate Administrator to update your program.
Physical and Environmental Geography Course: Any course (0.5 credit) not used to satisfy first year course requirement from JEG100H1, GGR101H1, GGR201H1, GGR203H1, GGR205H1, GGR206H1, GGR223H1
Methods Courses: All (1.0 credit) of GGR270H1, GGR271H1
Regional Geography Course: Any course (0.5 credit) from GGR240H1, GGR246H1, GGR254H1, GGR341H1, GGR342H1, GGR343H1, GGR344H1
Fourth Year Course: Any course (0.5 credit) from 400 series courses from Group E.
Applications: Any 7 courses (3.5 credits) from Group E; Up to 1.0 credit can be from Group F. Up to 1.0 credit can be used from GGR493Y1, based on suitability of placement for this program, and approved by department.
Note: At least 2.0 credits must be 300/400 series courses. Of these, at least 0.5 must be 400 series (includes Fourth Year Course requirement).
Total credits: 7.0
Focus in Planning (Major) - ASFOC1667A
The Planning Focus provides students with the opportunity to learn about how planning is a key component of the dynamic relations that exist between places, policy, power, and people. It focuses in on the conscious choices and decision made by various groups to shape the spatial organization of human activities. The Planning Focus will appeal to students who wish to develop an integrative understanding of the cultural, economic, political and social forces that shape the development and redevelopment of metropolitan and rural regions. Students are encouraged to explore the breadth of our courses that engage planning questions in relation to transportation, social segregation, health and housing, economic policy, environment change, and globalization.
Enrolment in the Human Geography Major (ASMAJ1667) program is required.
Core (required) Courses: 1.0 FCE from GGR217H1 and JGI346H1
Planning Electives: Any 3 courses (1.5 FCE) from GGR241H1, GGR338H1, GGR339H1, GGR343H1, GGR349H1, GGR354H1, GGR359H1, GGR424H1, GGR433H1, GGR434H1, GGR460H1, GGR493Y1 (0.5 FCE can be used based on internship)
Note: At least 1.0 FCE must be 300/400 series courses.
Focus in Urban Geography (Major) - ASFOC1667M
The Focus in Urban Geography provides students with the opportunity to emphasize urban geography as part of their Human Geography specialist or major. Urban geography focuses on the political, social, cultural and economic processes that shape city life, development and policy. This focus will appeal to students registered in the Human Geography specialist or major program who wish to develop an integrative understanding of the dynamics that shape the urban realm. Students are encouraged to explore the breadth of our course offerings in housing, historical, political and transportation.
Enrolment in the Human Geography Major (ASMAJ1667) program is required.
Human Geography Minor (Arts Program) - ASMIN1667
The Human Geography programs provide the opportunity to learn about the relations between landscapes, places, people and nature, and the spatial organization of human activities. While students are encouraged to explore the breadth of the discipline, we also identify courses by theme for students who wish to develop expertise in one or two subfields (e.g., urban geography, cultural and historical geography). The Human Geography programs appeal to students who wish to develop an integrative understanding of the cultural, economic, political and social forces that shape how people use and experience the environments they live in. These programs offer training in quantitative and qualitative research methods, including GIS and Remote Sensing.
This is an open enrolment program. A student who has completed 4.0 credits may enrol in the program.
(4.0 credits)
First Year Geography Courses: Any 2 courses (1.0 credit) from JEG100H1, GGR101H1, GGR107H1, GGR112H1, GGR124H1, GGR196H1, GGR197H1, GGR198H1, GGR199H1. 200/300-level GGR courses may also be used to meet this requirement. Contact the Undergraduate Administrator to update your program.
Applications: Any 6 courses (3.0 credits) from higher level GGR/JFG/JGE/JGI/JUG social science or humanities courses, including at least 1.0 credit at the 300/400-level. One course (0.5 credit) can be from Group F. Up to 1.0 credit can be used from GGR493Y1, based on suitability of placement for this program, and approved by department.
Environmental Geography Specialist (Arts Program) - ASSPE1252
A focus on the human-environment nexus is most explicit in these programs. Students learn about the social, spatial, and biophysical processes that shape society’s relationship to nature, management of resources, and contemporary environmental change. These programs appeal to non-science students who seek an environmental program that allows them to learn more about the natural processes that interact with social factors in shaping environments. These programs offer training in quantitative and qualitative research methods, including GIS and Remote Sensing.
This is a limited enrolment program. Students must have completed 4.0 credits and meet the requirements listed below to enrol.
Variable Minimum Grade
A minimum grade is needed for entry, and this minimum changes each year depending on available spaces and the number of applicants. The following courses must be completed:
- 0.5 credit in GGR courses at the 100- or 200-level, with a minimum grade of 75%, or
- 1.0 credit in GGR courses at the 100- or 200-level, with a minimum grade of 70%
To ensure that students admitted to the program will be successful, applicants with a final grade or grade average lower than the minimum grades stated above will not be considered for admission. Please note that obtaining this minimum final grade does not guarantee admission to the program. Jointly-offered GGR courses will also be considered (e.g. JEG, JGI, JGE).
First Year Geography Courses: Any 2 courses (1.0 credit) from GGR107H1 (recommended), JEG100H1, GGR101H1, GGR112H1, GGR124H1, GGR196H1, GGR197H1, GGR198H1, GGR199H1. 200/300-level GGR courses may also be used to meet this requirement. Contact the Undergraduate Administrator to update your program.
Physical and Environmental Geography Courses: Any 2 courses (1.0 credit) from GGR201H1, GGR203H1, GGR205H1, GGR206H1, GGR305H1, GGR308H1, GGR314H1, GGR347H1, GGR348H1, ENV200H1, ENV234H1
Methods & Core Courses: All (2.5 credits) of GGR223H1, GGR270H1, GGR271H1, GGR272H1, JGE331H1
Regional Geography Courses: Any course (0.5 credit) from GGR240H1, GGR246H1, GGR254H1, GGR341H1, GGR342H1, GGR343H1, GGR344H1
Fourth Year Courses: Either GGR491Y1 or one of GGR416H1, GGR492H1, GGR497H1 and one additional 0.5 credit 400 level course from Group A or Group B (1.0 credit). Up to 0.5 credit can be used from GGR493Y1, based on suitability of placement for this program, and approved by department.
Application: Any 8 courses (4.0 credits) from Group A; up to 1.5 credits can be from Group B; up to 1.0 credit can be from Group C. Up to 1.0 credit can be used from GGR493Y1, based on suitability of placement for this program, and approved by department.
Note: At least 4.0 credits must be 300/400 series courses. Of these, at least 1.0 credit must be 400 series (includes Fourth Year Course requirement).
Total credits: 10.0
Environmental Geography Major (Arts Program) - ASMAJ1252
A focus on the human-environment nexus is most explicit in these programs. Students learn about the social, spatial, and biophysical processes that shape society’s relationship to nature, management of resources, and contemporary environmental change. These programs appeal to non-science students who seek an environmental program that allows them to learn more about the natural processes that interact with social factors in shaping environments. These programs offer training in quantitative and qualitative research methods, including GIS and Remote Sensing.
This is a limited enrolment program. Students must have completed 4.0 credits and meet the requirements listed below to enrol.
Variable Minimum Grade
A minimum grade is needed for entry, and this minimum changes each year depending on available spaces and the number of applicants. The following courses must be completed:
- 0.5 credit in GGR courses at the 100- or 200-level, with a minimum grade of 67%, or
- 1.0 credit in GGR courses at the 100- or 200-level, with a minimum grade of 63%
To ensure that students admitted to the program will be successful, applicants with a final grade or grade average lower than the minimum grades stated above will not be considered for admission. Please note that obtaining this minimum final grade does not guarantee admission to the program. Jointly-offered GGR courses will also be considered (e.g. JEG, JGI, JGE).
First Year Geography Courses: Any 2 courses (1.0 credit) from GGR107H1 (recommended), JEG100H1, GGR101H1, GGR112H1, GGR124H1, GGR196H1, GGR197H1, GGR198H1, GGR199H1. 200/300-level GGR courses may also be used to meet this requirement. Contact the Undergraduate Administrator to update your program.
Physical and Environmental Geography Courses: Any 2 courses (1.0 credit) from GGR201H1, GGR203H1, GGR205H1, GGR206H1, GGR305H1, GGR308H1, GGR314H1, GGR347H1, GGR348H1, ENV200H1, ENV234H1
Methods & Core Courses: All (1.5 credits) of GGR223H1, GGR270H1, GGR271H1
Regional Geography Courses: Any course (0.5 credit) from GGR240H1, GGR246H1, GGR254H1, GGR341H1, GGR342H1, GGR343H1, GGR344H1
Fourth Year Course: Any course (0.5 credit) at the 400 level from Group A.
Applications: Any 5 courses (2.5 credits) from Group A; up to 1.0 credit can be from Group B; up to 0.5 credit can be from Group C.
Note: At least 2.0 credits must be 300/400 series courses. Of these, at least 0.5 credit must be 400 series (includes Fourth Year Course requirement).
Total credits: 7.0
Environmental Geography Minor (Arts Program) - ASMIN1252
A focus on the human-environment nexus is most explicit in these programs. Students learn about the social, spatial, and biophysical processes that shape society’s relationship to nature, management of resources, and contemporary environmental change. These programs appeal to non-science students who seek an environmental program that allows them to learn more about the natural processes that interact with social factors in shaping environments. These programs offer training in quantitative and qualitative research methods, including GIS and Remote Sensing.
This is an open enrolment program. A student who has completed 4.0 credits may enrol in the program.
(4.0 credits)
First Year Geography Courses: Any course (0.5 credit) from GGR107H1 (recommended), JEG100H1, GGR101H1, GGR112H1, GGR124H1, GGR196H1, GGR197H1, GGR198H1, GGR199H1. 200/300-level GGR courses may also be used to meet this requirement. Contact the Undergraduate Administrator to update your program.
Core Course: All (0.5 credit) of GGR223H1
Physical and Environmental Geography Course: Any course (0.5 credit) from GGR201H1, GGR203H1, GGR205H1, GGR206H1, GGR305H1, GGR308H1, GGR314H1, GGR347H1, GGR348H1, ENV200H1, ENV234H1
Applications: Any 5 courses (2.5 credits) from Group A; up to 1.0 credit can be from Group B. Up to a 0.5 credit can be used from GGR493Y1, based on suitability of placement for this program, and approved by department.
Note: At least 1.0 credit must be 300/400 series courses.
Physical and Environmental Geography Specialist (Science Program) - ASSPE2030
Physical and Environmental Geography offers science-based programs for students interested in an integrative approach to understanding the earths biotic and abiotic systems, including their spatial dynamics and the ways they are altered by human action. The programs provide a foundation in the subfields of climatology, biogeography, hydrology, and geomorphology. Students gain practical experience in lab and field settings. Technical skills taught also include data analysis, geospatial analytical tools, including GIS and Remote Sensing.
This is a limited enrolment program. Students must have completed 4.0 credits and meet the requirements listed below to enrol.
Variable Minimum Grade
A minimum grade is needed for entry, and this minimum changes each year depending on available spaces and the number of applicants. The following courses must be completed:
- 0.5 credit in GGR courses at the 100- or 200-level, with a minimum grade of 75%, or
- 1.0 credit in GGR courses at the 100- or 200-level, with a minimum grade of 70%
To ensure that students admitted to the program will be successful, applicants with a final grade or grade average lower than the minimum grades stated above will not be considered for admission. Please note that obtaining this minimum final grade does not guarantee admission to the program. Jointly-offered GGR courses will also be considered (e.g. JEG, JGI, JGE).
Introductory courses: Any 6 half courses or the equivalent (3.0 credits) from JEG100H1, MAT133Y1/ MAT135H1/ MAT136H1/ MAT137Y1/ MAT157Y1, MAT223H1/ MAT240H1, MAT224H1/ MAT247H1, PHY131H1/ PHY151H1, PHY132H1/ PHY152H1, CHM138H/ CHM136H1, CHM139H/ CHM135H1, CHM151Y1, BIO120H1, BIO130H1, at least two of which must be Math or Phys half courses.
Core Courses: Any 4 courses (2.0 credits) from GGR201H1, GGR203H1, GGR205H1, GGR206H1, up to one half course from Group H.
Regional Geography Courses: Any course (0.5 credit) from GGR101H1, GGR240H1, GGR246H1, GGR254H1, GGR341H1, GGR342H1, GGR343H1, GGR344H1
Methods Courses: All (2.0 credits) of GGR270H1, GGR272H1, GGR337H1, GGR390H1
Applications: Any 7 courses (3.5 credits) from GGR273H1, GGR301H1, GGR305H1, GGR307H1, GGR308H1, GGR310H1/ FOR310H1, GGR314H1, GGR373H1, GGR347H1, GGR348H1, GGR416H1, (but no more than one of GGR273H1, GGR373H1), up to 1.0 credit can be used from GGR493Y1, based on suitability of placement for this program, and approved by department. Any GGR course from the list for Core Courses and Fourth Year Courses not already used. Up to 1.5 credits from Group I. No more than one of GGR273H1, GGR373H1.
Fourth Year Courses: Any 2 courses (1.0 credit) from GGR401H1, GGR405H1, GGR406H1, GGR413H1, GGR414H1, GGR491Y1, GGR498H1, 400-series in Group I, but the total number of half courses from Group I (including 300-series courses) must not exceed 3. Up to 0.5 credit can be used from GGR493Y1, based on suitability of placement for this program, and approved by department.
Total credits: 12.0
Physical and Environmental Geography Major (Science Program) - ASMAJ2030
Physical and Environmental Geography offers science-based programs for students interested in an integrative approach to understanding the earths biotic and abiotic systems, including their spatial dynamics and the ways they are altered by human action. The programs provide a foundation in the subfields of climatology, biogeography, hydrology, and geomorphology. Students gain practical experience in lab and field settings. Technical skills taught also include data analysis, geospatial analytical tools, including GIS and Remote Sensing.
This is a limited enrolment program. Students must have completed 4.0 credits and meet the requirements listed below to enrol.
Variable Minimum Grade
A minimum grade is needed for entry, and this minimum changes each year depending on available spaces and the number of applicants. The following courses must be completed:
- 0.5 credit in GGR courses at the 100- or 200-level, with a minimum grade of 67%, or
- 1.0 credit in GGR courses at the 100- or 200-level, with a minimum grade of 63%
To ensure that students admitted to the program will be successful, applicants with a final grade or grade average lower than the minimum grades stated above will not be considered for admission. Please note that obtaining this minimum final grade does not guarantee admission to the program. Jointly-offered GGR courses will also be considered (e.g. JEG, JGI, JGE).
Introductory Courses: Any 4 half courses or the equivalent (2.0 credits) from JEG100H1, MAT133Y1/ MAT135H1/ MAT136H1/ MAT137Y1/ MAT157Y1, MAT223H1/ MAT240H1, MAT224H1/ MAT247H1, PHY131H1/ PHY151H1, PHY132H1/ PHY152H1, CHM138H/ CHM136H1, CHM139H/ CHM135H1, CHM151Y1, BIO120H1, BIO130H1, at least two of which must be Math or Phys half courses.
Core Courses: Any 3 courses (1.5 credits) from GGR201H1, GGR203H1, GGR205H1, GGR206H1
Regional Geography Course: Any course (0.5 credit) from GGR101H1, GGR240H1, GGR246H1, GGR254H1, GGR341H1, GGR342H1, GGR343H1, GGR344H1
Methods Courses: All (1.5 credits) of GGR270H1, GGR272H1, GGR390H1
Applications: Any 4 courses (2.0 credits) from GGR273H1, GGR301H1, GGR305H1, GGR307H1, GGR308H1, GGR310H1/ FOR310H1, GGR314H1, GGR337H1, GGR373H1, GGR347H1, GGR348H1, GGR416H1. Up to 1.0 credit can be used from GGR493Y1, based on suitability of placement for this program, and approved by department. Any GGR course from the list for Core Courses and Fourth Year Courses not already used. Any one half course from Group I. No more than one from GGR273H1, GGR373H1.
Fourth Year Course: Any course (0.5 credit) from GGR401H1, GGR405H1, GGR406H1, GGR413H1, GGR414H1, GGR491Y1, GGR498H1
Total credits: 8.0
Physical and Environmental Geography Minor (Science Program) - ASMIN2030
Physical and Environmental Geography offers science-based programs for students interested in an integrative approach to understanding the earths biotic and abiotic systems, including their spatial dynamics and the ways they are altered by human action. The programs provide a foundation in the subfields of climatology, biogeography, hydrology, and geomorphology. Students gain practical experience in lab and field settings. Technical skills taught also include data analysis, geospatial analytical tools, including GIS and Remote Sensing.
This is an open enrolment program. A student who has completed 4.0 credits may enrol in the program.
(4.0 credits)
First Year Geography Courses: Any 2 courses (1.0 credit) from JEG100H1 (recommended), GGR101H1, GGR107H1, GGR112H1, GGR124H1, GGR196H1, GGR197H1, GGR198H1, GGR199H1
Core Courses: Any 2 courses (1.0 credit) from GGR201H1, GGR203H1, GGR205H1, GGR206H1
Methods Courses: One (0.5 credit) of GGR301H1/ GGR305H1/ GGR308H1 and one (0.5 credit) of GGR272H1/ GGR337H1
Applications: Any 2 courses (1.0 credit) from GGR201H1, GGR203H1, GGR205H1, GGR206H1, GGR301H1, GGR305H1, GGR307H1, GGR308H1, GGR310H1/ FOR310H1, GGR314H1, GGR347H1, GGR348H1, GGR390H1, GGR401H1, GGR405H1, GGR406H1, GGR413H1, GGR414H1. Up to a 0.5 credit can be used from GGR493Y1, based on suitability of placement for this program, and approved by department.
Geographic Information Systems Minor (Arts Program) - ASMIN0305
The GIS program covers the on theoretical, technical and applied foundations for geographic information systems. Students learn methods for spatial data production, analysis and presentation using computer cartography, spatial analysis, remote sensing, and geovisualization. Problem solving and project design are emphasized in upper level courses, as students apply techniques to answer specific geographic questions. The GIS program is structured to provide a stand-alone minor for students in Geography and other disciplines seeking complementary skills in spatial analysis (e.g., field biology, archaeology).
Note: Students combining this program with a Specialist/Major sponsored by the Department of Geography will normally be allowed to count only 1.5 (of the 4.0) credits towards both programs.
This is an open enrolment program. A student who has completed 4.0 credits may enrol in the program.
(4.0 credits)
First Year Geography Courses: Any 2 courses (1.0 credit) from JEG100H1, GGR101H1, GGR107H1, GGR112H1, GGR124H1, GGR196H1, GGR197H1, GGR198H1, GGR199H1. 200/300-level GGR courses may also be used to meet this requirement. Contact the Undergraduate Administrator to update your program.
Methods & Core Courses: All (2.0 credits) of GGR270H1, GGR272H1, GGR273H1, GGR373H1
Applications: Any 2 courses (1.0 credit) from GGR225H1, GGR337H1, GGR372H1, GGR386H1, GGR413H1, GGR414H1, GGR462H1, GGR472H1, GGR491Y1, GGR492H1, GGR493Y1 (0.5 credit can be used based on internship), GGR497H1, GGR498H1, GGR499H1
Note: At least 1.0 credit must be 300/400 series courses
Asian Geographies (offered jointly with the National University of Singapore) Minor (Arts Program) - ASMIN2727
Asian Geographies offers a structure exchange opportunity between the University of Toronto and National University of Singapore (NUS). This program allows students to study geographic themes through the lens of development and change in Asia. They complete half of this minor program while at National University of Singapore (NUS), selecting from courses there that locate geographic questions in a local or regional context.
This minor program represents a unique opportunity to study geography in a different cultural environment. For more information, contact the Undergraduate Office and the Centre for International Experience (CIE, studentlife.utoronto.ca/cie). Students are advised to contact the U of T Geography Department in advance of going abroad to discuss course selection at NUS.
Enrolment in the Asian Geographies Minor is administratively suspended effective February 28, 2020 and is no longer admitting students. Students currently enrolled will be permitted to finish the program.
This is a limited enrolment program. Students must have completed 4.0 credits and meet the requirements listed below to enrol.
Special Requirement
- A supplementary application is required. For more information, contact the Centre for International Experience (CIE, studentlife.utoronto.ca/cie).
First Year Geography Course: Any course (0.5 credit) from GGR100H1/ JEG100H1, GGR101H1, GGR107H1, GGR112H1, GGR124H1
Applications (UofT): Any 3 (1.5 credits) higher level GGR/JGE/JGI/JFG/JUG courses
Applications (NUS): Any 4 courses (2.0 credits) from NUS250H0, NUS251H0, NUS252H0, NUS253H0, NUS254H0, NUS255H0, NUS256H0, NUS350H0, NUS351Y0, NUS352H0, NUS353H0, NUS354H0 (or other NUS course with permission of the department)
Note: At least 1.0 credit must be at the 300/400 level (from U of T or NUS)
Total credits: 4.0
Environment and Energy Minor (Science Program) - ASMIN1552
Environment and Energy (Science Program) Joint Program with the School of the Environment
Jointly sponsored by the School of the Environment and the Department of Geography, this interdisciplinary program addresses the scientific, technological, environmental and policy aspects of energy use and supply, with a focus on the reduction of environmental impacts.
Note that the four full course equivalents that constitute the Minor Program are those listed below under Higher Years. For more information, please email the School of the Environment’s Undergraduate Student Advisor, David Powell, at ug.office.env@utoronto.ca.
This is an open enrolment program. A student who has completed 4.0 credits may enrol in the program.
(4.0 credits)
First Year Courses: 1.0 credit from ( MAT135H1 and MAT136H1)/ MAT137Y1, and 1.0 credit from CHM138H1/ CHM136H1, CHM139H1/ CHM135H1, CHM151Y1, PHY131H1, PHY132H1, PHY151H1, PHY152H1
All of: ENV221H1, ENV222H1/ GGR223H1 (1.0 credit)
All of: ENV346H1, ENV350H1, ENV450H1 (1.5 credits)
Any two of: GGR332H1/ ENV462H1, GGR310H1/ FOR310H1, GGR314H1, GGR347H1, GGR348H1 (1.0 credit)
Any one of: CHM210H1, CHM310H1, CHM415H1, ENV237H1, ENV238H1, FOR310H1*/ GGR310H1*, FOR410H1, GGR203H1, GGR314H1*, GGR347H1*, GGR348H1*, HPS313H1, PHY231H1, PHY250H1 (* if not taken for the requirement immediately above) (0.5 credit)
Course Groups
Group A (Environmental Geography Courses)
- GGR201H1 Geomorphology
- GGR203H1 Introduction to Climatology
- GGR205H1 Introduction to Soil Science
- GGR206H1 Introduction to Hydrology
- GGR223H1 Environment, Society and Resources
- GGR272H1 Geographic Information and Mapping I
- GGR273H1 Geographic Information and Mapping II
- GGR301H1 Fluvial Geomorphology
- GGR305H1 Biogeography
- GGR308H1 Canadian Arctic and Subarctic Environments
- GGR310H1 Bioenergy from Sustainable Forest Management
- GGR314H1 Global Warming
- GGR329H1 The Global Food System
- GGR332H1 Social Geographies of Climate Change
- GGR334H1 Water Resource Management
- GGR337H1 Environmental Remote Sensing
- GGR338H1 Environmental Issues in the Global South
- GGR340H1 Health Geography
- GGR341H1 Changing Geography of Latin America
- GGR347H1 Efficient Use of Energy
- GGR348H1 Carbon-Free Energy
- GGR349H1 Managing Urban Natures
- GGR373H1 Advanced Geographic Information Systems
- GGR386H1 Special Topics in Geographic Information Systems
- GGR387H1 Special Topics in Environmental Geography
- GGR388H1 Special Topics in Physical & Environmental Geography
- GGR401H1 Special Topics in Geography II
- GGR405H1 Sustainable Systems for Natural Resources Management
- GGR406H1 Geomorphology and the Anthropocene
- GGR413H1 Watershed Hydroecology
- GGR414H1 Advanced Remote Sensing
- GGR416H1 Environmental Impact Assessment
- GGR418H1 Political Economy of Natural Resources
- GGR419H1 Environmental Justice
- GGR434H1 Building Community Resilience
- GGR438H1 Environment and Development
- GGR481H1 Field Course in Environmental Geography
- GGR491Y1 Research Project
- GGR492H1 Senior Practicum
- GGR497H1 Independent Research
- GGR498H1 Independent Research
- JGE321H1 Multicultural Perspectives on Environmental Management
- JGE331H1 Resource and Environmental Theory
- JIG322H1 Indigenous Worlds, Worldviews and the Environment
- JIG440H1 Indigenous Geographies
- JUG320H1 The Canadian Wilderness
Group B (School of the Environment Courses)
- ENV200H1 Assessing Global Change: Science and the Environment
- ENV234H1 Environmental Biology: Structure and Function of Ecosystems
- ENV307H1 Urban Sustainability
- ENV323H1 Ontario Environmental Policy
- ENV333H1 Ecological Worldviews
- ENV335H1 Environmental Design
- ENV350H1 Energy Policy and Environment
- ENV395Y0 Special Topics Field Course
- ENV396Y0 Special Topics Field Course
- ENV422H1 Environmental Law
Group C
- Any other Geography courses at the 200/300/400 level not listed in Group A.
Group E (Human Geography Courses)
- GGR216H1 Global Cities
- GGR217H1 Urban Landscapes and Planning
- GGR221H1 New Economic Spaces
- GGR223H1 Environment, Society and Resources
- GGR225H1 Power of Maps and Geographic Information
- GGR240H1 Geographies of Colonialism in North America
- GGR241H1 Geographies of Urban Social Exclusion
- GGR246H1 Geography of Canada
- GGR251H1 Geography of Innovation
- GGR252H1 Marketing Geography
- GGR254H1 Geography USA
- GGR272H1 Geographic Information and Mapping I
- GGR273H1 Geographic Information and Mapping II
- GGR299Y1 Research Opportunity Program
- GGR314H1 Global Warming
- GGR320H1 Geographies of Transnationalism, Migration, and Gender
- GGR324H1 Spatial Political Economy
- GGR326H1 Remaking the Global Economy
- GGR327H1 Geography and Gender
- GGR328H1 Labour Geographies
- GGR329H1 The Global Food System
- GGR332H1 Social Geographies of Climate Change
- GGR334H1 Water Resource Management
- GGR336H1 Urban Historical Geography of North America
- GGR338H1 Environmental Issues in the Global South
- GGR339H1 Urban Geography, Planning and Political Processes
- GGR340H1 Health Geography
- GGR341H1 Changing Geography of Latin America
- GGR342H1 The Changing Geography of Southeast Asia
- GGR343H1 The Changing Geography of China
- GGR344H1 Political Economy of Germany and the EU
- GGR349H1 Managing Urban Natures
- GGR352H1 Understanding Spatiality
- GGR354H1 Infrastructure
- GGR357H1 Housing and Community Development
- GGR359H1 Comparative Urban Policy
- GGR360H1 Culture, History, and Landscape
- GGR363H1 Critical Geographies: An Introduction to Radical Ideas on Space, Society and Culture
- GGR372H1 GIS for Public Health
- GGR373H1 Advanced Geographic Information Systems
- GGR374H1 Urban Dynamics
- GGR382H1 Field Course in Human Geography
- GGR386H1 Special Topics in Geographic Information Systems
- GGR387H1 Special Topics in Environmental Geography
- GGR389H1 Special Topics in Human Geography
- GGR400H1 Special Topics in Geography I
- GGR416H1 Environmental Impact Assessment
- GGR418H1 Political Economy of Natural Resources
- GGR419H1 Environmental Justice
- GGR420H1 Critical Development Geography
- GGR421H1 Histories of Geographical Thought
- GGR424H1 Transportation Geography and Planning
- GGR429H1 Innovation and Governance
- GGR430H1 Geographies of Markets
- GGR431H1 Regional Dynamics
- GGR433H1 Built Environment and Health
- GGR434H1 Building Community Resilience
- GGR438H1 Environment and Development
- GGR452H1 Space, Power, Geography: Understanding Spatiality
- GGR456H1 Entanglements of Power: Race, Sexuality and the City
- GGR457H1 The Post-War Suburbs
- GGR458H1 Selected Topics in Urban Geography
- GGR460H1 Global Cities, Urban Planning, Critical Theory
- GGR462H1 GIS Research Project
- GGR472H1 Developing Web Maps
- GGR481H1 Field Course in Environmental Geography
- GGR482H1 Toronto Field Course
- GGR491Y1 Research Project
- GGR492H1 Senior Practicum
- GGR496H1 Independent Research
- GGR497H1 Independent Research
- GGR499H1 Independent Research
- JGE321H1 Multicultural Perspectives on Environmental Management
- JGE331H1 Resource and Environmental Theory
- JIG322H1 Indigenous Worlds, Worldviews and the Environment
- JIG440H1 Indigenous Geographies
- JUG320H1 The Canadian Wilderness
- JUG325H1 Landscapes of Violence in Canada
- JGI216H1 Globalization and Urban Change
- JGI346H1 The Urban Planning Process
- JGI454H1 The Role of the Planner: Making a Difference
Group F (Optional Science Courses for Human Geography)
- GGR201H1 Geomorphology
- GGR203H1 Introduction to Climatology
- GGR205H1 Introduction to Soil Science
- GGR206H1 Introduction to Hydrology
- GGR301H1 Fluvial Geomorphology
- GGR305H1 Biogeography
- GGR308H1 Canadian Arctic and Subarctic Environments
- GGR310H1 Bioenergy from Sustainable Forest Management
- FOR310H1 Bioenergy from Sustainable Forest Management
- GGR337H1 Environmental Remote Sensing
- GGR347H1 Efficient Use of Energy
- GGR348H1 Carbon-Free Energy
- GGR388H1 Special Topics in Physical & Environmental Geography
- GGR401H1 Special Topics in Geography II
- GGR405H1 Sustainable Systems for Natural Resources Management
- GGR406H1 Geomorphology and the Anthropocene
- GGR413H1 Watershed Hydroecology
- GGR414H1 Advanced Remote Sensing
- GGR498H1 Independent Research
Group H
Group I
- EEB319H1 Population Ecology
- EEB321H1 Community Ecology
- EEB324H1 Evolutionary Ecology
- EEB328H1 Physiological Ecology
- EEB428H1 Global Change Ecology
- ENV346H1 Terrestrial Energy Systems
- ESS262H1 Earth System Processes
- ESS311H1 Earth System Chemistry 2: Aqueous Geochemistry
- ESS361H1 Atmosphere-Biosphere Interact
- ESS461H1 Palaeoenvironmental Studies
- ESS463H1 Earth System Chemistry 3: Contaminants
- ESS464H1 Biological Perspectives on Earth System Evolution
- FOR301H1 Field Methods in Forest Conservation
- FOR305H1 Biology of Trees and Forests
- FOR306H1 Tropical Forest Ecology and Conservation Field Course
- FOR417H1 Ecological Principles of Agroforestry
- JEE337H1
- PHY392H1 Physics of Climate
- PHY408H1 Time Series Analysis
Regarding Geography and Planning Courses
Prerequisites
NOTE
Recommended Preparation: The course will be taught in a manner that assumes students have achieved the level of study (e.g., third year standing) and completed courses listed (or equivalent background).
Prerequisites: These are strictly monitored requirements. In some cases, prerequisites may be waived if equivalent background exists. Please consult the Associate Chair, Undergraduate or the course instructor.
Geography and Planning Courses
JEG100H1 - Introduction to Physical Geography and Earth Science
This introduction to Physical Geography and Earth Sciences examines the atmosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere and biosphere, emphasizing processes, flows of energy and materials, and the interconnectedness of these Earth systems. Specific topics include weather and climate, earth materials, geological and geomorphic processes involved in the genesis of landforms, river systems, glaciers, soils, and biomes.
Distribution Requirements: Science
Breadth Requirements: The Physical and Mathematical Universes (5)
GGR101H1 - Histories of Environmental Change
The course will focus on the processes that drive environmental change and how past societies have responded to the constraints that these impose. The emphasis is on the current interglacial, the Holocene, and how increasing population and technology has affected human-environment interactions.
Breadth Requirements: Living Things and Their Environment (4)
GGR107H1 - Environment, Food and People
Examines the relations between food, nature, and society. Food is fundamental to human existence, and central to most cultures; it also has significant and widespread effects on the physical and social environments. Food is used as a lens to explore human-environment interactions locally and globally. Serves as an introduction to environmental and human geography.
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR112H1 - Geographies of Globalization, Development and Inequality
Economic development and underdevelopment are taking shape in an increasingly interconnected global context. This course examines geographic approaches to "Third World" development, economic globalization, poverty, and inequality. It pays particular attention to the roles of rural-urban and international migration in shaping specific landscapes of development.
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR124H1 - Cities and Urban Life
Offers an introduction to North American cities and urbanization in a global context. It explores social, cultural, political and economic forces, processes, and events that shape contemporary urbanism. The course adopts the lens of 'fixity' and 'flow' to examine how the movement of people, ideas, goods, and capital, as well as their containment in the infrastructure and space of the city, give rise to particular urban forms.
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR196H1 - Tracking Insect Life: The Political Ecology of “Bugs”
Have you wondered why we find a ladybug ‘picturesque’ but a cockroach ‘disgusting’? Have you thought of butterflies as feminine and sublime, and bees as an army? Have you ever received advice in your workplace or school to avoid behaving like a ‘mosquito,’ meaning to resist engaging in micro-aggressive conducts? Have you been curious about why the film industry created an enlarged half human/half ant ‘alien’ creature to feed our worst fears? This course engages with these and other contradictory and complex renderings of insects in Western culture and around the world to investigate how we define the limits of social belonging in relation to space and place. The course explores how the anxieties and wonders around insects’ behaviour are related to aspects of the human/nature relationship. By tracking the political ecology of insects, the course provides a first approximation to arguments about the connection between nature and culture and “lived-in” environments; also exploring themes of class, gender, race and settler colonialism. Because this is a first-year seminar, reading and engaging actively with the course material is important for this course.
The course also serves as an introduction to other subjects that are relevant to navigating post-secondary life, such as: critical reading; conducting university-level research; presenting and communicating ideas in the classroom; teamwork; and how to benefit from it; and developing social networks.
Restricted to newly admitted first-year students. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR197H1 - Nature, Conservation and Justice
Every day we read about climate change, species extinction, environmental degradation and the need for nature conservation. It is increasingly becoming apparent that the environmental problems that we face today arise from a deeper crisis relating to human ways of viewing and connecting to nature. This course asks how we can rework human ways of relating to nature, while querying the idea of “nature” and questioning the dominant approaches to nature conservation. It asks how can concerns for nature and for other species be balanced with that for human livelihoods and well-being? How can inequalities with regards to the distribution of environmental goods and bads be reduced? How are citizens and communities in the different parts of the world struggling against environmental injustice and to protect their local environments? How do these place-based movement demand justice and what visions do they articulate for a more just and sustainable world? How do indigenous worldviews offer conceptual resources for rethinking nature and our ways of relating to nature? The course will explore these questions using lectures, class discussion, videos and student presentations. Restricted to first-year students. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR198H1 - Political Spaces
Is space political? In what ways? What are the implications of thinking about politics geographically? How do political conflicts both invoke and transform space and place? What kinds of alternative political relationships to space and alternative mappings can we imagine? This course will attempt to answer those questions while exploring a wide range of possible contexts in which political spaces are evident. These may include: conflicts over the intimate spaces of the body, identity, and the home; the racialization and gendering of space; the politics of cities and urbanization; the boundaries of public and private space; struggles over land, property, resources and ‘nature’; the political geographies of labour, citizenship and migration; globalization of economic markets and alternative economic political and social cartographies; borders, geopolitics, and the territorial politics of empire; and the geographic projects of colonialism, post-coloniality, modernity, and modernization. Restricted to first-year students. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR199H1 - Race, Conflict, and the Urban Landscape
This course will focus on how racial conflict affects the size, shape, composition, and landscape of cities. It will emphasize Canadian and American cities, but other international examples will be discussed for comparison. Ethno-racial conflict has been, and continues to be, an important force on cities throughout the world. Course topics will include housing and employment discrimination, ethno-racial uprisings, and inequality. The course will be a discussion-oriented blend of academic readings, popular journalism, and film. It will serve as an introduction to concepts that are dealt with in greater depth in second, third, and fourth year geography courses. Restricted to first-year students. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR201H1 - Geomorphology
Introduction to the principles of geomorphology; earth materials; major features of crustal morphology; landforming processes of water, wind, waves and ice; human impact on earth surface processes. One hour laboratory session approximately every other week; a local field trip.
Recommended Preparation: JEG100H1/GGR100H1
Distribution Requirements: Science
Breadth Requirements: The Physical and Mathematical Universes (5)
GGR203H1 - Introduction to Climatology
Introduction to the large scale processes responsible for determining global and regional climate and atmospheric circulation patterns, as well as the small scale processes responsible for determining the microclimates of specific environments.
Recommended Preparation: JEG100H1/GGR100H1; MAT133Y1, MAT135H1, MAT136H1, MAT137Y1; PHY131H1, PHY132H1, PHY151H1, PHY152H1
Distribution Requirements: Science
Breadth Requirements: The Physical and Mathematical Universes (5)
GGR205H1 - Introduction to Soil Science
Introduction to soil science dealing with the chemical, physical, and biological properties of soils; soil formation and development; the classification of soils, and the application of soil science to environmental, agricultural and forestry issues. Field trip cost: $20.
Distribution Requirements: Science
Breadth Requirements: The Physical and Mathematical Universes (5)
GGR206H1 - Introduction to Hydrology
Introduction to the hydrologic cycle with emphasis on the physical processes, including precipitation, interception, evaporation, runoff, ground water and soil water. Basic hydrological models will be practiced. Field trip cost: $20.
Distribution Requirements: Science
Breadth Requirements: The Physical and Mathematical Universes (5)
JGI216H1 - Globalization and Urban Change
Focusing on the impacts that global flows of ideas, culture, people, goods, and capital have on cities throughout the globe, this course explores some of the factors that differentiate the experiences of globalization and urban change in cities at different moments in history and in various geographic locations.
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR217H1 - Urban Landscapes and Planning
Considers the role of planning in shaping the urban landscape through historical and contemporary examples that illustrate the interplay of modernist and post-modernist approaches to city building. Traces the origins, competing rationalities and lingering effects of planning in the production of urban space. Broaches possibilities for engaging planning critically to address challenges of social and environmental justice in cities today.
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR221H1 - New Economic Spaces
Provides an introduction to economic geography and economic geography theory from the 1970s on, illustrating the different ways that geographers have conceptualized the restructuring of resource industries, manufacturing and services. The crisis of Fordism and the rise of new production models will be given particular attention, along with the reorganization of finance, the rise of cultural industries and the globalization of commodity chains. New regimes of governance of the economy will also be considered.
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR223H1 - Environment, Society and Resources
Hours: 24L/6T
Focuses on society-environment relations and different approaches to resource governance and management. This includes exploration of the spatial, social, and political economic origins and implications of humans' changing relations to nature. Drawing on debates from environmental governance and political ecology literatures, the course also investigates the ways that different actors and institutions have framed and sought solutions to environmental and resource challenges.
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR225H1 - Power of Maps and Geographic Information
This course examines the changing role of geographic information and maps in society. It considers how spatial information is produced, organized, and used in different historical, cultural, and political contexts. Topics examined include: the effects of the shift from print to digital mapping; implications of mobile spatial technologies and the geoweb; open source and open access; production and control of spatial data and information; and alternative cartographies. Introduces concepts of Geospatial Literacy, Critical Mapping and Critical GIS.
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR240H1 - Geographies of Colonialism in North America
This course considers the creation and consolidation of settler colonies in the region known to many as North America. With an eye to the colonial present, the course focuses on the period from the 15th century to the early 20th century. Cultural texts and place-specific cases are used to ground themes and processes that also bear on the wider field of historical geography, including narratives of discovery and possession; ecological imperialism and environmental transformation; the (re)settlement of land and colonial government; enslavement and industrialization; frontiers, borders, and resource extraction; and some of the Indigenous geographies that preceded, were transformed by and transformed, and exceeded the reach of colonial power.
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR241H1 - Geographies of Urban Social Exclusion
Introduction to the geographies of urban social exclusion and segregation after 1750. Using a selection of cities from around the world, the course examines the impacts and implications of urban social inequalities.
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR246H1 - Geography of Canada
Social and economic differences have been, and continue to be, a prominent feature of Canada’s geography. In this course these differences are examined at a regional and local scale. The course adopts a thematic approach and considers issues such as historical development, urbanization, industrialization, immigration and population change, Canada’s cultural mosaic and native issues. Emphasis will be placed on the evolution of social and economic policies and Canada’s incorporation into a global economy.
Recommended Preparation: GGR107H1, GGR124H1
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR251H1 - Geography of Innovation
Explores how new technologies and industries are generated and sustained, or failed to be. Focuses on the dynamics of leading technological sectors such as electronics, automobiles and biotechnology in their geographical and historical contexts. We critically scrutinise the iconic Silicon Valley along with other major innovative regions/nations, and investigate the key role of universities and finance in driving innovation and entrepreneurship.
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR252H1 - Marketing Geography
Geography matters in the success of both public and private sector organisations. Using mostly retail examples contemporary location problems are addressed. The geographies of demand and supply are analysed and trade area and site selection techniques are applied. The relevance of the planning context and utility of geovisualisation techniques such as GIS are also briefly considered.
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR254H1 - Geography USA
After a short historical overview of the making of America, this course focuses on contemporary issues in American society, economy, politics, race, regional distinctions and disparities, urban development.
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR270H1 - Introductory Analytical Methods
Theory and practical application of elementary quantitative techniques in geography emphasizing descriptive, inferential and spatial statistical analysis, probability, and sampling.
Recommended Preparation: 0.5 FCE in Geography
Distribution Requirements: Social Science; Science
Breadth Requirements: The Physical and Mathematical Universes (5)
GGR271H1 - Social Research Methods
Practical course on field methods designed to enable students to carry out their own research projects. Behavioural observation, interviewing, questionnaire design, sampling theory, content analysis of written and graphic material, data coding and focus groups.
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
GGR272H1 - Geographic Information and Mapping I
Introduction to digital mapping and spatial analysis using geographic information systems (GIS). Students learn how to use GIS software to find, edit, analyze and map geographic data to create their own maps, analyze geographic problems and use techniques that can be applied to a variety of subject areas.
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: The Physical and Mathematical Universes (5)
GGR273H1 - Geographic Information and Mapping II
Builds on GGR272H1 by providing students with practical spatial analysis methods and the underlying theory needed to understand how to approach various geographic problems using geographic information system (GIS) software and a variety of data types and sources.
Exclusion: GGRB32H3
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: The Physical and Mathematical Universes (5)
GGR299Y1 - Research Opportunity Program
Credit course for supervised participation in faculty research project. Details at https://www.artsci.utoronto.ca/current/academics/research-opportunities/.... Not eligible for CR/NCR option.
GGR301H1 - Fluvial Geomorphology
Elements of drainage basin morphology and hydrology, classification of rivers, stream patterns and hydraulic geometry. Elements of open channel flow, sediment transport and the paleohydrology of river systems. River channel adjustments to environmental change, human impact and the management/design of river habitats. Exercises include experimentation in a laboratory flume. Usually offered every other year. Field trip cost: $20.
Recommended Preparation: 10.0 FCE's including JEG100H1/GGR100H1
Distribution Requirements: Science
Breadth Requirements: The Physical and Mathematical Universes (5)
GGR305H1 - Biogeography
Identifies patterns in and explains processes behind plant and animal distributions through space and time. Topics covered include ecological and evolutionary dynamics, disturbance, dispersal, migration, continental drift, speciation, extinction, paleoenvironments and island biogeography. We also examine terrestrial and marine biomes, the meaning of biodiversity, conservation challenges, and recent biogeographic changes associated with human impact.
Recommended Preparation: 8.0 FCE's including JEG100H1/GGR100H1 or (BIO120H1, BIO130H1)
Distribution Requirements: Science
Breadth Requirements: Living Things and Their Environment (4)
GGR308H1 - Canadian Arctic and Subarctic Environments
We will explore the climate geomorphology, soils, hydrology, biogeochemical cycling, limnology and food web structures of the Arctic and Subarctic. Current stresses of climate change and pollution are discussed along with scientific and political solutions.
Recommended Preparation: JEG100H1
Distribution Requirements: Science
Breadth Requirements: The Physical and Mathematical Universes (5)
GGR310H1 - Bioenergy from Sustainable Forest Management
Socio-economic, technical, political and environmental issues associated with the utilization of forest biomass (e.g., harvesting residues, thinnings, salvage, short rotation woody crops) for a source of renewable energy. Field trip cost: $20.
Recommended Preparation: Completion of at least 6 Science credits
Distribution Requirements: Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR314H1 - Global Warming
A comprehensive examination of the greenhouse warming problem, beginning with economic, carbon cycle, and climate model projections; impacts on and adaptive responses of agriculture, forests, fisheries, and water resources; options and policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Recommended Preparation: 8.0 FCE's
Distribution Requirements: Science; Social Science
Breadth Requirements: The Physical and Mathematical Universes (5)
GGR320H1 - Geographies of Transnationalism, Migration, and Gender
This course examines recent changes in global migration processes. Specifically, the course addresses the transnationalization and feminization of migrant populations and various segments of the global labor force. The coursework focuses on analyzing classical paradigms in migration studies, as well as emerging theoretical approaches to gender and migration. In addition, it traces the shifting empirical trends in gendered employment and mobility patterns. It uses in-depth case study material to query the frameworks employed in migration studies and to understand the grounded implications of gendered migration. It pays particular attention to the interventions made by feminist geographers in debates about work, migration, place, and space.
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
JUG320H1 - The Canadian Wilderness
The idea of wilderness permeates narratives of Canadian national identity, while policy-makers seek to manage and contain natural areas. This course compares and contrasts historical and contemporary wilderness narratives in literature, painting and film with policies in areas such as conservation, urban planning, land claims and tourism.
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)
JGE321H1 - Multicultural Perspectives on Environmental Management
Diverse approaches to environmental issues in a variety of multicultural settings are introduced, compared and analyzed, using case studies. Perspectives on environmental management will be discussed as they emerge from contexts such as Latin America, Asia, or Africa.
Exclusion: ENV321Y1
Recommended Preparation: 8.0 FCE's
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
JIG322H1 - Indigenous Worlds, Worldviews and the Environment
Explores the diverse ways of understanding and responding to the world that emerge from indigenous cultures around the world. Examines how indigenous ways of being and relating to their natural environment can help us understand and address the current environmental crisis. Using examples of indigenous activism from Canada and around the world, examines how colonial histories shape dispossession and marginalization and inform visions for the future. Topics include traditional ecological knowledge, place-based social movements, environmental concerns of indigenous peoples, bio-cultural restoration and decolonization of nature-human relations.
Exclusion: JAG321H1, GGR321H1
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR324H1 - Spatial Political Economy
Hours: 24L
This course aims to explore how economic agents act and interact in space and how this creates subdivisions within the global, national and regional political economy. In a largely conceptual and interdisciplinary manner, the course investigates the role of institutions in the relational economy and the spatial construction of the political economy. Institutions are viewed as formal or informal stabilizations of economic interaction. Questions which guide the analysis are related to how institutions are established, how they evolve, how they impact economic action, and how they are changed through political and economic action at different spatial scales. Through this, the course introduces a relational and spatial perspective to the analysis of economic action and institutions. This perspective is based on the assumption that economic action is situated in socio-institutional contexts, evolves along particular paths and, at the same time, remains fundamentally contingent. Topics to be discussed include the social construction of economic space, industrial organization and location, the establishment and maintenance of economic networks, as well as processes of firm formation, learning and knowledge creation.
Exclusion: POL371H1
Recommended Preparation: One of ECO101H1, GGR112H1, GGR221H1, GGR251H1, GGR252H1
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
JUG325H1 - Landscapes of Violence in Canada
This course examines how violence is enacted in Canada, at various scales, and across domestic, urban, national, and international landscapes. We will interrogate what is meant by violence; examine its colonial, racial and patriarchal dimensions; explore the impact on people and communities; and attend to forms of resistance and repair.
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR326H1 - Remaking the Global Economy
Examines links between global economic integration and geographically uneven economic development. Focuses on debates and empirical studies on global production networks (GPNs), and associated issues such as offshoring, outsourcing, and upgrading. Blends analysis of both theory and practice of business firms and regional development. Seeks to develop an in-depth understanding of the key actors driving contemporary global economic transformation, within the 'transnational space' constituted and structured by transnational firns, state institutions, and ideologies.
Exclusion: GGR300H1 (2013-14)
Recommended Preparation: GGR112H1/GGR220H1/GGR221H1GGR251H1, 1.0 FCE in Geography (SOC SCI/BR=3) at the 200+ level
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR327H1 - Geography and Gender
Introduction to the work of feminist geographers. The course will explore the relationship between gender and space, emphasizing spatial cognition, architecture, and layout of the city.
Recommended Preparation: 8.0 FCE's including 1.0 FCE in Geography (SOC SCI/BR=3)
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR328H1 - Labour Geographies
Explores changes in the nature of work and the structure and geography of labour markets. Topics will include globalization, lean production, flexibility and risk, industrial relations, workfare, the body at work, and gender and work.
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR329H1 - The Global Food System
Explores the changing global geographies of food by tracing international movements of food through both mainstream and 'alternative' supply chains. The implications for sustainability, food security, community autonomy and health are investigated.
Recommended Preparation: 8.0 FCE's including 1.0 FCE in Geography (SOC SCI/BR=3). GGR107H1 recommended.
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
JGE331H1 - Resource and Environmental Theory
Introduction to and critical evaluation of major ideas and conceptual traditions underpinning environmental and natural resource politics and regulation. Topics include: parks and protected areas, market-based environmental regulation, property rights and conservation, Malthusianism, and biodiversity conservation. Emphasis is placed on critical reading of primary texts.
Recommended Preparation: 8.0 FCE's
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR332H1 - Social Geographies of Climate Change
Hours: 24L
Analyses the social and behavioural geographies of climate change, including: climate change communication (how we interpret and communicate climate science); climate change prevention strategies, from the macro to micro scale; and possibilities for climate change adaptation.
Recommended Preparation: GGR223H1 and GGR271H1
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR334H1 - Water Resource Management
Managing demand and supply; linkages between water quality and human health. Case studies from the industrial world and from developing countries, rural and urban. Implications of population growth and climate change for water resource management.
Recommended Preparation: 8.0 FCE's including one of JEG100H1/GGR100H1, GGR107H1, GGR223H1
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR336H1 - Urban Historical Geography of North America
This course explores the emergence and reproduction of class and racial social spaces, the development of new economic spaces, and the growing importance of the reform and planning movements. Emphasis is on metropolitan development between 1850 and 1950.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities; Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR337H1 - Environmental Remote Sensing
Principles of optical, active and passive microwave remote sensing; satellite orbit and sensor characteristics; image processing and analysis techniques and software; and environmental remote sensing applications.
Recommended Preparation: JEG100H1/GGR100H1, GGR272H1
Distribution Requirements: Science
Breadth Requirements: The Physical and Mathematical Universes (5)
GGR338H1 - Environmental Issues in the Global South
Describes and analyses a range of key environmental issues in the context of the Global South. Topics covered include: air quality and water supply, solid waste management, impacts of and responses to environmental change. Considers factors that influence distribution of environmental costs and benefits in geographic and historical terms. Also examines technologies and policy paradigms that have framed and sought to address environmental issues in the Global South.
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR339H1 - Urban Geography, Planning and Political Processes
Investigates North American urban political geography, exploring conflicts over immigration, environment, gentrification, homelessness, labour market restructuring, ‘race’ and racism, urban sprawl, nature and environment, gender, sexuality, security, and segregation. Explores competing visions of city life and claims on urban space. The course investigates how these struggles connect to economic, social and environmental politics at larger spatial scales, and considers different theoretical frameworks that geographers have developed to make sense of both the persistence of old problems and the emergence of new ones. Field trip cost: $20.
Recommended Preparation: 8.0 FCE's including GGR124H1, GGR246H1/GGR254H1
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR340H1 - Health Geography
An exploration of the aspects of health in which place or location matters. Particular attention will be paid to the role of environments (physical, social, etc.) in explaining differences in health between places, the structuring of health-related behaviour in place, and the development of health policy for places.
Recommended Preparation: 8.0 FCE's, including GGR223H1
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR341H1 - Changing Geography of Latin America
Seeks to develop a general understanding of present-day Latin America by focusing on human-environment interactions, past and present. Case studies are used to understand the diversity of Latin American landscapes (physical and cultural), and how they are changing within the context of globalization.
Recommended Preparation: 8.0 FCE's including 1.0 in Geography (SOC SCI/BR=3)
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR342H1 - The Changing Geography of Southeast Asia
Examines changes in the social, political and economic geography of Southeast Asian countries. Examples drawn from Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines as these emerging newly industrialized countries enter the 21st century. Emphasis on political-economy, urbanization and environment since 1950.
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR343H1 - The Changing Geography of China
The evolving social, political and economic landscape of China. Focus on development strategies and their effects on agriculture, industry, urbanization, city planning and the environment since 1949. Special attention paid to the interconnected development trajectories shaping urban and rural areas, together with the complex interactions between the built and social environments.
Recommended Preparation: 1.0 FCE in Geography (SOC SCI/BR=3)
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR344H1 - Political Economy of Germany and the EU
Hours: 24L
The goal of this course is to explore the structure and geography of the German political economy in the context of EU integration and economic globalization. This includes providing an understanding of the economic and political system (and its regional manifestations), which was once (and is now again) viewed as a successful socially-balanced alternative to the market-liberal structures in Anglo-Saxon economies. Drawing upon the varieties-of-capitalism approach, the main themes in the course address the institutional conditions for growth. In a comparative perspective, the course explores topics, such as the role of collective agents, corporate governance and finance, collective bargaining, inter-firm co-operation and regional networks, social security systems, and population structure and immigration. In order to understand the heterogeneous challenges to the “German model”, the conditions are explored under which regional economies develop. This includes an analysis of the reunification process, and of the economic and political situation in the new Länder. Further, the question is raised as to how the “German model” can adapt to challenges related to globalization, climate change and economic crises.
Exclusion: POL372H1
Recommended Preparation: 1.0 FCE from GGR or POL
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
JGI346H1 - The Urban Planning Process
Overview of how planning tools and practice shape the built form of cities. This course introduces twentieth century physical planning within its historical, social, legal, and political contexts. Community and urban design issues are addressed at local and regional scales and in both central cities and suburbs. The focus is on Toronto and the Canadian experience, with comparative examples from other countries, primarily the United States. Transportation costs: $20.
Recommended Preparation: 8.0 FCE's including GGR124H1, INI235H1, INI236H1
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR347H1 - Efficient Use of Energy
Hours: 24L/6T
Examines the options available for dramatically reducing our use of primary energy with no reduction in meaningful energy services, through more efficient use of energy at the scale of energy-using devices and of entire energy systems. Topics covered include energy use in buildings, transportation, industry, and agriculture. Offered alternate years from GGR348H1.
Exclusion: GGR333H1, JGE347H1
Recommended Preparation: 8.0 FCE's including first year Math and/or Physics
Distribution Requirements: Science
Breadth Requirements: The Physical and Mathematical Universes (5)
GGR348H1 - Carbon-Free Energy
Hours: 24L/6T
Examines the options available for providing energy from carbon-free energy sources: solar, wind, biomass, nuclear, and fossil fuels with capture and sequestration of CO2. The hydrogen economy is also discussed. Offered alternate years from GGR347H1.
Exclusion: GGR333H1, JGE348H1
Recommended Preparation: 8.0 FCE's including first year Math and/or Physics
Distribution Requirements: Science
Breadth Requirements: The Physical and Mathematical Universes (5)
GGR349H1 - Managing Urban Natures
Recent calls to action by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the World Wildlife Fund indicate we are at a crossroads in responding to accelerating global warming and biodiversity loss. Cities are often at the forefront of these transformations, both in feeling their effects but also initiating responses. How might we reimagine our cities in a way that promotes thriving and equitable ecosystems? What tools exist in the policy landscape to initiate needed changes? What innovative responses are emerging to confront the challenges of increased flooding, rising temperatures, habitat fragmentation, and food insecurity? How might we reimagine an urban commons? With a primary focus on Canadian cities, in this course we explore the ways divergent conceptualizations of urban-nature have informed policies and practices drawing largely from critical, political ecology, and Indigenous perspectives; the policy landscape that informs current urban planning; and new and innovative approaches that help us to reshape and reimagine our relationships to urban nature, including initiatives led by municipalities, non-government organizations and citizens groups.
Exclusion: GGR300H1 (Topics: Managing Urban Natures), offered in Fall 2017
Recommended Preparation: GGR223H1
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR352H1 - Understanding Spatiality
Investigates the changing nature of space and our thinking about it, introducing students to a wide range of contemporary geographers and spatial theorists such as Lefebvre, Soja, Gregory, Harvey, Massey and others as well as challenges to this thinking - voices from the margins or peripheries. It will explore changing conceptions of spatiality that inform geographic thought and that help us understand the ways in which political, economic and social power is constituted and contested at a range of spatial scales.
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR354H1 - Infrastructure
Hours: 24L
Infrastructure is the term that describes the transportation systems, sewers, pipes, and power lines that provide urban dwellers with necessary public services. In recent years, billions of dollars of public money have been spent upgrading existing infrastructure, and planning and delivering new facilities. Infrastructure has many impacts on the way that people in cities live. The way that infrastructure systems are planned, financed, and distributed impact on environmental sustainability, job creation, social equity, economic development, and urban livability. Moreover, infrastructure has the potential to both serve existing populations, and shape the way that future communities are built. Through lectures, discussions, workshops, readings of scholarly articles and case studies, the course will aim to engage students in the key topics and debates related to the provision of urban infrastructure. Topics to be covered will include: project planning, causes and cures for cost overruns, funding models, financing mechanisms such as public-private partnerships, and the politics of facility planning and management.
Exclusion: GGR300H1 (Topics: Infrastructure), offered in Summer 2017
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR357H1 - Housing and Community Development
Focuses on the importance of adequate housing and quality neighbourhoods. It roots theoretical explanations and policy debates in realities using Canada and Toronto as examples. Topics covered include the evolution of public policies relating to social housing, rental housing, homeownership, neighborhoods, and homelessness.
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR359H1 - Comparative Urban Policy
This course considers urban public policy. Urban policy is not natural or inevitable response to urban problems. It is actively produced (and contested) by an array of voices, institutions, and social forces. Actualized urban policies are thus best understood and evaluated as products of these influences. The first half of the course will cover broad theoretical matters pertaining to the production of urban policy. The second half of the course will focus more intensively on one problem—urban decline—and explore the actualized approaches that have been brought to bear to manage it.
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR360H1 - Culture, History, and Landscape
The history of approaches to the idea of landscape. A consideration of the origins and uses of the term in geographical inquiry will be followed by a series of case studies, global in scope, from the Early Modern period to the present. Emphasis will be placed on the representational and lived aspects of landscapes, as well as struggles over their definition, interpretation, and use.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)
GGR363H1 - Critical Geographies: An Introduction to Radical Ideas on Space, Society and Culture
Introduces a diversity of critical perspectives for geographers and others, including anarchism, Marxism, feminism, sexual politics, postcolonialism, anti-imperialism and anti-racism. In so doing it illustrates how such radical ideas about space, society and culture have contributed to our political thought and action.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities; Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR372H1 - GIS for Public Health
The goal of this course is to leave students with appreciation of the power of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to explore and analyze spatial health and medical data. The course will focus on organizing health data in a GIS, clustering detection methods, and basic spatial statistics. Other topics like agent-based models and visualization techniques will be touched upon. Lab work will provide hands on experience with example data, leaving students with a firm grasp of contemporary health and medical problems and a skill set of spatial analytical methods that can be used to solve them.
Exclusion: GGR300H1(2015-2016), GGR335H5
Recommended Preparation: GGR270H1, GGR272H1
Distribution Requirements: Science; Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR373H1 - Advanced Geographic Information Systems
Advanced theory, techniques, and applications in geographic information systems (GIS), including interpolation, geostatistics, modeling, and raster and vector analysis. GIS project design and implementation.
Distribution Requirements: Science; Social Science
Breadth Requirements: The Physical and Mathematical Universes (5)
GGR374H1 - Urban Dynamics
This course will focus on the social and economic repercussions associated with the formation and evolution of polynuclear urban regions in response to global economic restructuring. Foci will include the importance of knowledge and innovation in the process of economic development, social and economic polarization at multiple spatial scales, planning interventions to address these polarities, and strategies and tactics in the promotion of more sustainable urban-centred regional economies.
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR382H1 - Field Course in Human Geography
Introduction to field studies in human geography. The course includes exercises and a project during a one-week field study in late August or early September, some preparation during the preceding summer and complementary practical work and/or seminars during the Fall Term. Each student is required to pay the costs of their transportation and accommodation (field trip costs: $500). Students must register with the department in the spring. Course is limited by size. Preference given to Geography SPE/MAJ/MIN. Applications open to all students. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.
Exclusion: GGR389H5
Recommended Preparation: 8.0 FCE's
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR385H1 - Special Topics in Geography
Hours: 24L
Content in any given year varies by instructor. Students must meet the prerequisites set by the department (see the Geography website for details in May). The program in which this course can be used depends on its content.
GGR386H1 - Special Topics in Geographic Information Systems
Hours: 24L
Content in any given year varies by instructor. Students must meet the prerequisites set by the department (see the Geography website for details in May). Can be used towards GIS, Human Geography, and Environmental Geography programs.
GGR387H1 - Special Topics in Environmental Geography
Hours: 24L
Content in any given year varies by instructor. Students must meet the prerequisites set by the department (see the Geography website for details in May). Can be used towards Environmental Geography and Human Geography programs.
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR388H1 - Special Topics in Physical & Environmental Geography
Hours: 24L
Content in any given year varies by instructor. Students must meet the prerequisites set by the department (see the Geography website for details in May). Can be used towards Physical & Environmental Geography and Environmental Geography programs.
Breadth Requirements: The Physical and Mathematical Universes (5)
GGR389H1 - Special Topics in Human Geography
Hours: 24L
Content in any given year varies by instructor. Students must meet the prerequisites set by the department (see the Geography website for details in May). Can be used towards Human Geography programs.
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR390H1 - Field Methods
Introduction to field methods in geomorphology, vegetation mapping/analysis, soils, hydrology, and climatology. The course includes exercises and a group project during a one-week field camp, a little preparation during the preceding summer, and complementary practical work and/or seminars during the Fall Term. Each student is required to pay the costs of their transportation and accommodation (field trip costs: $300). This course meets the field requirement for Physical & Environmental Geography programs. The field camp normally runs for one week at the end of August. Students must register with the Department by April. Consult with the department in case of conflict or concerns. Course may be limited by size. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.
Recommended Preparation: 8.0 FCE's including GGR270H1
Distribution Requirements: Science
GGR398H0 - Research Excursions
An instructor-supervised group project in an off-campus setting. Details at https://www.artsci.utoronto.ca/current/academics/research-opportunities/.... Not eligible for CR/NCR option.
GGR398Y0 - Research Excursions
An instructor-supervised group project in an off-campus setting. Details at https://www.artsci.utoronto.ca/current/academics/research-opportunities/.... Not eligible for CR/NCR option.
GGR399Y1 - Research Opportunity Program
Credit course for supervised participation in faculty research project. Details at https://www.artsci.utoronto.ca/current/academics/research-opportunities/.... Not eligible for CR/NCR option.
GGR400H1 - Special Topics in Geography I
Content in any given year depends on instructor. The program in which this course can be used depends on its context. Consult Departmental Office in April.
Recommended Preparation: 2.0 FCE's in GGR (HUM/BR=1 or SOC SCI/BR=3)
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
GGR401H1 - Special Topics in Geography II
Content in any given year depends on instructor. The program in which this course can be used depends on its context. Consult Departmental Office in April.
Recommended Preparation: 2.0 FCE's (science) in any of GGR/ESS/BIO/CHM/EEB/FOR
Distribution Requirements: Science
GGR405H1 - Sustainable Systems for Natural Resources Management
This seminar examines the scientific foundations of sustainable natural resource management. Will consider frameworks to assess management and production systems for renewable natural resource and energy development in relation to specific landscapes. Constraints and opportunities to achieving sustainability objectives in different systems will be examined through theoretical and case study evaluations drawn from research literatures. Seminar and self-directed inquiry through individual and team projects. Field trip transportation cost: $100.
Exclusion: GGR401H1 (2012-13)
Recommended Preparation: 2.0 FCE's (science) in any of GGR/BIO/CHM/EEB/ESS/FOR
Distribution Requirements: Science
Breadth Requirements: Living Things and Their Environment (4)
GGR406H1 - Geomorphology and the Anthropocene
In this seminar course, we will explore the nature of geomorphology and the Anthropocene (the proposed geological time interval during which human activities have greatly impacted the global environment) using a combination of lectures, readings, and discussions. We will consider the ways in which hillslope, fluvial, coastal, aeolian, and other domains have been altered or influenced by humans and consider the role of geomorphology as a science for understanding and examining the changes in landscape form and processes.
Exclusion: GGR401H1 (Special Topics in Geography II: Geomorphology and the Anthropocene), offered in Winter 2020
Recommended Preparation: GGR272H1
Distribution Requirements: Science
Breadth Requirements: The Physical and Mathematical Universes (5)
GGR413H1 - Watershed Hydroecology
Modern developments in hydrology and ecology, including form and process models, interactions of hydrology, ecology and geomorphology; the course emphasizes the use of computer simulation models of drainage basin processes.
Recommended Preparation: GGR201H1, GGR206H1, GGR270H1, GGR272H1 or GGR337H1
Distribution Requirements: Science
Breadth Requirements: The Physical and Mathematical Universes (5)
GGR414H1 - Advanced Remote Sensing
Building on GGR337H1 Environmental Remote Sensing with advanced theories and techniques for land cover mapping, vegetation biophysical and biochemical parameter retrievals, optical and thermal remote sensing of urban environment, and application of satellite remote sensing to terrestrial water and carbon cycle estimation. Basic radiative transfer theories as applied to vegetation will be given in some detail as the basis for various remote sensing applications. Optical instruments for measuring vegetation structural parameters will be demonstrated in the field.
Recommended Preparation: GGR272H1, GGR273H1, GGR373H1
Distribution Requirements: Science
Breadth Requirements: The Physical and Mathematical Universes (5)
GGR416H1 - Environmental Impact Assessment
Environmental impact assessment (EIA) as a mechanism for avoiding or mediating the potential costs of development. The course focuses on the theory and practice of EIA in Canada in general and Ontario in particular. Using a broad definition of environment, various components of EIA are addressed, with an emphasis on principles, legal and institutional frameworks, stages in the process, and specific analytical techniques.
Recommended Preparation: One of GGR222H1/GGR223H1 or ENV236H1/JGE236H1
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR418H1 - Political Economy of Natural Resources
Examines political aspects of the appropriation of natural resources, including policy and regulation, environmental impacts, and social justice. Emphasis is placed on reading contemporary literature on the politics of resource access and control from geography and other social science disciplines.
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR419H1 - Environmental Justice
Examines how environmental problems affect people, communities and societies differentially and how marginalized communities and people often bear the brunt of environmental costs, while contributing little to their creation. It uses readings and case studies from across the globe to address the production of environmental injustice and the struggle for environmental justice.
Recommended Preparation: 1.0 FCE in Geography (SOC SCI/BR=3)
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR420H1 - Critical Development Geography
Examines the politics and processes shaping economic globalization and international development. The course will review a range of critical approaches to development, the historical geography of uneven development, and some emerging approaches to critical development studies. The course focuses on recent scholarly discussions about how to define international development and pays particular attention to the relationships between migration and development in theory and practice. It takes seriously the politics of difference (race, ethnicity, class, gender, nationality and sexuality) and inequality in the critical study of international development research and practice.
Recommended Preparation: GGR112H1 or GGR124H1; GGR320H1
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR421H1 - Histories of Geographical Thought
The history of geography as an intellectual subject, focusing primarily on the modern period, and on the genealogies of central concepts. Disciplinary developments will be situated next to broader contexts, including imperialism and militarism, the relationship between culture and nature, and the shifting social role of the academy.
Recommended Preparation: 2.0 FCE's in Geography (HUM/BR=1 or SOC SCI/BR=3)
Distribution Requirements: Humanities
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR424H1 - Transportation Geography and Planning
Hours: 24L
Introductory overview of major issues in interurban and intraurban transportation at the local, national and international scale. Topics include urban transportation, land use patterns and the environment, causes of and cures for congestion, public transit, infrastructure finance, and transport planning and policy setting.
Exclusion: GGR324H1, CITC18H3
Recommended Preparation: GGR270H1
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR429H1 - Innovation and Governance
Hours: 24S
The course focuses on a broad range of topics related to innovation and governance, such as (i) technological change and its social and economic consequences, (ii) the spatial effects which result from this, and (iii) the necessities for economic policies at different territorial levels. Since international competitiveness of industrialized economies cannot be based on cost advantages alone, future growth in the knowledge-based economy will be increasingly associated with capabilities related to creativity, knowledge generation and innovation. As a consequence, questions regarding the performance in innovation and effectiveness of policy support become decisive at the firm level, regional level and national level. The first part of the course deals with conceptual foundations of innovation processes, such as evolutionary and institutional views of innovation. In the second part, national configurations of innovation processes are investigated. The third part deals with innovation at the subnational level, focusing on regional clustering, institution building, multilevel governance, and regionalized innovation systems.
Exclusion: POL408H1
Recommended Preparation: One of GGR221H1, GGR251H1, GGR324H1, GGR326H1, GGR328H1, GGR374H1
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR430H1 - Geographies of Markets
Focuses on actually-existing markets and their geographically-mediated formation and assemblage. Explores how markets are produced, stabilized, reshaped and fall apart at multiple geographic scales. We examine issues such as the debates on states versus markets, embeddedness of markets, neoliberalism and moral justification of markets, varieties of capitalism, regionally variegated capitalism, post-socialist market transitions, and the dynamic evolution of market institutions and economic landscapes.
Exclusion: GGR400H1(2013-14)
Recommended Preparation: GGR220H1/GGR221H1, GGR326H1
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR431H1 - Regional Dynamics
Economic activity, and related indices of socioeconomic well-being and human capital, have always tended to concentrate in space, leaving specific regions to be classified as “creative”, “developed”, or “core” regions and others as “have-not”, “less-developed, “peripheral”, or “marginal” regions. As a result, regional economic change has been very difficult to fully explain (and certainly predict) using conventional (orthodox) theories and methods. This course examines the theoretical linkage between related trends in terms of globalization, vertical disintegration, specialization, innovation, and the locational behaviour of firms. We will focus on the seemingly counter-intuitive finding that regional economic change in a time of increasing global interdependence is increasingly dependent on the local context. Topics will include evolutionary economic geography, path dependence, economic clusters, learning regions, the role of institutions, knowledge spill-overs, and the geography of innovation, among others. We will see why the economic activity is becoming ever more concentrated in space even as it globalizes. The course makes extensive use of empirical case studies from around the globe.
Recommended Preparation: GGR326H1, GGR270H1. A statistics course (GGR270H1 or other) would be an asset.
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR433H1 - Built Environment and Health
Linking across fields that include public health, geography and planning, this course examines the growing evidence and ways in which human health is affected by the design and development of the built environment in which we live, work and play. The course considers how various planning and development decisions impact population and individual health, particularly in relation to chronic diseases, injuries, and mental health. Field trip transportation cost: $20.
Exclusion: GGR400H1 (2012-13)
Recommended Preparation: 1.0 FCE in Geography (SOC SCI/BR=3)
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR434H1 - Building Community Resilience
Examines concepts of resilience as a way of building the capacity of communities to (a) respond to predicted disruptions/shocks associated with climate change, global pandemics, anticipated disruptions in global food supply, energy insecurity, and environmental degradation; and (b) nurture the development of alternative spaces that support the emergence of more life-sustaining structures and practices. Includes explicit attention to equity and public health, and explores issues such as: participatory governance of social-ecological systems, the nature of social change, complexity science, the role of social movements, indigenous and political ecology perspectives.
Exclusion: GGR400H1 (2011-12)
Recommended Preparation: 1.0 FCEs in Geography
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR438H1 - Environment and Development
Examines the implications of development – as an economic and social project – for how the environment is used, by whom, and to what ends. Draws on literatures in political ecology and critical development geography. Topics include: interpretations of scarcity and degradation, questions of consumption, and the greening of development. Examines expansion of and struggles over new forms of green infrastructure in urban and rural settings.
Recommended Preparation: 1.0 FCE in Geography (SOC SCI/BR=3)
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
JIG440H1 - Indigenous Geographies
Hours: 36S
This course draws on theoretical texts of Indigeneity, with a primary focus on Indigenous spaces in the Americas. Course participants will examine how core geographic concepts such as place, territory, land, movement and the scale of the body are sites of colonial dispossession and violence, as well as sites for decolonial and liberatory thought and practice. We will primarily engage with Indigenous-led scholarship within Geography and Indigenous Studies, and creative forms of knowledge production generated across Indigenous communities.
Exclusion: GGR400H1 (Special Topics in Geography I: Indigenous Geographies), offered in Fall 2019
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR452H1 - Space, Power, Geography: Understanding Spatiality
Our understanding of space and power has shifted radically in the past half century. Space no longer implies only regions, nations or territory; power is not simply a question of domination, control, or forms of political representation. Space and power are intricately related. This course explores a shift in our ways of thinking about space and power, focusing specifically on the works of Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze. Through the works of Deleuze and Foucault, students are introduced to a variety of ways that space and power are organized and contested. The course begins with the maps in our heads: what kinds of spatial systems organize dominant world-views, how have these changed over time? What spatial metaphors do we use to think about power – as hidden and operating at a depth, or as a surface effect? How does the social organization of space figure in the development of different technologies and techniques of power? How do technologies of power become organized, serialized, dispersed, transformed and contested?
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
JGI454H1 - The Role of the Planner: Making a Difference
Focuses on the role of a planning practitioner in contemporary society using a wealth of examples drawn from recent issues and debates in Canadian cities and regions. The course will walk students through the demands made of planners in terms of both technical expertise as well as political necessity and ask them to think actively about how to prepare for the extraordinary growth of cities during the next century. Examples of issues that will be discussed in some detail include the myths surrounding the city vs. the suburbs, the creativity and passion involved in planning work and the need to see Toronto’s future from a regional perspective.
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR456H1 - Entanglements of Power: Race, Sexuality and the City
This course investigates the city as a space sculpted by particular configurations and relations of power, and productive of those forms. It considers shifting urban geographies of identity, economy and desire with a focus on race and racism, settler colonialism, empire, the laboring body, sexuality, and sexual identity. Course participants will engage a series of case studies of particular urban spaces and struggles, drawing on conceptual support from scholarship in urban geography, anti-colonial thought, political economy, black studies, feminist and queer theory, Indigenous and settler colonial studies, as well as literature and other artistic work.
Exclusion: GGR400H1 (Special Topics in Geography I: Entanglements of Power: Race, Sexuality and the City), offered in Fall 2018
Recommended Preparation: 2.0 FCEs in GGR
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR457H1 - The Post-War Suburbs
Investigates post-war suburbs, beginning with an examination of their competing contemporary meanings. It considers images of prosperous private enclaves, of declining and difficult to access places, of racialized and segregated areas, of banality and homogeneity, of precarity and polarization, and of creative social struggles. It assesses these different visions through an analysis of urban growth and change since WWII. The course will focus on themes of public and private space; class, race and segregation; gender and suburban space; immigration; urban sprawl, and the changing social and economic geography of the suburbs. It examines North American areas, with examples from Australia and Europe.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities; Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR458H1 - Selected Topics in Urban Geography
This course focuses on a special topic in urban geography and covers it with more depth than would otherwise be the case in a survey-oriented class. The aim is to utilize this single topic as a vehicle to understanding how urban geographical ideas are produced more widely. Check the department website for the theme (updated each year).
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR460H1 - Global Cities, Urban Planning, Critical Theory
Hours: 36S
This seminar addresses the relationship between urbanization and global economic, political, cultural, social, demographic, technological and ecological dynamics. It does so with an emphasis on the contested legacies of city planning, urban design, architecture and urban political activism, by drawing on historical studies of global cities as well as critical-theoretical perspectives on the ‘production of space’. While broaching the question what’s ‘production of space’ got to do with social justice, we explore—with reference to pioneering thinkers in the fields of planning, architecture and critical theory—such concepts as radical planning, the urban revolution and the right to the city.
Exclusion: GGR400H1 (Topics: Planning and Global Cities), offered in Winter 2018
Recommended Preparation: 1.0 FCE in Geography (SOC SCI/BR=3)
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR462H1 - GIS Research Project
Students work in groups to develop their own research project and then acquire, organize and analyze geographic data to complete it. Emphasis is placed on research design, project management and the application of GIS concepts and skills learned in previous courses to a practical problem.
Distribution Requirements: Science; Social Science
Breadth Requirements: The Physical and Mathematical Universes (5)
GGR472H1 - Developing Web Maps
Explores the power of web mapping and CyberGIS, with a focus on hands-on learning and open source software. Students will learn about relevant software (exploring various APIs), data structures, methods, and cartographic and visualization techniques. Finally, students will work in groups to develop and deliver their own online web maps from scratch, on a topic of their choosing.
Exclusion: GGR400H1 (2015-2016)
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: The Physical and Mathematical Universes (5)
GGR481H1 - Field Course in Environmental Geography
Introduction to field studies in environmental geography. The course may include individual assignments and group work. Field trips are concentrated during a one-week period in late August or early September. Some preparation during the preceding summer may be required. Periodic course meetings and shorter field trips continue, along with course work, during the Fall Term. Each student is required to pay the costs of their transportation and accommodation (field trip costs: $100). Students must register with the Department by April. Course may be limited by size. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.
Exclusion: GGR381H1
Recommended Preparation: 10.0 FCE's including 3.0 FCE's in Geography (SOC SCI/BR=3)
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR482H1 - Toronto Field Course
Examines the production of urban landscapes, built environments and social spaces in Toronto and surrounding areas through indepth case studies. Coverage will vary some depending on instructor. The course consists of local field trips and in-class seminars and lectures. Students must apply with the Department. Contact the Department in January for deadlines. Course is limited by size. Preference given to Geography SPE/MAJ/MIN. Applications open to all students. Not eligible for CR/NCR option. Field trip costs: $150.
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
GGR491Y1 - Research Project
Specially designed for students wishing to gain experience in conducting research in their area of specialization. Of particular value for geographers interested in graduate study, or positions in government, planning and consulting firms where research skills may be an asset. Students select a research problem and complete a project under the supervision of a faculty member. Enrolment requires written permission from a faculty supervisor and Associate Chair, Undergraduate; early discussion with a likely supervisor is encouraged. Enrolment may be completed at any time up to September; open to students in a Specialist or Major Program sponsored by the Department of Geography. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
GGR492H1 - Senior Practicum
Students design and implement an independent applied geography/planning project in consultation with an employer (paid or volunteer), who will act as their “client.” Enrolment requires written permission from a staff supervisor and Associate Chair, Undergraduate. Only open to students who are enrolled in a Specialist or Major program sponsored by the Department of Geography. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.
GGR492Y1 - Senior Practicum
Students design and implement an independent applied geography/planning/GIS project in consultation with an employer (paid or volunteer), who will act as their “client”. Enrolment required written permission from a staff supervisor and Associate Chair, Undergraduate. Only open to students who have completed 10 FCEs and who are enrolled in a Specialist, Major or GIS minor program sponsored by the Department of Geography. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.
GGR493Y1 - Geography Professional Experience
Undertake professional placement matching academic interests and career goals. Students meet regularly during the year in class to cover topics such as: reflective writing, project management, career planning, and the application of academic skills in professional contexts. Research project required that connects a topic related to placement with academic literatures. Normally, one day per week spent at placement site. For students in their final year of a Geography major or specialist program of study, or the GIS Minor. Satisfies program requirements based on placement. Space limited. Applications are reviewed in early spring. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.
GGR496H1 - Independent Research
Independent research extension to one of the courses already completed in Geographic Information Systems. Enrolment requires written permission from a faculty supervisor and Associate Chair, Undergraduate. Only open to students who have completed 10 FCEs and who are enrolled in the GIS program sponsored by the Department of Geography. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.
GGR497H1 - Independent Research
Independent research extension to one of the courses already completed in Environmental Geography. Enrolment requires written permission from a faculty supervisor and Associate Chair, Undergraduate. Only open to students who have completed 10 FCE's and who are enrolled in a Specialist or Major program sponsored by the Department of Geography. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
GGR498H1 - Independent Research
Independent research extension to one of the courses already completed in Physical Geography. Enrolment requires written permission from a faculty supervisor and Associate Chair, Undergraduate. Only open to students who have completed 10 FCEs and who are enrolled in a Specialist or Major program sponsored by the Department of Geography. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.
Distribution Requirements: Science
GGR499H1 - Independent Research
Independent research extension to one of the courses already completed in a social science or humanities branch of Geography. Enrolment requires written permission from a faculty supervisor and Associate Chair, Undergraduate. Only open to students who have completed 10 FCEs and who are enrolled in a Specialist or Major program sponsored by the Department of Geography. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities; Social Science
National University of Singapore Courses
NUS250H0 - Cities in Transition
This module is concerned with the changing roles of cities in an age of globalization. The first part examines cities as part of urban networks at the national, regional and international levels, and focuses on the implications arising from the rise of mega-cities and global cities. The second half of the module investigates the challenges facing cities on the ground, including issues of the revitalization and re-imaging of city cores, changing retail landscapes, and the impact of telecommunications on the location of urban activities and peoples’ mobility. The module is targeted at students with an interest in urban issues. (Co-listed as GE2204 National University of Singapore)
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
NUS251H0 - Southeast Asia
This module deals with a multi-disciplinary approach to understanding the regional geography of Southeast Asia. Students are expected not only to critically analyze their readings but also to be able to synthesize materials to provide a holistic understanding of the region. Specifically, it looks at the region through historical, cultural, social and political-economic perspectives. The module also discusses sustainable development issues. This is a module that is open to all students in the Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, Engineering, Law, Science, School of Design & Environment and School of Business. (Co-listed as GE2226 National University of Singapore)
Recommended Preparation: 4.0 FCEs
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
NUS252H0 - Rice, Spice & Trees: Peasants in Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia has been, and still is comprised of predominantly rural and agrarian societies. This module seeks to develop an understanding of peasant life in the region. Topics to be studied include the village as a construct, the “moral economy” of the peasantry, land and man relations, economic output, and peasant beliefs, consciousness, and cultural expressions. With the peasants’ increasing involvement in the world market and the nation-state, it is also important to consider the penetration of capitalism into the rural economy, as well as the demand for supra-village identification and loyalties. Notions of “development” as they pertain to the peasants, and as postulated by the state, non-governmental organizations and the peasants themselves are also discussed. (Co-listed as SE3213 National University of Singapore)
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
NUS253H0 - Economy and Space
This module examines relationships between economy and space through a focus on ‘development’. Through interrogating theories, strategies and trajectories of ‘development’, students will develop an understanding of the past and contemporary global political economy and its geographies. The course will emphasize the geopolitical and cultural backdrops to ‘development’ and attendant economic geographies amidst debates about ‘globalization’, international trade and investment. (Co-listed as GE2202 National University of Singapore)
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
NUS254H0 - Geographies of Social Life
This module explores debates in geography about social issues. It emphasizes the relationship between social identity and social space, and how different places reflect and shape diverse ways of life. The module examines the role of space in the interplay of different social groups (e.g. ethnic groups, men/women), and in relation to different aspects of daily life (e.g. housing, leisure). Its emphasis, however, is on how to think about these issues in different scales/contexts (streets, public spaces, global cities). The course is intended for geography majors, and students throughout NUS with an interest in the relationship between society and space. (Co-listed as SE2224 National University of Singapore)
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
NUS255H0 - Cities and Urban Life in Southeast Asia
Are Southeast Asian urban models unique from those of the West? This module uses historical and emerging developments to re-evaluate debates on Southeast Asian urbanization. The particularities of Southeast Asian urbanisation will be examined both in terms of its intertwined history with the rest of the world as well as the politics of time and space. The module aims at developing a critical understanding of the interaction between historical, political-economic and cultural processes that constitute urbanization in Southeast Asia. (Co-listed as SE2212 National University of Singapore)
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
NUS256H0 - Changing Landscape of Singapore
This module attempts to understand the rationale of changes in Singapore’s urban landscape. It places these changes within a framework that considers Singapore’s efforts to globalize and examines how policies are formulated with the idea of sustaining an economy that has integral links sub-regionally with Southeast Asia while developing new spatial linkages that will strengthen its position in the global network. Emphasis is also given to recent discussions about how diversity and difference in the perception and use of space pose a challenge to the utilitarian and functional definition adopted by the state. (Co-listed as GEK2001/SSA2202 National University of Singapore)
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
NUS350H0 - Natural Resources: Policy and Practice
This module examines important geographical, ecological and political concepts and approaches to natural resources management. In particular, we focus on ownership regimes, access, exploitation and conservation in different social, economic and cultural contexts. Detailed cases of fisheries, forestry, freshwater and agriculture conflicts and problems are discussed. (Co-listed as GE3210 National University of Singapore)
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
NUS351Y0 - Field Studies in Geography: SE Asia
The module exposes students to different geographical methods, both human and physical, and as such it is an ideal preparation for any student wishing to undertake further primary research at higher levels in geography, and other social science disciplines. After a series of lectures/seminars on fieldwork methods, fieldwork ethics, and health and safety issues in the field (which may include some basic introductory language classes), students then undertake a 2 – 5 week period of field study overseas, depending on logistical and other constraints. Previous field studies have been for periods of 4-5 weeks overseas in Thailand and Malaysia. While overseas, students undergo orientation workshops, meet peers in host universities, and visit potential field sites before conducting an intensive period of fieldwork in small groups of 3-5 students. (Co-listed as GE3230A at the National University of Singapore)
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
NUS352H0 - East Asia
This module examines aspects of the geography of East Asia, which includes China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and Korea. Emphasis is placed on the developmental processes and the underlying physical, political, socio-cultural and economic factors that account for their development. It evaluates various discourses on East Asian development and also assesses the impact of East Asian development on regional conflicts, patterns of social change, urbanization and sub-regional integration. (Co-listed as GE3209 at the National University of Singapore)
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
NUS353H0 - Globalization and Asian Cities
This module aims to provide students with an in-depth understanding of the social, political, and economic changes at various geographical scales with respect to globalization. More specifically, the module focuses on developing understandings of the complex forces driving globalization and the related urban and regional changes and the relationship between globalization and regionalization. This module is not just for geography students, but for all students who are interested in the urban and regional changes in the Asia-Pacific with respect to globalization and regionalization and the driving forces of the changes. (Co-listed as GE3219 at the National University of Singapore)
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)
NUS354H0 - South Asia: Development, Issues, Debates
This module is concerned with understanding and assessing the development experiences of the South Asian countries. Students are expected to grapple with concrete case studies of development programs in their work. The coursework covers issues pertaining to rural, agricultural, urban, industrial and human development, as well as their impact upon people and the environment. Particular attention is given to the situation of the poor and the weak, including disadvantaged children, women, and ethnic minorities. (Co-listed as SN3232 at the National University of Singapore)
Distribution Requirements: Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)