Cole’s research interests focued on the effects of new environments on European settler colonies; on the geographical pattern of early Canada; and on land, Native peoples, and settler colonialism in British Columbia. He wrote the first historical geography of Canada (with John Warkentin) and was a leader of the great Historical Atlas of Canada project, for which he served as editor of Volume 1. Predominantly a student of land and society, his landmark contributions to the geographical literature include A Bounded Land Reflections on Settler Colonialism in Canada (2020), Ranch in the Slocan: A Biography of a Kootenay Farm, 1896–2017 (2018), The Reluctant Land: Society, Space, and Environment in Canada before Confederation (2008), Making Native Space: Colonialism, Resistance, and Reserves in British Columbia (2003), The Resettlement of British Columbia: Essays on Colonialism and Geographical Change (1997). He served as President of the Canadian Association of Geographers, President of the Vancouver Institute and co-editor of BC Studies (1995-2002).

Honours: Order of Canada; Fellow of The Royal Society of Canada; Guggenheim Fellowship; Canada Council Killam Fellowship; Brenda and David McLean Chair in Canadian Studies; Dean of Arts Prize; Massey Medal, Royal Canadian Geographical Society; LLD honoris causa, York University.

To learn more about Cole’s life and legacy see his obituary in the Globe and Mail and The Canadian Geographer.

2020

HARRIS, C. 2020 On Settler Colonialism. Vancouver: UBC Press

2018

HARRIS, C. 2018 Ranch in the Slocan. Vancouver: Harbour Press

2012

HARRIS, R.C. 2012 ‘The Spaces of Early Canada’ The Canadian Historical Review 91(4), 725-759

HARRIS, R.C. 2012 ‘A Life between Geography and History’ The Canadian Historical Review 93(3), 436-62

HARRIS, R.C. 2012 ‘The Native Land Policies of Governor James Douglas’ BC Studies 174, 101-122

2011

HARRIS, R.C. 2011 Making Native Space: Colonialism, Resistance, and Reserves in British Columbia (Vancouver: UBC Press)