Caroline Grego wins CSN-RÉC Prize

Congratulations to MA student Caroline Grego for winning the MA-level Major Research Paper Prize from CSN-RÉC (Réseau d’études canadiennes)!

The winning paper is titled, “Imagining a Community-Oriented ‘National Park Nature: Conflict, Management, and Conservation in the Proposed South Okanagan-Lower Similkameen National Park Reserve.” According to the congratulatory message from the CSN-RÉC, “The adjudicating committee members agreed that Grego’s thesis represents a significant contribution to the field of Canadian Studies. Starting from a personal narrative reflecting on her relationship with the environment of the Okanagan Valley and her native South Carolina and moving into a nuanced discussion of the politics surrounding the proposed South Okanagan-Lower Similkameen National Park Reserve, Grego’s thesis combines an impressive theoretical grounding in concepts of nature and wilderness, a thorough exploration of the history of the region, and a balanced acknowledgement of the plurality of voices in this debate. We enjoyed reading this thesis a great deal and wish to congratulate Caroline on a fine piece of work.”

About Vancouver

Vancouver is a coastal city in the province of British Columbia in Canada. With more than 600,000 residents, it is Canada’s third-largest city. Consistently named one of the world’s most livable cities, it is where snow-capped mountains meet the ocean, and breathtaking vistas greet you around every corner.

The city is a diverse mix of people of different ethnicities, cultures, religions and sexual orientations. Close to 30 per cent of British Columbians immigrated to the province from another country. As such, cultural, religious and linguistic diversity is celebrated.

Vancouver has hosted many international conferences and events, including the 2010 Winter Olympics and 2010 Winter Paralympics.

Undergraduate Programs

Our undergraduate program is divided into three fields: Human Geography, Environment and Sustainability, and Geographical Sciences.

Graduate Programs

Our Geography graduate programs lead to an MA, MSc, and/or a PhD.

Research

View our research streams and projects that are produced here in the Department of Geography.

Job Opportunities

Discover job opportunities for undergraduate, graduate, as well as faculty and staff positions in the Department of Geography.

Postdoctoral Position: Killam Postdoctoral Research Fellowship

31 August 2026

The UBC Geography Department welcomes applications for the Killam Postdoctoral Research Fellowships, 2027-28. The Geography Postdoctoral Committee can nominate one candidate this year to enter the university-wide competition.

Once the Geography Department selects a nominee, an adjudication committee at the Faculty of Graduate Studies reviews the selected nominee files, over 40 each year, before making final decisions. The search is for candidates whose work is “beyond excellent and whose research is convincingly innovative and ground-breaking”. Postdoctoral applicants are selected based on “academic achievement, personal qualities, and demonstrated aptitudes”. Consideration is also given to the applicant’s proposed program of study.

The fellowships are awarded for a maximum of two years, subject to review at the end of the first year, and include a stipend of CAD $60,000 per annum. The number of awards available across campus varies between three and five per year.

To apply, you must have the support of a faculty member supervisor within the UBC Geography Department. However, there is no need to submit a letter of support from the supervisor until the Geography Postdoctoral Committee requests it.

For information about eligibility, application forms and detailed instructions, see:

https://www.postdocs.ubc.ca/award/killam-postdoctoral-research-fellowship

All necessary application materials must be received at the UBC Geography Department by THURSDAY, OCTOBER 08, 2026, at NOON PDT.

Applicants must apply through the Geography website using the following link:

https://geog.air.arts.ubc.ca/killam-postdoctoral-research-fellowship-application/

Applicants must arrange to have the two letters of reference, signed and on official institution letterhead. Letters should be sent by your writers directly via email to headasst@geog.ubc.ca by the application deadline. Please allow ample time for all your materials to arrive by the Department deadline. Incomplete files will not be considered.

For further information, please contact Connie Cheung, Recruit and Appointment Co-ordinator, at headasst@geog.ubc.ca

Market/Place: Exploring Spaces of Exchange

The term “market” originally portrayed a public space for economic transactions but the term has since evolved into an abstract and disputed idea. Despite modern markets seemingly omnipresent nature, their specific geographies have undergone relatively little analysis.

This collection of new essays rediscovers the physical space that markets inhabit and explore how the impact of political, social and economic factors determine the shape of a particular market space.

The essays present new research from the fields of geography, economics, political economy and planning and provide valuable case study material to show how markets are contested, constructed and placed. Rather than separate markets from the surrounding society and state, these essays connect markets to their wider context and showcase how economic geography can combine with other disciplines to throw new light on spaces of exchange.

Publication Date: March 26th 2020

Published by Agenda Publishing

Urban Studies Inside/Out: Theory, Method, Practice

At a time of intense theoretical debates in urban studies, the research practices underlying such theories have not received the same attention. This original and creative text interrogates the methodological underpinnings of contemporary urban scholarship, with reference to different global sites and situations, as well as to recent debates around postcolonial, planetary, and provincialized urban theories.

Rather than reducing methodological questions to a matter of tools and techniques, it unearths the complex connections between theory, research design, empirical work, expositional style, and normative-ethical commitments.

Innovatively co-produced by faculty and graduate students from a variety of disciplines, Urban Studies Inside-Out is comprised of three parts.

Part I: An introduction to the field of urban studies and its changing theories, methodological norms and practices.

Part II: Features a collection of methodological essays co-authored by graduate students, deconstructing the research designs, the methodological practices, and the modes of presentation and representation across recent urban monographs.

Part III: Consists of informative keyword primers which explicate the key concepts and formulations in the field of urban studies.

This volume offers a welcome intervention within urban studies, and stands to make a valuable contribution for graduate students and researchers.

Publication Date: November 2019

Published by Sage Publishing

Geography’s Quantitative Revolutions

Do you have a smartphone? Billions of people on the planet now navigate their daily lives with the kind of advanced Global Positioning System capabilities once reserved for the most secretive elements of America’s military-industrial complex.

But when so many people have access to the most powerful technologies humanity has ever devised for the precise determination of geographical coordinates, do we still need a specialized field of knowledge called geography?

Just as big data and artificial intelligence promise to automate occupations ranging from customer service and truck driving to stock trading and financial analysis, our age of algorithmic efficiency seems to eliminate the need for humans who call themselves geographers—at the precise moment when engaging with information about the peoples, places, and environments of a diverse world is more popular than ever before. How did we get here?

This book traces the recent history of geography, information, and technology through the biography of Edward A. Ackerman, an important but forgotten figure in geography’s “quantitative revolution.” It argues that Ackerman’s work helped encode the hidden logics of a distorted philosophical heritage—a dangerous, cybernetic form of thought known as militant neo-Kantianism—into the network architectures of today’s pervasive worlds of surveillance capitalism.

Publication Date: November 1st 2019