Are you looking for a path into your favourite geography subject or want to learn more about your field? Seats are available for many of our courses spanning various topics such as sustainability, geopolitics, climate change, geographical science, and more! Check them out in this year’s Course Spotlight!

Introductory Courses (100/200-Level)

The human geography of the modern world since 1945: global interdependence in economic geography, geopolitics, and cultural geography; consequences of modernization, including demography, urbanization and environmental effects; regional case studies; reactions to modernization.

 

The demographic, economic, ecological, and technological factors that underlie current environmental challenges, considering their effects to date and their possible impact in the future. Credit will only be granted for one of GEOG 211 or ENST 211. Recommended: Second-year standing. Equivalency: ENST 211

 

Introduction to the political geographic perspectives on today’s interdependent world through three themes: borders, regions, and flows.

 

Selected topics in human geography focusing on the regional distribution of natural resources, population, urban systems, and economic activities.

 

Energy and water in the Earth-Atmosphere system, global climates and climate change, ecosystem properties and processes, human impacts.

This is a hybrid lecture with a mix of in-person and synchronous online components. Synchronous online lectures take place during the scheduled Friday class time.

Energy and water in the Earth-Atmosphere system, global climates and climate change, ecosystem properties and processes, human impacts.

 

Physical processes acting at the Earth’s surface; water cycle; landforms; human impacts.

 

Physical principles underlying weather and climates. Thermal, moisture and wind climates from the scale of plants and animals to the globe. Daily weather systems and climate change.

 

Earth surface processes shaping the landscape; identification of hazards and hazardous areas associated with these processes; introduction to techniques for measurement and analysis at various spatial and time scales; field trips are required.

 

300-Level Courses

Biophysical and human causes of short- and long-term environmental change at various spatial scales, including measurement, interpretation, and policy. Equivalency: ENST 318

What is money? Classical definitions of money focus on how it is used — as a unit of account, a store of value, and a medium of exchange— and the forms it takes, from cowrie shells to crypto currencies. This course will expand our understanding of money by focusing on the historical function of money as an instrument of political-economic and geopolitical power. The course will examine the history of the geographic expansion of money across and beyond national borders as part of colonial and imperial state projects, with a particular emphasis on the internationalization of the US dollar.

Surveys key debates and conceptual approaches at the intersection of political ecology and Indigenous geography. Introduces Indigenous Political Ecology as an emerging field and approach to examining diverse Indigenous land relations in a global context. Topics to be covered include Indigenous environmental governance and state formation, capital-colonial relations and dispossession, mapping and territories, Indigenous knowledge and methodologies, place-based solidarity and global Indigenous futures.

Geographical approaches to economic development; models of economic development and spatial change; influences on spatial economic change; case studies from the developed, third, and socialist worlds.

Present-day human geography of the cities and regions of Europe.

Meteorology and climatology at the micro-, local, and meso-scales. Interactions between land surfaces and atmosphere. Basics of atmospheric turbulence and transfer processes. Microclimates on scales of a leaf to those of a large valley.

Paleoecology of terrestrial ecosystems, particularly during the Quaternary, application of historical context to inform contemporary policy and management dilemmas, and including a foundation in relevant ecosystem and ecological concepts.

400-Level Courses

Contemporary geographies of global agriculture and food production systems in relation to global environmental change and crisis. Restricted to students with 3rd year standing or higher (or permission of instructor).

 

This interdisciplinary seminar examines global and public health issues as influenced by climate change and im/mobilities, and vice versa. The ongoing climate crisis affects every facet of planetary life, and human and more-than-human im/mobilities are major responses to some of the effects brought on by climate change. Climate change, migration and health are interdependent processes, and human health cannot be understood outside of planetary health. This course therefore examines the intersections of all three, and how they affect everyday lived experiences.

 

Principles and practice of Earth system modeling, with hands‑on training in the use of CMIP‑class models and reanalysis data. Students learn how to access, analyze, interpret, and design scientifically sound analysis using Earth system model output, and to design and perform Earth system model simulations.

 

This course will explore how climate change adaptation is shaping and being shaped by the material impacts of climate change, the political economy of climate governance and finance, and the agency of experts, funders, promoters, and the individuals and collectives adapting to climate change. Students will examine the history of climate change adaptation concepts and governance while also exploring emerging frontiers in political ecologies of the climate crisis.

 

Political organization of space; territorial and spatial patterns of power and identity; contemporary geopolitical struggles. Prerequisite: At least third-year standing.

 

Examines the geographical and historical relationship between capitalism and racism through the perspective of the Black experience and the global African Diaspora, from the era of New World slavery to the present.

 

The politics of North-South solidarity in theory and practice through community service learning models.

 

Processes controlling the planetary cycles of elements like carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus, the human perturbation of these biogeochemical cycles, and the consequences for the atmosphere, terrestrial ecosystems, and aquatic ecosystems. Fourth-year standing is required.

 

The impact of urbanization upon atmospheric processes and climates. The energy and water balances of cities. Meteorological effects (urban heat island, precipitation modification, etc.) and their significance. Models of the urban atmosphere. Prerequisite: One of GEOB_V 204, GEOS_V 204, GEOB_V 300, GEOS_V 300, AGRO_V 244, APBI_V 244.

 

Investigation of vegetation dynamics integrating theory and research to address contemporary issues of global environmental change. Students will conduct fieldwork and learn to analyze data and interpret results. Prerequisite: One of BIOL_V 230, GEOB_V 207, GEOS_V 207, FRST_V 201.